676.4 Coping with the risks of a future drought: The case of the edwards aquifer authority in Texas

Saturday, August 4, 2012: 11:15 AM
Faculty of Economics, TBA
Distributed Paper
Karen Manges DOUGLAS , Sociology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX
Gideon SJOBERG , Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
We shall,  in this presentation, briefly outline the construction of the organizational structure of the Edwards Aquifer Authority in central Texas.  And we shall utilize this case study to delineate theoretical  issues that will need to  be addressed if sociologists (and others) are to come to terms with the future and risk with respect to water, without a doubt one of the major environmental issues in the modern world..  Our orientation moves in a  different direction than does the proponents of ecological modernization (see Arthur P. J.  Mol and Gert Spargarren).  And in a more general sense, our analysis  serves to highlight issues regarding the nature of the future and risk that Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck have not addressed.