A Politics of Inevitability: The Privatisation of the Berlin Water Company, the Global City Discourse and Governance in 1990s Berlin

ISBN-13: 9783531182193 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 236 str.

Ross Beveridge

Opis

This book provides a detailed analysis of the controversial privatisation of the Berlin Water Company (BWB) in 1999. As with other cases of privatisation around the world, the city's government argued there was no alternative in a context of public debts and economic restructuring. Drawing on post-structuralist theory, the analysis presented here steps outside the parameters of this neat, straightforward explanation. It problematises the 'hard facts' upon which the decision was apparently made, presenting instead an account in which facts can be political constructions shaped by normative assumptions and political strategies. A politics of inevitability in 1990s Berlin is revealed; one characterised by depoliticisation, expert-dominated policy processes and centred upon the perceived necessities of urban governance in the global economy. It is an account in which global and local dynamics mix: where the interplay between the general and the specific, between neoliberalism and politicking, and between globalisation and local actors characterise the discussion.

At present there are no substantial studies of the BWB partial privatisation in English or German. The topic is one of much interest given the ongoing public, media and academic interest in the BWB case. Debates over the possible remunicipalisation of BWB are particularly potent in this election year and remunicipalisation of public service companies is a stated policy objective of Die Linke in Berlin. More generally, interest in remunicipalisation is growing in Germany and elsewhere as the wave of privatisations conducted in the 1980s-1990s becomes increasingly problematised by academics, NGOs and even politicians and practitioners. As such the book provides a timely account of one of the most controversial and oft-cited privatisations in Europe. §On a theoretical level, the framework draws on Neo-Foucauldian Governmentality Studies and Actor-network Theory (ANT). In translating these social theories into the study of politics, the book contributes to the emerging post-positivist literature on policy studies and represents an innovative attempt to explore the usefulness of two increasingly influential approaches. Finally, the book engages with, and draws together the disparate literatures on 'post-politics' (or 'post-political' or 'post-democracy'). Interest in the field is also on the rise (in Germany: see recent edition (Heft Nr. 1/2/2011) of der Zeitschrift 'Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte' on 'postdemokratie'). In exploring the merits of this means of describing contemporary politics, the book should be of interest to scholars of political science but also those in the fields of political theory, human geography and political sociology.

Spis treści

Context, themes and strategy. - Privatisation, globalisation and neo-liberalism:  governance in the 1990s. - Facts and values in policy-making. - Governmentality, policy discourse and translation. - The global city policy discourse and water policy-making: making the privatisation of BWB ‘inevitable’. - From ready-made accounts to a politics in the making account of the BWB privatisation. - Assessing the BWB partial privatisation. - Assessing the theoretical approach.

O autorze

Dr. Ross Beveridge is a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS) in Erkner, Germany.

Blurb

This book provides a detailed analysis of the controversial privatisation of the Berlin Water Company (BWB) in 1999. As with other cases of privatisation around the world, the city’s government argued there was no alternative in a context of public debts and economic restructuring. Drawing on post-structuralist theory, the analysis presented here steps outside the parameters of this neat, straightforward explanation. It problematises the ‘hard facts’ upon which the decision was apparently made, presenting instead an account in which facts can be political constructions shaped by normative assumptions and political strategies. A politics of inevitability in 1990s Berlin is revealed; one characterised by depoliticisation, expert-dominated policy processes and centred upon the perceived necessities of urban governance in the global economy. It is an account in which global and local dynamics mix: where the interplay between the general and the specific, between neoliberalism and politicking, and between globalisation and local actors characterise the discussion.

 

This book is valuable reading for researchers in the fields of water politics, urban studies, policy studies and those with a general interest in post-structuralist theory.