Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis develops a non-anthropocentric framework for water governance grounded in the principles of harmony with Nature.1 It begins with a critical analysis of dominant global water governance models, demonstrating how they are structured by instrumental and anthropocentric assumptions that marginalise pluralist understandings of water and human– nature relationships. Through a detailed case study of India, with a focus on Meghalaya, the thesis shows how these hegemonic conceptualisations are reproduced across scales while interacting with plural legal and socio-ecological contexts. Building on this analysis, the thesis advances a multiscalar account of water governance as a coemergent process in which local, national, and international dynamics are deeply interconnected. It argues that current governance approaches are ill-equipped to respond to the challenges of the environmental crisis, as they fail to recognise the intrinsic and relational values of water and the broader natural world. In response, the thesis reconstructs water governance through the framework of harmony with Nature, understood as a legal and normative orientation that centres multiscalar entanglements, ecological integrity, and relationality. The thesis thus argues that effective and just water governance requires a fundamental reconfiguration of value hierarchies and governance structures to better balance the intrinsic, relational, and instrumental dimensions of water. By situating this reconstruction within both global governance debates and grounded empirical contexts, the project offers a pathway toward more equitable, ecologically responsive, and legally coherent approaches to water governance.
Author: Palmer, Nate
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203647023