南方科技大学社会科学中心王雨副教授、北京大学王金霞教授和香港大学林维峯教授共同担任客座编辑，在国际著名水治理和水政治研究期刊Water Alternatives（SSCI/SCI收录）组织特刊，聚焦东亚地区社会经济变革背景下的灌溉管理。特刊尤其关注国家、集体和私有部门协同治理下与灌溉管理相关的制度演化、政策过程、社会关系、权力争夺等议题，鼓励在相关主题下开展基于规范社会科学研究方法的案例分析，跨区域、跨国的多案例比较研究，以及深入的理论对话。特刊预计于2021年6月出版，有意投稿者请于2020年6月30日之前提交500-1000字的英文摘要（简要介绍分析框架、研究方法、主要发现及论点）至managing_editor@water-alternatives.org。如有疑问欢迎致信sustechwater@gmail.com咨询。

具体要求详见期刊网页http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/1884-calls/351-call-easta或下文征稿通知

Call for papers

Irrigation management in East Asia: Institutions, socioeconomic transformation and adaptations

With the financial support of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China

Guest editors:

Raymond Yu Wang (Southern University of Science and Technology, SUSTech)

Jinxia Wang (Peking University, PKU)

Wai Fung Lam (The University of Hong Kong, HKU)

Scope, objective and key questions
Irrigation has a long history in East Asia. The ways in which water is organised, allocated and utilised demonstrate endogenous responses to the conditions of natural habitats such as rainfall, topography, population density and amounts of farmland. Although the development of irrigation has significantly sustained the prosperity of rural communities, traditional irrigation management in East Asia has been confronting a series of new challenges in the past few decades.

Among these challenges, the most arduous include:

• an ageing and decreasing rural population as a result of rural–urban migration,
• increasing competition for water among different regions and sectors,
• incentive changes in agricultural water supply and food production that are associated with the growing influence of neo-liberalisation, and
• shifting water, land and food policies that reshape the relationships between the state, the market and rural communities.

These new challenges, combined with increasing environmental pressure, have changed the characteristics of collective action in irrigation and rural affairs, thus presenting novel institutional and policy problems for rural communities and decision makers.

This special issue aims at revisiting irrigation management in East Asia against the backdrop of rapid socio-economic transformation. We particularly welcome papers that probe into the institutional dynamics, policy processes, social relations and power struggles that are related to the co-management of irrigation systems by public, communal and private actors.

Key questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

• What is the performance of irrigation management in terms of water use efficiency, productivity, equity and sustainability?
• What are the trade-offs and implications involved in water allocation and distribution among different individuals, communities, regions and sectors?
• What new forms of water institutional arrangements and policies – in particular in terms of co-management by state and users and the introduction of intermediary entrepreneurs or market-driven instruments – have emerged and evolved in response to rapidly changing socio-economic settings?
• How have the combinations of broader governance frameworks, policy instruments, political economy and social norms influenced irrigation management?
• How have external shocks, policies and institutions been translated into everyday practices of irrigation management in specific socio-ecological settings?
• Why have irrigation institutions succeeded – or failed – to adapt to, and cope with, the new challenges of socio-economic transformations?

For this special issue, we are looking for contributions that are based on empirical work in a specific locality and/or comparatively across regions or countries, and which engage in theoretical discussions on the institutions, policies and practices of irrigation management in East Asia. We also welcome papers that take stock of historical changes in irrigation-based socio-ecological systems in the longue durée. Contributions may be grounded in fields and disciplines such as institutional and agricultural economics, human geography, political ecology, political economy, political science, sociology and anthropology.

Timeline

Call for papers: May 10, 2020

Deadline for abstracts: June 30, 2020

Decision on abstracts: July 30, 2020

Deadline for full submissions: December 31, 2020

Review process: until April 30, 2021

Publication: June, 2021

Submission information

Abstracts should be approximately 500 to 1000 words long and should briefly present the analytical framework, methodology, main findings and arguments. Please send your abstract to managing_editor@water-alternatives.org 

For inquiries, please contact us via sustechwater@gmail.com