Wicked water problems: Sociology and local water organizations in addressing water resources policy

Water policy problems are wicked, not in an ethically deplorable sense, but in the sense that they present us with especially difficult challenges of becoming more effective in our interdisciplinary collaboration, of integrat ing two very different types of knowledge, of working across several socio- political units of analysis simultaneously, and of better organizing water as a common property resource. Sociology as a discipline, does not have a p articularly rich history of successful interdisciplinary collaboration on w ater resources research and teaching, but it potentially has a most useful contribution to make by focusing on the analysis of local common property r esource organizations that operate in the interface between individual reso urce users and State-Federal entities. These organizations (e.g., water use r associations, mutual companies, irrigation districts, acequias, conservan cy districts) have been the orphans of water policy discourse but their ope rations are critical to undertaking more effective 21st century social anal ysis, research work, and action programs. Sociologists who work to better c omprehend the operations of, and constraints upon, these organizations buil d a sociology that can better collaborate with other water-related discipli nes in addressing the challenges posed by the wickedness of our water probl ems.