Hidden Struggles and Defences. Legal and cultural pluralism as a creative Resistance Practice in local Andean water Management

Abstract

In the Andes, water rights are enforced in processes of social struggle. This paper explains how water struggles by Andean user collectives cannot be understood aside from their rootedness in dynamic ‘undertows’: the multi-layered, often concealed water-rights foundations. They entwine plural legal sources and livelihood strategies; there, water rights are shaped materially and discursively. Undertows also constitute the socio-territorial home bases for communities’ efforts to upscale their water rights battlegrounds into broader political-legal networks. In practice, this often happens in disguised political forms: through ‘mimicry’ shields and strategies, which also enable them to shop around in rulers’ power factory. Dynamic sub-surface creation and proliferation of water rights repertoires constitute a strong source of defense against encroachment and disciplinary policies.