CES4E1-Water Inequality in Mexico

From international relations and political science to geography, Canadian Mexican JP Mathias explores the political processes that lead to the emergence of the dyad development/ underdevelopment. With a background of working with social movements, he became interested in questioning the power relations between communities and government when it comes to decisions for water management in Indigenous territories in Mexico (Pueblos Originarios). He discusses how the exploitation of water from various transnational companies and government affect marginalized communities. JP explains that geography is a good way of understanding social-spatial differences and how space is shaped by multi-stake decisions that affect the most vulnerable populations due to various water privatization schemes. We finish by discussing how education can potentially bring these topics to create awareness as we all imagine a new narrative for water and place while questioning the inequalities of access.
*Bio*
Jon Paul Mathias is a PhD student in Human Geography at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the historical constitution of racial disparities in access to water in Mexico City. He has an MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto and a BA in International Relations from the Universidad Iberoamericana. He has worked as a researcher for the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía (INEGI) and the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos (OEI), both in Mexico City where he is originally from.

*Suggested citation*
Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, August 5). CES4E1 – Water Inequality in Mexico. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ce-s4e1-water-inequality-in-mexico

*Sources*
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Watts, M. (2003). Development and Governmentality. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 24(1), 6–34. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315258027-26

Vitz, M. (2018). A City on a Lake: Urban Political Ecology and the Growth of Mexico City. Durham and London: Duke University Press. https://bit.ly/2EY0rJU