The Gift of Water: Bourdieusian Capital Exchange and Moral Entitlements in a Neighbourhood of Khartoum

Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) - a French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher - conceptualized the social as an economy. With an empirical example of free water transfers between 'water rich' and 'water poor' neighbors, this book demonstrates the relevance of moral considerations in habitualized everyday practice. Using Luc Boltanski's work On Justifications, the book's analysis introduces economic imperfection into Bourdieu's 'perfect' economy of symbolic goods. By presenting a political ecology of the neighborly waterscape, from the perspective of water consumers, this book is a scientific plea for a holistic analysis of water beyond the scale of policy making. The book includes a specific case study of a neighborhood in Khartoum. (Series: Forum Political Geography / Forum Politische Geographie - Vol. 11) [Subject: Water Economics, Natural Resource Management, Politics]