“Don’t blame climate change: urban droughts and the politics of water (in)security”
Lunch seminar with Maria Rusca, the University of Manchester

WaterCentre@KTH proudly invites you to a lunch seminar with Maria Rusca, a lecturer in global development at the Global Development Institute, the University of Manchester.
Time: Tue 2024-10-29 12.00 - 13.00
Location: Climate Action House, Teknikringen 43
Language: English
Participating: Maria Rusca, the University of Manchester
“Over the past two decades, more than 80 cities across the world have experienced severe drought-related water crises. These crises are often attributed to intensifying climate change. Yet, the physical dimension of climate change alone does not explain the fundamentally unjust outcomes of these crises. Through an urban political ecology lens, this talk will focus on two interrelated dimensions of urban water (in)security and justice. First, I examine how power relations, economic visions, and variability in the exercise of agency shape the production and distribution of uneven drought risk across urban spaces. Second, I discuss the unsustainable water use by urban elites and its role in exacerbating urban water crises. I conclude that water-justice focussed policies should prioritise the needs of those who most directly experience the effects of urban water crises and ongoing development struggles, whilst preventing any form of overconsumption.”
About Maria Rusca
“I am a researcher focused on urban political ecologies of water and climate change, as well as critical disaster studies. While my research is rooted at the intersection of development studies and environmental geography, I am deeply committed to fostering interdisciplinary research that bridges the social and natural sciences to advance the fields of political ecology and development studies. My work combines multiple qualitative research methods with novel interdisciplinary and film-based approaches to explore a range of water and climate-related development challenges in various geographical contexts. I have developed experimental and speculative approaches to political ecology scholarship to lay the foundations of a future-oriented and reparative critique that illuminates emerging possibilities for alternative worlds. My research has been published in leading journals such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Geoforum, WIREs Water, and more.”
Maria Rusca's profile page on the University of Manchester's website