Changing water cultures

Discussions about the sustainability of urban Australian water supplies often make calls for change in our 'water cultures'. However, the dominance of public discourse on water by scientific experts, continued ideological and financial investment in the modernist heroics of mega-projects to increase water supply, and overreliance on social engineering approaches to manipulating the 'drivers' of water consumption, all conspire to make water utilities and governments ill-prepared to tackle the cultural dimensions of reducing water demand. This talk outlines the urgent need for humanities approaches, and the challenges involved in forging a cultural research partnership with an urban water utility.