Observing, characterizing and understanding water scarcity: an institutionalist approach to changing water use patterns in Spain and Morocco

Summary This dissertation deals with water scarcity. Faced with a-historical technical analyses centered on the physical scarcity of water, we develop a social-contingent problematic for which the uses of water are at the heart of the explanation. The first part corresponds to the observation stage. Its objective is to trace the evolution of water use in Almeria (Andalusia) and in Marrakech and Agadir (Morocco) between the end of the 19th century and today. Considered as a field of observation, the mode of water use (Arrus) qualifies the articulation of an "economic" component, relating to the reciprocal adjustment of supply and final uses of the water produced (formalized by norms-procedures) and an "institutional" component, relating to social norms (qualified as norms-rules) presiding over the definition of rights of disposal over water resources. For each of the three fields, this step includes a qualitative field study combined with a historiographical analysis and a textual analysis of planning documents using the Alceste method. This step leads to the formulation of four chronological stylized facts translating the succession of four constituent phases of the life cycle of a particular mode of water use. The second part is theoretical. It corresponds to the stages of characterization and understanding. These two stages are based on the mobilization of a new theoretical grid elaborated by Billaudot on the basis of a connection between the institutionalism of Commons and the sociological institutionalism of the interpretive approach of the economy of conventions (Boltanski and Thévenot). Described as historical and pragmatic institutionalism, this approach is presented as a perspective of deepening the historical institutionalism of regulation theory. It aims to articulate the genesis and function of institutions and leads, in particular, to associate a reference value and a superior good with each of the modes of settlement of Commons transactions. Thus, the particular mode of water use that experienced a regime phase in Spain and Morocco during the second half of the 20th century is described as "hydraulicist". It is characterized by a representation of water essentially as an allocation resource, the abundance of which obtained through engineering-intensive infrastructures is one of the prerogatives of the "modern" state, which also governs its use downstream. The identification of the main characteristics of the "hydraulicist" mode of use leads to the third stage, namely the understanding of the determinants of its entry into crisis from the 1980s onwards. On the one hand, this crisis concerns the end of previous regularities in the reciprocal adjustment of supply and final uses of the water produced: a scarcity of primary resources is noted (this aspect is described as a "regulation crisis"). On the other hand, it corresponds to the questioning of the institutional framework that supports the economic aspect (we note a "crisis of the regime's foundation"). Thus, the norms are partially disqualified by a double process of delocalization in favor of a decentralization of water management. In addition, the unsustainable nature of the previous mode of use leads to the emergence of ecological aspirations concretized by the proposal of new norms of use. The register of ecological socialization for which water is understood as a living environment is reinforced. In the end, we end up identifying a new mode of use currently in force. We show that it does not result from a paradigmatic rupture but corresponds to a "crisis regime".