The Gift of Water

Pierre Bourdieu conceptualizes the social as an economy. With an empirical example of free water transfers between `water rich' and `water poor' neighbours, this book demonstrates the relevance of moral considerations in habitualized everyday practice. Using Luc Boltanski's work on Justifications, the analysis introduces economic imperfection into Bourdieu's `perfect' Economy of Symbolic Goods. By presenting a Political Ecology of the neighbourly 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.

Sebastian Zug received for his study the "Faculty of sciences award for the best thesis of the year in theoretical sciences"", 2013 of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.