The Gift of Water

Book excerpt: "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 Poltiical 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"--Publisher's description