Aguas Diversas. Derechos de agua y pluralidad legal en las comunidades andinas = Diverse Waters. Water rights and legal pluralism in Andean communities

Water rights and property relations have become pivotal issues in water debates, reforms and intervention programs. Governments, development agencies and expert centers tend to consider 'water rights' as merely standard black boxes that juxtapose the frameworks of positivist technical and economist water science. But far beyond universal manuals and irrigation regulations, there is another water world, entrenched in the everyday lives of real people, male and female water users. The paper makes clear how Andean user collectives practice an enormous variety of water rights and management forms, as local-national-international hybrids that are created and affirmed in local water territories, embedded in historical and cultural-political contexts.