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Julie Trottier

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Donors are shaping the mainstream research agenda concerning water management around the world. As large sums are made available within applied research programmes, many actors are competing to access them. This has led to the development of a new class of actors: the water research development brokers. Development brokers have mostly been studied in the developing world. They are usually defined as local actors who master the knowledge framework of donor organizations while their social positions and local networks allow them to act as intermediaries between the local population targeted by the donor and the donor itself. Such a position allows them to control the flow and distribution of funds. This is a form of resource capture, as well as a crucial and necessary interface. This paper analyses how the interplay between bureaucratic donors, water researchers and development brokers has shaped and constrained the understanding and the development of water management research. Development brokers arise as a response to a supply of projects from donor agencies. They must first and foremost create and maintain their indispensability. As projects are finite in time, brokers must continuously reinvent themselves in order to maintain their indispensability. This study identifies a kaleidoscopic configuration of brokerage that typifies much water research. The very mechanisms maintaining this kaleidoscopic configuration contribute to constraining the scientific discourse. The scale of the analysis, the hegemonic use of commensurability, and the lame interdisciplinarity generally demonstrated by water research are all largely products of these dynamics.

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