Dominique Lorrain is Director of Research (emeritus) at CNRS, Latts, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Paris, France.

Franck Poupeau is a Director of Research at CNRS and Director of the International Joint Center iGLOBES, based at the University of Arizona, USA.

Introduction: What do the Protagonists of the Water Sector Do? Dominique Lorrain and Franck Poupeau Part 1: Unorthodox Models and Practices 1. "The Embedded Actor": A Water Joint-venture in Chongqing Dominique Lorrain 2. "Delivering More than Water". The Salt River Project: the Invention of an Adaptive Partnership for Water Management Murielle Coeurdray, Franck Poupeau, Brian O'Neill and Joan Cortinas Part 2: Questions of Legitimacy: Private Interventions in a Public Service 3. Legitimacy in the Test of Time: Operating Water in Buenos Aires Bernard de Gouvello 4. Water in Paris: Polity and Politics Dominique Lorrain 5. The Partial Privatization of the Berlin Water Company Thomas Blanchet 6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Service Management in Nagpur Marie-Hélène Zérah and Cécile Renouard Part 3: When Small Water Systems meet the Large Technical System 7. A Local Public Service: the Action of Small-scale Private Water Providers to Supply Peripheral Neighbourhoods in Three African Cities Sarah Botton and Aymeric Blanc 8. Cooperatives in La Paz and El Alto: A Complementary System Sébastien Hardy and Franck Poupeau 9. The Decentralization of Supply in Four Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Rémi de Bercegol and Shankare Gowda 10. Water Disputes in Soweto. Inequalities, Social Mobilisations and Recourse to the Law Julie Aubriot Part 4: Conclusion 11. Lessons drawn from the Practices of Operators Dominique Lorrain and Franck Poupeau

In recent years the water sector has undergone profound institutional, economic and political transformations. Some countries have encouraged privatization of water services, but in many cases this has provoked adverse reaction to such a neoliberal and market-based approach to this common shared but essential resource.
This book goes beyond the ideology of the public versus private water regime debate, by focusing on the results of these types of initiatives to provide better water services, particularly in urban settings. It provides numerous examples of alternative models, to show who is responsible for implementing such systems and what are their social, institutional and technical-scientific characteristics. Policies are analysed in terms of their implications for employees and residents.
The book presents a new combinatory approach of water regimes, based on several international case studies (Argentina, Bolivia, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa and the USA, plus a comparison of three cities in Africa) presenting specific challenges for water models. These case studies demonstrate the successes and problems of a range of private sector involvements in the provision of water services, and provide examples of how small-scale systems can compare with larger-scale more technical systems.