The overall theme of this book concerns the multiplicity and complexities of discursive constructions of water in Western economies. The authors argue that the politics of place is given meaning in relation to local knowledges and within multiple and multiscalar institutional frameworks involved with the social, physical, economic and political practices associated with water.

Lia Bryant is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Social Change in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia.

Jodie George is a Researcher and Lecturer in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South Australia.

1. The Poetics and Politics of Water and Communities 2. Contextualising Water Policy in Irrigation Communities 3. Memory, Place-making and Water 4. Material Sites/Sights and Spatialities of Exclusion 5. Riskscapes 6. Community Futures 7. Realms of Knowing