Thinking Outside the Pipe: The Role of Participatory Water Ethics and Watershed Education Community Action Networks (WE CANs) in the Creation of a New Urban Water Narrative
Authors:   , Moss Teresa Jo 
Published: January 2025

According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the world's population, approximately 4 billion people, experiences water scarcity at least one month per year. To avoid the water quantity crisis experienced in many regions of the world and the United States, a path to sustainability must be forged. My research aims to identify and critique the salient features of the narrative that drives contemporary urban water decisions and practices and to provide a meta-narrative about the role of narratives as invisible lenses through which individuals see, interpret, and interact with the world often without realizing the existence of those frames. The purpose of this problem-oriented dissertation is twofold: to provide a philosophical policy analysis of contemporary water issues in the United States generally and North Central Texas in particular, and to offer a pragmatic and interdisciplinary approach to discovering a sustainable relationship to water. The intent of my research is not to produce a new metaphysical understanding of water, but to provide a pragmatic application of ideas that can be utilized in the field; ideas that can invoke a new narrative, vision, and direction for urban water issues in North Central Texas and in areas far beyond the Lone Star State. I begin my dissertation with an overview of the nature of the problems involved in managing our global and national water problems. To fully understand urban water issues requires more than just scientific knowledge, it also demands a philosophical orientation and grounding. Chapter 2 lays the philosophical foundation of my research by braiding the philosophical streams of thought inherent in Aldo Leopold's concepts of the land ethic and ecological conscience, Alfred North Whitehead and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on relationship, Paulo Freire's pedagogy of critical consciousness, John Dewey's philosophy of experience and his perceived importance of the public and the "Great Community," and Hannah Arendt's theory of action. I argue that these tributaries of philosophical thought provide the foundation for creating a new urban water narrative. In Chapter 3, I provide an in-depth description of the water policy problem by delineating the historical context of water policy, supply, and management, exploring the rise of disciplinarity that resulted from the divergence of the humanities and science, explicating the partnership and dominator models of civilization, and investigating the impact of the cultural narrative on the decision-making process. Chapter 4 consists of my analysis of the current water policy problem through the lens of a case study of water issues in North Central Texas. I describe the key trends that have driven water practices in the region, examine the factors that have fostered those trends, and project what is likely to happen if the status quo approach to water is maintained. Chapter 5 presents my proposed alternative for resolving the current water quantity problem in North Central Texas. I philosophically evaluate the potential of my proposed alternative, a new urban water narrative, for ameliorating the problem and achieving the goal of a sustainable relationship to water. I elucidate the ways in which a new cultural narrative can surface and precipitate a new way of being in relationship with water. The last chapter recaps the previous chapters, acknowledges limitations of my research, and provides recommendations for future philosophical research endeavors into water policy, supply, and management that is relevant on a local, national, and global scale.