Department Environmental Social Sciences

Global Regimes in the Water Sector (GLORIWA)

 

Modern cities look similar in many aspects. Solutions in energy and water supply or transportation are solved very similarly on a global scale. This is in stark contrast to the variations in local material and cultural conditions in which the different cities are embedded. In the GLORIWA project, we investigate this contrast using the example of urban water management.

The idea of global socio-technical regimes provides a clue as to why cities in arid regions of the world (e.g. Beijing) pursue very similar water management strategies to Zurich, which is much richer in water. A socio-technical regime is the constellation of technologies and social structures, which have established themselves around these technologies. In the water sector, the sewer system is a visualization of the socio-technical regime concept.

In sewage systems, water is used, among other things, as a means of transport for various pollutants, entailing specific user habits and other social structures. In global cities, the socio-technical solution of using water through a sewerage system as a means of transport for various forms of pollutants is so dominant that not even the most visionary entrepreneurs can achieve a breakthrough towards more sustainable and locally adapted solutions than sewerage systems.

This global dominance of socio-technical constellations can be summarized under the scientific concept of socio-technical regimes. In GLORIWA, we trace the most dominant global socio-technical regimes in urban water supply and examine them to find out how they can prevail against potentially more sustainable, locally adapted solutions.

Project Team

Dr. Johan Miörner Guest Researcher, Group: Cirus Tel. +41 58 765 6493 Send Mail
Dr. Manuel Fischer Department Head & Group Leader, Group: PEGO Tel. +41 58 765 5676 Send Mail
Dr. Christoph Lüthi Dr. Eng. Infrastructure Planning Tel. +41 58 765 5614 Send Mail
Djamila Lesch PhD Student, Group: Cirus Tel. +41 58 765 5660 Send Mail

External team members

Dr. Lea Fuenfschilling (CIRCLE - Lund University)

Publications

Lesch, D.; Miörner, J.; Binz, C. (2023) The role of global actors in sustainability transitions – tracing the emergence of a novel infrastructure paradigm in the sanitation sector, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 49, 100787 (22 pp.), doi:10.1016/j.eist.2023.100787, Institutional Repository
Miörner, J.; Heiberg, J.; Binz, C. (2022) How global regimes diffuse in space - Explaining a missed transition in San Diego's water sector, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 44, 29-47, doi:10.1016/j.eist.2022.05.005, Institutional Repository
Miörner, J.; Binz, C. (2021) Towards a multi-scalar perspective on transition trajectories, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 40, 172-188, doi:10.1016/j.eist.2021.06.004, Institutional Repository
Heiberg, J.; Truffer, B.; Binz, C. (2022) Assessing transitions through socio-technical configuration analysis – a methodological framework and a case study in the water sector, Research Policy, 51(1), 104363 (19 pp.), doi:10.1016/j.respol.2021.104363, Institutional Repository
Fuenfschilling, L.; Binz, C. (2018) Global socio-technical regimes, Research Policy, 47(4), 735-749, doi:10.1016/j.respol.2018.02.003, Institutional Repository