Podcast Summary
New Books Network
Episode: Caitlin Schroering, "Global Solidarities Against Water Grabbing: Without Water, We Have Nothing" (Manchester UP, 2024)
Date: December 21, 2025
Host: Michael Johnston
Guest: Dr. Caitlin Schroering, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Episode Overview
This episode explores Dr. Caitlin Schroering’s new book, Global Solidarities Against Water Grabbing: Without Water, We Have Nothing, which examines the phenomenon of “water grabbing” as a global social problem, the struggles against it, and how translocal and global solidarities are forged in resistance. The discussion traverses Dr. Schroering’s personal activist and academic journey, her definitions and frameworks for understanding water grabbing, the interplay between dispossession, global capital, and social movements, and her methodology as a scholar-activist. The conversation offers a hopeful look at resistance, solidarity, and the future of water justice.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. Origins of the Book and Personal Motivation
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Dr. Schroering’s journey began with witnessing “water grabbing” firsthand in Brazil in 2008 and expanded through activism in the US, especially during Pittsburgh’s lead water crisis.
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Her work evolved from environmental activism to focus on how social movements organize, culminating in a multi-sited research project.
“Water is at the core of all of these other socio-environmental issues... It just started to make sense that all this, this is really important, right?”
— Dr. Schroering (04:38)
2. What is Water Grabbing? (06:11)
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Water grabbing is analogous to “land grabbing,” meaning the appropriation of water by capital, often through commodification and privatization.
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Schroering draws on Andrea Spieler’s typology, identifying six forms:
- Privatization of municipal drinking water
- Bottled water industry
- Large hydro dam construction
- Water for extractive industries (e.g., mining)
- Water for large-scale agribusiness
- Financialization of water (trading water as a commodity)
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These forms often intersect and are tied to ongoing colonial and capitalist processes.
“A simple definition would be water grabbing is appropriation of water by capitalist and by... capital. Right. And we can think of it as a part of capitalist crisis expansion, commodifying things like water that are basic necessities for life.”
— Dr. Schroering (06:11)
3. Urgency and Sociological Relevance
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Access to clean water is a fundamental human necessity and a revealing axis of injustice and inequality.
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The struggle around water highlights deeper crises rooted in capitalism and related systems of oppression (race, gender, geography).
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The urgency is amplified by climate change, which worsens both scarcity and flooding, making existing inequities more visible.
“Without water we have nothing. We can’t exist without water... Looking at water helps us better understand both the political economy, but also the social movement resistance to that.”
— Dr. Schroering (09:20)
4. Water as a Social and Cultural Hinge (17:52)
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Water operates as a “hinge” connecting micro (community, everyday practices) to macro (global dynamics) levels.
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It embodies diverse values: economic, spiritual, cultural, communal.
“There’s so many other values that water has... It’s not just economic, it’s the spiritual, the cultural, all of those things you named and so many more across time and space.”
— Dr. Schroering (12:32)
5. Water Grabbing as a Lens on Dispossession and Global Capitalism (13:17)
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Water grabbing exposes interconnected crises—climate change, inflation, food insecurity—driven by the same systemic forces.
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It is both a local and global issue, with corporations and sometimes governments acting to control, commodify, and distribute water, prompting resistance.
“The concept of water grabbing is useful because it helps us to understand how seemingly disparate processes are intimately connected... We must understand these problems as interconnected and caused by our socioeconomic system.”
— Dr. Schroering (13:52)
6. The Role of Intersectionality (19:04)
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Dispossession cannot be understood by looking at global capital alone—race, gender, geography, and other axes of identity and power are critical.
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The book emphasizes not just loss and violence, but also “resistance and micro-moments of hope.”
“I don’t think we can just look at global capital... We also can’t look at the macro, that structure, that class analysis without also looking at race and gender and geographic location and... pieces that are very, very critical.”
— Dr. Schroering (19:04)
7. Global Solidarities: Building Translocal Movements (21:02)
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Translocal is a key concept: social movements that are deeply rooted in local contexts but connect globally to form alliances and learning networks.
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Examples include movements in Brazil (MAB – People Affected by Dams), Pittsburgh’s Our Water Campaign, and solidarity with struggles in Nigeria and beyond.
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The phrase “todos tomos atendidos” (“we are all affected”) encapsulates the understanding that, while impacts are unequal, shared struggle unites displaced communities across the globe.
“These movements are globally focused in their analysis... Resistance also has to be organized and global, but at the same time... they’re very locally rooted, but also part of... global international ties.”
— Dr. Schroering (21:27)“[Translocal networks mean] knowledge sharing and information sharing, too.”
— Dr. Schroering (28:11)
8. Methodology: Scholar-Activism and Knowledge Production (28:54)
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Dr. Schroering’s approach is rooted in praxis: integrating activist experience with academic research, and being reflexive and transparent about positionality.
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Methods include participant observation, interviews (often better conducted later, after building trust), and drawing from interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks.
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She emphasizes the importance of applied and accessible scholarship, not just academic theorizing.
“My methodological and theoretical, they’re very bound up in each other... I came into this work from being engaged in social movements...”
— Dr. Schroering (28:54)“All scholarship needs to be reflexive and transparent.”
— Dr. Schroering (33:50)
9. Theoretical Lenses: Feminist, Anti-Colonial, Anti-Capitalist Approaches (36:14)
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Schroering identifies with feminist and anti-colonial methods, challenging the norm of supposed objectivity and neutrality.
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She draws from the work of Hannah Sultana and others to “overcome biases in research,” include marginalized perspectives, and acknowledge the researcher’s own position.
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Cites Florestan Fernandes: “For the sociologist, there is no neutrality. You are either on the side of the exploiters or the exploited.” (39:23)
“It’s about my own role, tensions, contradictions... as a movement participant, militant academic... scholar-activist.”
— Dr. Schroering (36:14)“A value-free sociology... is it possible? No, I don’t think it’s possible... We can recognize our position and make use of it as part of our cultural toolkit.”
— Michael Johnston (41:44)
10. Looking Forward: The Future of Water Justice (44:28)
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Dr. Schroering recounts attending the Fourth International Meeting of People Affected by Dams in Brazil, which expanded to focus on “socío-environmental crimes and the climate crisis.”
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There is deep grief and challenge—fascist tendencies, criminalization of social movements—but also hope in the scaling-up and deeper connection of global resistance.
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Climate justice and popular education have become central to recent and future organizing.
“All of the horrors and injustices... are being revealed, are being amplified right now... What I see is kind of the future is that, yeah, water... is the entry point to thinking about all these things as connected.”
— Dr. Schroering (44:28)“If we cannot imagine something different, we cannot create it... To have despair is a privilege. So even when it seems so hard, keep imagining, keep building together, keep creating in the present, right now, in small ways, something different.”
— Dr. Schroering (53:18)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “Without water we have nothing.” (Frequently cited theme and working subtitle, 09:20+)
- “Water is a new ‘frontier for capitalist expansion.’” (13:52)
- “Todos tomos atendidos – we are all affected (by dams, by extractivism).” (25:07)
- “Translocal learning networks... often happen in these informal spaces of a meeting, like that of a summit.” (26:25)
- “No social movement needs a scholar to come study them… but there is a way to be in solidarity and do the work of translation of information and concepts.” (33:50)
- “For the sociologist, there is no neutrality. You are either on the side of the exploiters or the exploited.” (39:23)
- “If we cannot imagine something different, we cannot create it.” (53:18)
Timestamps for Important Segments
- Dr. Schroering’s activist-academic background and story – 02:22–05:21
- Defining water grabbing, six forms – 06:11–09:19
- Why water grabbing matters: basic need, injustice, resistance – 09:20–13:17
- Water’s multiple values: social, spiritual, cultural – 12:32–13:17
- Water grabbing as a lens on global crises – 13:17–16:55
- Translocal and global solidarity networks; Brazil, Pittsburgh, Nigeria – 21:02–28:28
- Methodology: integrating activism and scholarship – 28:54–36:01
- Theory: feminist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist approaches – 36:14–42:05
- Hope and future of water justice movements – 44:28–53:18
- Closing reflections: imagination, generational work – 53:18–54:42
Conclusion
Dr. Caitlin Schroering’s conversation brings together personal narrative, incisive social critique, and a call to action for global water justice. By framing water as both a fundamental right and a site of struggle against capitalist extraction, her work highlights the necessity—and power—of forging translocal alliances. The episode leaves listeners with a sense of urgency but also hope, underscoring the generational, global work of reimagining and building a just world where water is no longer commodified, but understood as the sustenance of all life.