Water use as a social practice: The example of Mexico City
Mexico City’s population counts with an almost universal access to piped water today yet experiences limitations in the quality and quantity of supply. Especially lower class neighbourhoods suffer from an intermittent water supply, and - as the water quality faces widespread distrust - Mexico has become the world’s biggest market of bottled water in the past decade. But most strikingly, a social stratification of water usage has been identified for Mexico City: the more socially deprived a household, the lower its per capita water consumption. While unequal consumption patterns are clearly to be linked to overall urban and infrastructure policies as well as power relations, the present study focuses on social practices of water use on the micro level. As the quantity of water consumed tends to reflect a household’s social position, in which way do water consumption practices contribute to the reproduction of social status? Practices of water use in lower and middle class neighbourhoods are compared to explore the relation between water consumption and social status. Referring to Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a structured and structuring structure, social practices of residential water use in Mexico City are thus explored as class(ed) practices. The study employs a mixed method approach, combining a GIS-based analysis of 2010 census data with 50 in-depth household interviews as well as focus group discussions. Beyond common technical and economic approaches on infrastructure and water pricing, it hereby aims to accentuate the part water plays in socially induced lifestyles.