In
the ongoing struggles over public water in Italy, it is the municipality of
Naples and its water company Acqua Bene Comune (ABC), which has played a
special role throughout the years of conflict (see Privatisation by
stealth).
First, an attempt of privatisation was defeated in 2006, then it was the only
water company, which was re-transformed into a fully public company with
special status after the successful referendum on water in 2011. In this blog
post, based on a set of interviews with Italian water activists, I will explore the
possibilities but also tensions involved in this particular experiment.
Across our joint collaborations, one of the key
features has not just been our co-authorship but also our joint teaching. The
latter has combined delivery of undergraduate political economy courses (or
modules/units) as well as International Relations theory teaching, not least in
relation to the core Masters’ course at the University of Nottingham in
Theories and Concepts in International Relations.
