Cercamentos contemporâneos da água: uma leitura crítica dos conflitos por água no Brasil

Abstract

This paper critically analyzes water conflicts in the Northeast of Brazil, articulating legal frameworks and territorial dynamics from the perspective of political ecology and legal sociology. It starts from the hypothesis that water scarcity, which is often naturalized, is socially produced as a form of commodification and expropriation of common goods. The monograph is based on a critical approach to socio-environmental law, using the Conflict Notebooks of the Pastoral Land Commission as an empirical reference, and an interdisciplinary qualitative analysis based on the activities of the Obuntu Research and Extension Project as a methodology. The work discusses the “legal trilemma of water” - between common good, resource and commodity - contemporary enclosures, and the relationship between access to water and human rights. The structure is divided into three chapters: the theoretical foundations of water enclosures; a critical reading of the human right to water, emphasizing territorial resistance; and a critical analysis of the legal regulation of water. It concludes that the dispute over water reflects antagonistic societal projects and requires overcoming the capitalist logic in the management of common goods, reinforcing the centrality of water as a territory and memory of peoples.