RE&D Guest, Professor Leila Harris will present their research on ‘Infrastructural Inequities and Democratic (Counter) Currents’.

This talk explores narratives and lived experiences of the uneven implementation of the human right to water, highlighting the ways that water and sanitation infrastructures become entangled in broader social and political relationships. Specifically, the work explores uneven and unreliable infrastructures as central features of lived experiences of injustice. Exploring infrastructure in this way, it becomes clear that water and sanitation are not simply basic needs, but are fundamentally linked to broader social, political and affective processes and experiences. The talk explores these broader dimensions through consideration of political subjectivity and engagement, state-society relations and senses of trust and government legitimacy, as well as broader aspects of social, political and affective lives.

Speaker's biography:

Leila M Harris is Professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability and with the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her work analyzes a range of governance and political considerations from feminist, equity, and sustainability perspectives—with research focused on water politics, governance, and justice in a variety of contexts (from Turkey, to Ghana, South Africa, and Indigenous water issues in Canada). Recent projects consider lived experiences and equity concerns related to the uneven implementation of the human right to water, ongoing water governance shifts in varied contexts, as well as social, affective, and political dimensions of the uneven geography of water access, quality, and infrastructures. Professor Harris is currently a visiting scholar with the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, until July 2025.