Engineers and Communities Transforming Sanitation in Contemporary Brazil [Hardcover]

Engineers and Communities: Transforming Sanitation in Contemporary Brazil by Professor Earthea Nance offers the reader a deep insight into one of Brazils first and most notorious experiences of community-based sanitation services. . . .This book is certainly required reading for all those willing to be more than mere listeners to todays grand narrative of participatory development and pro-poor public policies.Earthea Nance's innovative study of the emergence of 'participatory sanitation' artfully applies Bruno Latours edict to follow the actors to show how, rather than from participation, project success follows from strong project coalitions. While the material content of these coalitions is essential for success, the claim that they are participative is shown to be discursive rather than substantive in character. This timely illumination of the significance of not only the socio-material, but also narrative character of development, provides an important and insightful contribution to the literature.This book is among a small number of empirical social studies of utility infrastructure conducted within an urban political ecology framework. By viewing infrastructure development as a socio-technical process, Nance is able to concisely identify and unpack constructs contributing to the success and failure of participatory sanitation projects in Brazil. Engineers and Communities Transforming Sanitation in Contemporary Brazil provides both surprising and practical insights that can help guide and evaluate a broad range of utility infrastructure development programs.Engineers and Communities traces the evolution of a small but important innovation in Brazil from 1980 through 2005. Through a series of grand experiments with participatory water and sanitation, coalitions of engineers, planners, public officials, and residents revealed the essential elements of how urban services can be made to be more inclusive.Access to water and sanitation service in industriall3\