UC Irvine

This dissertation adds to the literature of global water scarcity through an environmental sociology lens. The first chapter takes the time to conceptualize water as a renewable resource in the way we operationalize it for study. The chapter ends by discussing the global theories we can apply to water. The second chapter provides a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to find the causal recipes that lead to water scarcity in different nation states. This chapter tests three possible theoretical explanations for water scarcity: population, ecological modernization, and the treadmill of production, ultimately finding support for the treadmill of production. The final chapter uses a Critical Environmental Justice perspective to analyze two case studies in which multinational corporations moved operations to Lesotho and the Kerala region in India.