Legitimatizing the right to water in Michigan’s post-industrial cities

Legitimatizing the right to water in Michigan’s post-industrial cities

Colleen Linn

Water as a human right is concept recognized by the United Nations, but infrequently ratified by U.S. national or state governments. In Michigan, two recent controversies over water, the Flint Water Crisis and the Detroit Water Shutoffs, have demonstrated how lawmakers’ decisions concerning access have left socially marginalized groups further disadvantaged by lack of access to clean, affordable water. In keeping with Sally Engle Merry’s suggestion to understand the “vernacularization” of human rights from global to local contexts, and Orlove and Caton’s suggestion to study water as a total social fact, this paper employs a critical discourse analysis of policy efforts put forth by both local activist groups and state lawmakers on how to remediate the ramifications of water insecurity experienced by two post-industrial cities in Michigan. Although human rights are a product of Western culture, how they are interpreted and employed domestically has been minimally researched. This paper seeks to understand how this concept is understood and used as a linguistic tool by non-profit groups engaged with the crises, as well as how lawmakers at the forefront of decision making respond to the claims. The critical discourse analysis focuses on texts put forth by a spectrum of actors, including local and national policy initiatives, briefings, as well as non-profit research and blog posts, in order to further assess how blame and agency are constructed by actors intent on changing the way their communities access water. Findings suggest that while government is understood as responsible for providing equitable water service, the ratification of water as a human right is impeded by the need for infrastructural upgrades and consequently political will to alter policy.