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Upcoming talks: Midwest Political Science Association #MPSA2016 (Chicago)

I do not know how I decided that it would be a good idea to do WPSA, MPSA, CPSA, and LASA, and two academic workshops by invitation, but well, I’m getting close to my last few weeks of extended academic travel. At least, I’m not missing any of my classes (I fly back to Aguascalientes so I don’t miss my lectures). But I’m definitely getting physically tired. Anyways, if you would like to catch me in Chicago next week for MPSA, here is my schedule:

Thursday and Friday I’ll be a Faculty Mentor at the MPSA 2016 networking sessions.

My two papers are the following:

Thursday April 7th, 4:45-6:15pm
58-500 Symposia:
Environmental Politics and Policy

The comparative politics of institutional diversity in water policy reforms: Six case studies in private water supply remunicipalization

In recent years, remunicipalization has been hailed as a policy reform that enables the implementation and operationalization of the human right to water. By bringing back the public into public service delivery, remunicipalization is perceived to ensure water policy objectives’ robust implementation. Remunicipalization of public water supply at the local level has been proven successful in at least six major cities worldwide: Atlanta, Berlin, Paris, Grenoble, Hamilton and Buenos Aires. In this paper, I assess whether human-right-to-water-inspired policy reforms could have played a role in the de-privatization of municipal water supply in these cities. I also explore whether any patterns have emerged from published studies on remunicipalizations worldwide, and from these six case studies. I test the hypothesis that remunicipalization can be used as a policy reform to implement the human right to water. I examine six case studies of remunicipalization in five countries and link across the human right to water literature with the policy outcomes that came out of it.

Saturday, April 9th, 3:00-4:30pm
58-9 Interest Mobilization in Environmental Politics

The comparative politics of environmental mobilizations against bottled water companies in Canada and the United States

The governance of bottled water offers an interesting challenge given its pervasiveness worldwide, in the face of increasing global water stress. Swiss company Nestlé controls 70% of the global bottled water market of around 200 billion dollars. Many of the protests that Nestlé faced occurred in two currently drought-stricken areas: California, in the United States of America, and British Columbia, in Canada. Alarming figures around how much water Nestlé was extracting practically for free in both regions circulated on social media, news sites, and newspapers, giving rise to a series of online mobilizations to rally against the multinational. This paper explores the political dynamics of online activism in California and British Columbia, and evaluates Nestlé’s response to civil society pressure in the face of a global water crisis. In this paper, I compare strategies of anti-water privatization environmental non-governmental organizations and their impact in the US and Canada. I argue that subnational politics interacts with global-agenda setting to bring bottled water into the policy agenda.

I will also be participating in a roundtable on integrating research and teaching

66-110 Roundtable: Integrating Teaching with Your Research
Friday, April 8 11:30 am
Roundtable(s): Integrating Teaching with Your Research
Discussion on integrating teaching and research
Chair: Michaelene D. Cox, Illinois State University
Panelists:
Amber Dickinson, Oklahoma State University
Kellee J. Kirkpatrick, Idaho State University
Elizabeth Wheat, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Raul Pacheco-Vega, CIDE

I will be there from Wednesday through Sunday evening so feel free to reach out to me if you want to chat.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – April 1, 2016

Religion and Climate Change Workshop at American University (Center for Latin American and Latino Studies)

Yesterday and today, I have been participating in a workshop organized by Rob Albro and Eric Hershberg from the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, and Evan Berry from the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University. It was an honor to be invited, and a great opportunity to share my research on public policy, water governance and climate change, and use the religion and climate change lens to shed light into how we can engage from a multidisciplinary perspective on this topic.

As always, I look at these things from a public policy analysis perspective, and as a comparativist. Methodologically, I am really excited about the prospects of comparing the Andean region with small islands, India and possibly Mexico. Today we are discussing the methodological and process approaches to undertaking this project. This workshop was possible with generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation to AU CLALS for the project Religion and Climate Change in Cross-Regional Perspective.


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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – April 1, 2016

Water Centric Cities 2016: My talk on Cities and Bottled Water

Last year, I was invited to join a roster of experts on water at the Center for International Education of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for a conference on Water-Centric Cities. I am very excited about this conference, because for a very long time, I’ve thought that issues of water availability, water security and insecurity, and water governance are all interrelated and we should talk more about how cities cope with these challenges through time.

bottled water

My paper is titled: “Governing Bottled Water: Water-Centric Cities and the Commodification of a Human Right”

I’m focusing this particular paper on the lack of a robust regulatory framework to govern how bottling water companies extract, package and distribute bottled water. While we can argue that bottled water is supposed to comply with health and safety regulations, there are many instances of water extraction where permits enable multinational corporations to extract thousands of gallons per day of the vital liquid without having to pay so much as a penny. My argument is that we need a robust regulatory framework to govern bottled water before we are faced with extreme scarcity and an inability to drink water from the tap, a challenge many jurisdictions like California and Michigan in the United States are already facing.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – March 30, 2016

Upcoming talk: PhD Colloquium, School of International Service, American University

Bottled waterI will be presenting my ISA 2016 paper on the global politics of bottled water today (March 30th) at 2:30pm during the American University School of International Service PhD Colloquium. It’s always nice to be back among friends (many of the faculty at SIS AU are focused on environmental politics, and are good friends of mine), and it should be good to present my emerging research to a sympathetic audience. This is work in progress, and I’m often a bit weary from presenting such early drafts, but that’s how one learns. The abstract is shown below:

The global politics of bottled water
Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD
Assistant Professor, Public Administration Division
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

Bottled water is considered a growing business, soon to overtake soft drinks as the beverage of choice. Yet the growing phenomenon of consuming water packaged in a plastic bottle seems ill conceived given current global conditions of water shortage. Understanding the paradoxical global patterns of bottled water production, distribution and consumption necessitates going beyond an international political economy explanation to generate one that integrates national patterns of consumption, public health concerns, varying degrees of water stress and domestic, transnational and international politics. In this paper I examine the global politics of bottled water through a combination of comparative politics and international relations lenses. I set forth a number of questions that require addressing in our quest to understand the paradox of bottled water consumption. I then offer suggestions that outline how we can explore this phenomenon through a global environmental politics lens. Finally, I posit a research agenda for future scholarship on the global politics of bottled water.

Bottled water

You can check my slide deck below:

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – March 30, 2016

The Politics of Water Governance at a Time of Crisis: Creating Opportunities through new Analytical Lenses #WPSA16

I am in San Diego, California, for the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) just the second of six conferences and workshops I am attending and presenting at in the next six weeks. At the time, obviously, it seemed like a great idea. Right now, I am surviving through all of them, and will write about my experience, as soon as I have a minute.

Panel 04. 06 – The Politics of Water Governance at a Time of Crisis: Creating Opportunities through new Analytical Lenses
Date: Friday, March 25, 2016, 3:15 – 5:00 PM
Chair(s): Harris, Leila, lharris@ires.ubc.ca, The University of British Columbia

Paper(s): Narrative, Storytelling, and Arts-based Engagement: Revisiting Water Governance
Harris, Leila, lharris@ires.ubc.ca, The University of British Columbia

Coalition Dynamics under Collaborative Norms: Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework to Understand Collaborative Policy Processes
Koebele, Elizabeth, elizabeth.koebele@colorado.edu, University of Colorado Boulder

Testing the Water: Investigating Water Manager Responses to Ecological and Institutional Change to Understand Adaptive Governance
Childress-Runyon, Amber, achildre@rams.colostate.edu, Colorado State University

The politics of bottled water at a time of crisis: Mobilizations in California and British Columbias against Nestle
Pacheco-Vega, Raul, raul.pacheco-vega@cide.edu, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)

Public Adaptation through the Backdoor: Can We Move Toward Adaptive Water Governance?
York, Abigail, abigail.york@asu.edu, Arizona State University
Eakin, Hallie, , Arizona State University
Smith-Heister, Skaidra, , Arizona State University
Bausch, Julia C., , Arizona State University
Aggarwal, Rimjhim, , Arizona State University
Anderies, John M., , Arizona State University

Discussant(s): Pacheco-Vega, Raul, raul.pacheco-vega@cide.edu, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – March 25, 2016

What counts as academic writing? #AcWri

#AcWri on a planeAnybody who reads my research blog and/or follows me on Twitter knows that I have very specific approaches to writing. Because I need a disciplined approach to life, I do things like the following: I schedule my life to the every minute, I organize my office every day, I organize my research notes and books/journal articles almost obsessively. Writing every day has become my mantra and my daily discipline.

Because I need the peace of mind of having accomplished something every day, I write every day, instead of spending extended periods of time cranking out text. I write every day because I’ve made writing my priority. Everything can wait but not writing. I can’t leave my house without doing some writing.

My academic writing #AcWri processEvery single researcher (and writer) out there will provide the advice that works best for him or her. A recent piece on Inside Higher Education(which I loved by the way, because she’s such a great writer) by Dr. Jane Ward suggests that you should “write in sprees” (e.g. write for extended periods of time), instead of writing every day. She also suggests (which I find is one of the most powerful piece of advice anybody can give) to self-identify as a writer.

This is something I do (identify myself as a writer), because in a former life, I wrote PR and marketing copy. Ask me one day over cocktails. Her third piece of advice is also extremely powerful: don’t absorb other people’s anxieties. If somebody else is stressed, don’t let that stress get you down.

But I want to go back to the first piece of advice, because that’s the one I find most people struggle with – should you write every day or should you write in long sprees. Inspired by Dr. Wendy Laura Belcher (whose 12 weeks to a journal article book is an absolute gem that you should buy this very second, and whose writing advice is stellar), I went on Twitter to rant about this notion of “don’t write every day”.

#AcWri and reflection and highlightingThe truth is: YOU ARE WRITING EVERY SINGLE DAY. Even if you are sending emails to a coauthor about how to craft a specific section, THAT COUNTS AS WRITING. Why? Because you are sharing concept notes. You are shaping how your argument is going to be structured. You are discussing the data. Are you reading and taking notes off of each paper you read? You are WRITING.

Are you drawing tables by hand to decide how you’re going to present them in your paper? YOU ARE WRITING. You are, in fact, WRITING.

Most people who write about academic writing (now that’s writing-ception) will differentiate between “generative text” (words you will end up putting into a paper or grant proposal) and “non-generative text” (bits and pieces of writing here and there). In reality, even if you don’t structure full sentences or write a full paragraph, every time you write something that pushes your work forward, you ARE writing, and you ARE writing “generative text”.

Handwritten notes

One of the problems I have found with recently published papers (and this may be the result of our publish-or-perish attitude) is that their literature reviews are exceedingly poor. Sometimes I find that key citations are absent from papers whose authors should know better. I believe one reason for this is that we don’t take the time to read and write notes about what we read. And we don’t because, WE SHOULD BE WRITING. If we don’t take reading seriously, if we don’t write notes and assemble robust literature reviews, our writing will end up being quite poor.

Our obsession with producing generative text has also led us, I believe, to relegate reflection to a distant second place. We don’t make time for proper reflection and digestion of ideas and thoughts on an every day basis. What is important in my daily academic practice? WRITE. WRITING. I NEED TO BE WRITING. But we don’t make the time to reflect. And the notes you write to yourself while you read and reflect on ideas? THAT COUNTS AS WRITING. That IS, in fact, writing.

I think we owe it to ourselves to recognize that no writing practice is perfect, or ideal, or that every single piece of advice you receive will work for you. You need to build your own writing practice. But to do so, you also need to recognize that many of the activities you don’t reward yourself for doing (like writing notes by hand, like emailing colleagues with ideas and thoughts, like reading, reflecting and taking notes about what you read) are in fact, whether you recognize it or not, writing.

My Twitter rant below:

UPDATE: Dr. Melissa Terras suggested a change in the wording of “binge-writing” that will shape how I write about this topic in the future. As Katrina Firth aptly suggested, the word “binge” suggests some sort of abnormalcy. We usually associate binging with “binge eating” or “binge drinking”, both of which may lead to physical illness.

Melissa Terras suggests “writing sprints” instead of “binge writing”, and I love this idea.

Jo Van Every had already written about the use of “binge writiing” and I didn’t recall until I searched for associated tweets. I also thoroughly agree with Professor Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch that if you want to sprint, you can’t do it unless you’ve trained daily, which is the theme of this post (how every writing you do can actually count as #AcWri).

FURTHER EDITS: Wendy Laura Belcher and Jane Ward had a dialogue in the comments on the Inside Higher Education piece, and also with me.

Furthermore here are a couple of additional thoughts by Pat Thomson who also has written on this (I’m changing my vocabulary as shown to “sprint writing” or “writing in long sprees”).

And the book recommended to me is one I already own in PDF version. “How We Write” edited by Suzanne Conklin Akbari. Great read.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – March 11, 2016

Some advice on building conference panels

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Yara Asi asked me for some advice on how to assemble good conference panels. I was super crazy busy after being ill for 3 weeks and doing fieldwork in Madrid for 2, so I just came around to writing this post. Apologies for the delay. Here are 5 tips I use for assembling conference panels, myself.

The Global and Regional Politics of Water (ISA 2015 TA79)

1. Never be afraid to ask.

Some of the best panels I’ve created have been with very senior scholars. Even if you are a junior scholar, you can bet that if your panel is well-assembled, has a nice line up and you craft your approach email with kindness and respect, it’s very likely that they may say yes. Of course, if they have time and they can plan for funding to go to the conference!

LASA 2013 Innovations in Drug Policy

2. Prioritize the underprivileged/early career scholars

Last year, at the International Studies Association (ISA) 2015 conference, I organized two panels with some of the brightest PhD students and post-doctoral researchers I could find who studied water. To me, organizing panels with graduate students always takes precedence. They are the ones who need the most exposure, so I am happy to promote their work.

AAG Fetishes of Water Governance

3. Don’t build an all-male panel.

I think this is self-explanatory, but it’s 2016 and some of the people I respect a lot in my field are still assembling panels with only males (even worse – only middle-aged, white men!). If you need a resource on women who also do political science, you can go to this website.

Dynamics Of Contention In Global Climate Politics (ISA 2015 WD 20)

4. Write the panel abstract so that it reads as a story

Your panel should be telling a story. It should explain coherently and succinctly why it’s important, why you’re bringing together the people you are including in the panel, and what people will learn as a result.

5. Build some slack into your panel and find alternates.

Sometimes, life happens. Funding doesn’t come through, or loved ones fall ill. So, build a list of panelists who you may not have been able to include in the panel originally as planned, but who might be able to join at the last minute. Inform the organizers as soon as a contingency happens.

Hopefully this advice will be helpful to you as you assemble your next panel!

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – March 6, 2016

Coming back to work after a long illness

If you followed my Twitter feed in the past couple of weeks you’ll know that I fell really ill right after my two weeks of fieldwork in Madrid. My family doctor says it was a combined influenza plus overexhaustion plus almost-pneumonia kind of illness, and he got me on a two-week course of antibiotics (one week of injections and one week of pills). I am barely finished with the antibiotics and have started feeling like a human again. The first week was terrible. I had to sleep 24 hours in a row, for two days in a row.

I learned a few things these past two weeks. The first one is that some people will not understand that being ill is not a choice, and that my main focus is, and should be on getting better, not finishing a chapter/paper/article. I think it is not worth working with someone who doesn’t understand the human aspects of academia. I don’t work weekends. I don’t work holidays. I don’t work when I am sick.If that doesn’t work for you, then I don’t want to work with you.

The second thing I learned is that I should trust my doctor when he says that I need to recharge my batteries and to choose my activities wisely. He said “you will have energy to do ONE thing per day. ONE. So, be wise about which activity you do each day while you recover”. That’s exactly what I did. For example, on Wednesday, I chose to promote the Bachelor of Public Policy program in Leon, where my parents live. It was exhausting and I needed to just keel over and sleep for an hour afterwards. On Tuesday, I chose to attend an important meeting with my CIDE colleagues. On Thursday, I chose to attend a meeting with our students. I didn’t worry about doing anything else. I only had energy to do ONE thing and I did it well. And then I went back to sleep.

The third thing I learned is that I should avoid forcing myself to do anything, particularly work, while I’m convalescent. Contrary to what many people may think, I have a very fragile physique. I have severe allergies (alcohol and lactose, just to start), and my immune system has been compromised since I was a child. I’ve had to take care of myself since I was very little, and while the past few years I was able to avoid falling gravely ill, this 2016 seems to have taken a toll on me way too early, and thus I need to rest even more, as my Spring semester is actually quite busy.

The fourth thing I learned is that I should only gradually come back to do my activities, instead of trying to Get Everything Done As Soon As I Feel Remotely Healthy. I have been doing one, two small things in addition to one big thing every day, and I feel much better.

And the fifth thing, which probably should be the first, is a reminder of something I already knew: no academic accolades are worth your health and your life. No matter how many papers you are supposed to publish per year, how many conferences, your health is and should be first.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – February 19, 2016

WC15: Exploring conflict resolution and peace-building within the global water governance discourse #ISA2016

If you are attending the forthcoming International Studies Association conferences in Atlanta, I invite you to attend our panel on Wednesday, WC15: Exploring conflict resolution and peace-building within the global water governance discourse.

When:Wednesday, March 16, 1:45 PM – 3:30 PM
Where: 304, Hilton Atlanta

Exploring conflict resolution and peace-building within the global water governance discourse

Chair: Oriol Mirosa (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Discussant: Cecilia Tortajada (National University of Singapore)

Papers

Global Water Governance and Local Input: Can Participation Overcome Conflict?
Author: Oriol Mirosa (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

The global politics of bottled water: Towards an integrative research agenda
Author: Raul Pacheco-Vega (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE))

Justice and Global Water: The Ethics of Global Water Governance
Author: Christiana Peppard (Fordham University)

The Challenges of Governing Water at the Global Scale
Author: Cecilia Tortajada (National University of Singapore)

At the Confluence: The OECD and the Global Water Crisis
Author: Dustin Garrick (McMaster University)

Abstract and Keywords
Increasing pressures on water resources in the context of rapid global environmental change have led to a growing number of conflicts at varying scales. Given the intricacies of cross-scalar environmental dynamics, whereupon phenomena at one scale can have impacts across various levels and regions, it is fundamental to undertake profound examinations of sub-national, cross-national and global water conflicts. Given the complexity that the literature on peace-building and conflict resolution present, in particular when analyzing water resources-driven conflicts, this panel asks researchers to rethink how we can use a peace science/peace building/conflict resolution approach to examine water issues within the international arena, and how can this approach contribute to furthering our understanding of global water governance. This panel includes contributions from scholars who work within a variety of disciplines and who use a multiplicity of methodological approaches and conceptual paradigms. The panel explores a broad variety of cases: transboundary water conflict, sub-national conflict, and the role of global institutions in water conflict resolution and/or governance.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – February 16, 2016

Working at my home office vs working at my campus office

A few weeks back, Ingrid Delavigne on Twitter asked me about my thoughts on working at my home office vis-a-vis working at my campus office.

I don’t know if my followers on Twitter or my readers here know this, but I actually start writing at home early in the morning. I wake up between 4 and 4:30 am and start writing. I’ve had a practice of writing for two hours every day. I do this even if I do not have “generative text” (e.g. “new” text) every single day. I write memos about research, transcribe field notes, interviews, build datasets, etc. I write stuff that will move my research forward.

Home office in Aguascalientes at night

Again, I am well aware that I write from a place of privilege and I acknowledge my arrangements may not work for every single academic out there. I live in a three-bedroom house (which for a single man like me, it is more than enough), and one of these bedrooms has been converted into a home office. This arrangement has one drawback: where I live (in a gated community), internet access is sometimes quite spotty. But having a home office to work has many advantages: I can write in my pyjamas, nobody bothers me because I write too early in the morning, and I can focus on my work.

My policy is as follows: unless I have to be on campus early for meetings or to teach, I arrive to campus AFTER I have completed a task or series of tasks. I do try to spend at least 6-8 hours on campus because I like to be available for my students in case they want to drop by. I have decorated and organized my campus office so nice that spending many hours there is actually enjoyable.

The only time when I don’t follow my rule is when I need to be on campus for Skype/FaceTime meetings. Given that our university’s internet is WAY, WAY faster than my home wireless network, I try to make it to campus super early so that I can get some writing done before my meetings. I also work on campus when I am writing a literature review or preparing a syllabus because it’s easier to download articles when online databases recognize my laptop as being associated with my university network.

Working at my CIDE Region Centro office

Also, I work on campus for the LONGER period of time. That is, I don’t work at home for a longer period of time every day than what I work on campus. This may sound counter-intuitive to those who feel that they are more productive working at home (particularly writing). My logic for this is as follows: I work at home to achieve a goal (getting X number of words or pages written). Spending the entire day at home wrecks my division between home and work, and therefore, enables a bit of workaholism. If, on the contrary, I decide to *only* write at home only for as long as necessary to achieve a certain writing goal, and THEN I move on and continue on campus, I already got my academic writing kick-started.

Regardless of where I work, my strategy is ALWAYS to make my working space my own. I decorate both my home office and my campus office. I make sure to add personal touches (photos of my nieces and nephews, paintings from the cities where I have lived or visited, etc.) Also, as many people may realize, I am a little bit obsessive when it comes to physically organizing my books and journal articles. That’s the only way I can feel at peace and do my work. So, my recommendation is, whether you work at home or at the office, having the best setup is the smartest strategy, and the most conducive to being productive.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega – January 13, 2016