Nourishing Growth and Suffocating Life
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A01=Daniel Mains
Author_Daniel Mains
capitalism
Category=JHMC
Category=JPA
Category=NHK
Category=WQH
citizenship
climate change
cultural anthropology
cultural geography
economic growth
environmental anthropology
environmental humanities
environmental policy
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
eutrophication
Norman Oklahoma water infrastructure
Oklahoma history
Oklahoma politics
political anthropology
urban environment
urban geography
water crisis
water infrastructure
water infrastructure case studies
water policy
Water quality issues
water security
Product details
- ISBN 9781496240194
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2025
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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From the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to declining water levels in the Colorado River, water quality problems in the United States have become increasingly common. In Nourishing Growth and Suffocating Life, Daniel Mains argues that all too often subsidizing economic growth has self-destructive consequences for drinking water and stormwater infrastructure. Mains examines the case of Norman, Oklahoma, a liberal college town in one of the reddest states in the country, that is in many ways a microcosm of the nation.
Mains begins with Lake Thunderbird, a reservoir that displaced members of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and allowed Norman’s population to nearly triple in sixty years. Norman’s growth damaged the quality of water in Lake Thunderbird, causing the city to invest millions of dollars to improve its tap water. Each chapter examines examples of the intersection between self-destructive growth, water, and politics. Mains takes readers on a journey into urban creeks that erode backyards, Facebook battles over stormwater infrastructure, and city council policy debates that veer from water to policing. Taking into consideration how conceptions of community and belonging shape the distribution of resources, Nourishing Growth and Suffocating Life explores how cities can achieve water security and sustainable growth in an era of increasing distrust in government and scientific expertise.
Mains begins with Lake Thunderbird, a reservoir that displaced members of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and allowed Norman’s population to nearly triple in sixty years. Norman’s growth damaged the quality of water in Lake Thunderbird, causing the city to invest millions of dollars to improve its tap water. Each chapter examines examples of the intersection between self-destructive growth, water, and politics. Mains takes readers on a journey into urban creeks that erode backyards, Facebook battles over stormwater infrastructure, and city council policy debates that veer from water to policing. Taking into consideration how conceptions of community and belonging shape the distribution of resources, Nourishing Growth and Suffocating Life explores how cities can achieve water security and sustainable growth in an era of increasing distrust in government and scientific expertise.
Daniel Mains is Wick Cary Professor of anthropology and African studies at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Under Construction: Technologies of Development in Urban Ethiopia and Hope Is Cut: Youth, Unemployment, and the Future in Urban Ethiopia.
