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Water justice needs careful interdisciplinary research

Nature Water volume 4, pages 277–286 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Many agree that addressing complex water problems requires interdisciplinary approaches. Yet, entrenched epistemic, methodological and institutional hierarchies often privilege technocratic and positivist framings over critical, reflexive and situated ways of knowing. As a result, interdisciplinary knowledge-making is often hesitant to explicitly engage with political questions and fails to expose or challenge the political, cultural and economic systems driving complex water problems. We argue that making interdisciplinary water knowledge more socially and environmentally transformative hinges on embracing critical social sciences and learning from non-Western epistemologies. This becomes possible when interdisciplinary knowledge-making is treated not as integration but as a weaving together and mediation of epistemic and methodological differences, where no discipline must conform to the definitions, frameworks or methods of others. Through collaborative learning processes that are grounded in care and reciprocity, difference can be harnessed as a transformative force for knowledge-making that supports action towards alternative development pathways and more just water futures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Maria Rusca

  2. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Maria Rusca

  3. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands

    Margreet Zwarteveen & Amitangshu Acharya

  4. Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Governance and Inclusive Development, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Margreet Zwarteveen & Amitangshu Acharya

  5. Geography Department & Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human–Environment Systems (IRI THESys), Humboldt-Universitӓt zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Rossella Alba & Tobias Krueger

  6. Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), Oldenburg, Germany

    Rossella Alba

  7. Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Bremerhaven, Germany

    Rossella Alba

  8. Carl von Ossietzky Universitӓt Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Rossella Alba

  9. Environmental Science and Management, School of Earth, Environment and Society, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Melissa Haeffner

Authors
  1. Maria Rusca
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  2. Margreet Zwarteveen
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  3. Amitangshu Acharya
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  4. Rossella Alba
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  5. Melissa Haeffner
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  6. Tobias Krueger
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Contributions

This article was collectively conceptualized and developed through an extended process of collaborative reflection. In line with the paper’s core argument, the research and writing process was undertaken as a practice of careful, reflexive, and reciprocal interdisciplinary knowledge-making, allowing space for dialogue, difference, and slow collective refinement of ideas. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript and share responsibility for its content.

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Correspondence to Maria Rusca.

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Nature Water thanks Diego Cardoso, Leila Harris and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Rusca, M., Zwarteveen, M., Acharya, A. et al. Water justice needs careful interdisciplinary research. Nat Water 4, 277–286 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-026-00595-z

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