Rivers across worlds: A conceptual framework for ontological inclusion & exclusion in participatory water governance

Water-related crises and disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been established over the last few decades aiming to achieve sustainable and participatory water governance. However, this article argues that IWRM is often based on ontological exclusion in the sense that participation is conditional on adopting a dominant ontology of water as a natural resource. Drawing on the Ontological Turn, we present a conceptual framework of ontological inclusion to support the analysis of established water governance. This is engaged in a case study of a participatory process for water-body classification in the Doce River basin. The ontologies of river-as-Watú, of the Indigenous Krenak, and river-as-home, of riverine communities, are shown to be excluded from the participatory process; furthermore, the ontologies of river-as-contested and river-as-state-failure are excluded from the policy instrument. The ontologies of river-as-resource and river-as-state-responsibility are enacted in the participatory process and the policy instrument. While state managers expressed concern for participation and plurality, the process and policy instrument remained ontologically exclusive. The nuances of ontological overlap and partial exclusion are explored alongside reflections on the challenges of plurality in state governance. The conceptual framework provides a normative resource for evaluating ontological inclusion and exclusion in established environmental governance.