* The most complete and rigorous examination of the core issues in global water privatization debates and conflicts

In recent years as globalization and market liberalization have marched forward unabated, and the global commons continue to be commodified and privatized at a rapid pace. In this global process, the ownership, sale and supply of water is increasingly the flashpoint for debates and conflict over privatization, and nowhere is the debate more advanced or acute than in southern Africa. The Age of Commodity provides an overview on the debates over water privatization including a conceptual overview of water 'privatization', how it relates to human rights, macro-economic policy and GATS and how the debates are shaped by research methodologies. The book then presents case studies of important water privatization initiatives in the region, drawing out crucial themes common to water privatization debates around the world including corruption, gender equity and donor conditionalities. This is book is powerful and necessary reading in our new age of commodity.

Introduction
Part I: Theory and Practice
Theorizing Water
Privatization
The Constitutional Implications of Commercializing Water
Turning Off the Taps on the GATS
The New Water Architecture of SADC
Part II: Case Studies in South Africa
Entrenching Inequalities
Managing the Poor by Remote Control
A Political Economy of Public Private Contracts
Public Money, Private Failure
The Murky Waters of Second Wave Neoliberalism
'Free Water' as Commodity
The Rise and Fall of
Water Privatization in Rural South Africa
Part III: Case Studies in the Region
Stillborn in Harare
Fixing Failed Privatization With More Privatization
The New Face of Conditionalities
Water Privatization in Namibia
Alternatives to Privatization
Bibliography, Index