Sustainable life, not sustainable development - “Other” epistemologies in sanitation policy in Rural Brazil : The case of Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation

(1)

Department of Thematic Studies Environmental Change

MSc Thesis (30 ECTS credits) Science for Sustainable development

Sustainable life, not sustainable

development: “Other”

epistemologies in sanitation

policy in Rural Brazil

The case of Brazil’s National Program for

Rural Sanitation

(2)

Copyright

The publishers will keep this document online on the Internet – or its possible replacement – for a period of 25 years starting from the date of publication barring exceptional circumstances. The online availability of the document implies permanent permission for anyone to read, to download, or to print out single copies for his/hers own use and to use it unchanged for non-commercial research and educational purpose. Subsequent transfers of copyright cannot revoke this permission. All other uses of the document are conditional upon the consent of the copyright owner. The publisher has taken technical and administrative measures to assure authenticity, security and accessibility. According to intellectual property law the author has the right to be mentioned when his/her work is accessed as described above and to be protected against infringement. For additional information about the Linköping University Electronic Press and its procedures for publication and for assurance of document integrity, please refer to its www home page: http://www.ep.liu.se/.

(3)

(4)

Abstract

Despite decades of global efforts to provide the whole of the world’s population with appropriated water and sanitation, these remain one of the biggest challenges of our time, with the gap being even greater in rural areas. Commonly dominated by technological and managerialist solutions, the field of water and sanitation have been subject, since its origins, to rationalities grounded in western knowledge. As a result, approaches to the topic tends to disregard deeper relationships between the social world and its historical, political, economic and cultural realizations. While many discuss water and sanitation in terms of supply, others indicate how current shortcomings are more related to power structures. Universal paradigms in water and sanitation constitutes epistemological hegemony. The present thesis explores, based on a decolonial and Latin-American political ecology framework, how dominant rationalities contribute for a great share of people around the globe to remain without access to water and sanitation. Taking as a case study Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR – in Portuguese), the thesis investigates its formulation process to understand how its constitution and final product represent alternative epistemologies, also presenting its relationships with the pursuit of sustainability. Four elements of the PNSR’s formulation are especially highlighted: the engagement with social movements; the openness to a dialogue of knowledges; the participative and qualitative methods; and, the shared approaches to sustainability. Discussions draw upon the importance of questioning dominant epistemologies; recognizing the linkages between health, sanitation, conflict and resistance in rural Brazil; and, constructing sustainability as a space for the encounter of different rationalities.

(7)

Resumo

Mesmo que esforços globais para fornecer água e saneamento adequados a toda a população mundial somem décadas de investimento, estes continuam sendo um dos maiores desafios de nosso tempo, com a lacuna sendo ainda maior nas áreas rurais. Comumente dominado por soluções tecnológicas e gerenciais, o campo da água e do saneamento esteve sujeito, desde as suas origens, a racionalidades alicerçadas em saberes ocidentais. Como resultado, a abordagem do tema tende a desconsiderar relações mais profundas entre o mundo social e suas realizações históricas, políticas, econômicas e culturais. Enquanto muitos discutem água e saneamento em termos de abastecimento, outros indicam como as deficiências atuais estão mais relacionadas a estruturas de poder. Paradigmas universais em água e saneamento constituem uma hegemonia epistemológica. A presente tese explora, a partir de um arcabouço de ecologia política decolonial e latino-americana, como racionalidades dominantes contribuem para que grande parte da população mundial permaneça sem acesso à água e ao saneamento. Tomando como estudo de caso o Programa Nacional de Saneamento Rural do Brasil (PNSR), a tese investiga seu processo de formulação para compreender como sua constituição e produto final representam epistemologias alternativas, apresentando também suas relações com a busca pela sustentabilidade. Quatro elementos da formulação do PNSR são especialmente destacados: o engajamento com os movimentos sociais; a abertura ao diálogo de saberes; os métodos participativos e qualitativos; e, as abordagens compartilhadas para a sustentabilidade. As discussões baseiam-se na importância em se questionar epistemologias dominantes; reconhecendo as ligações entre saúde, saneamento, conflito e resistência no Brasil rural; e, construindo a sustentabilidade como um espaço de encontro de diferentes racionalidades.

(8)

List of Abbreviations

MDGs

Millennial Development Goals

SDGs

Sustainable Development Goal

PNSR

Programa Nacional de Saneamento Rural / National Program for Rural Sanitation

Plansab

Plano Nacional de Saneamento Básico / National Plan for Sanitation

Funasa

Fundação Nacional de Saúde / National Health Foundation

UFMG

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Federal University of Minas Gerais

Fiocruz

Fundação Oswaldo Cruz / Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

PNSIPCFA

Política Nacional de Saúde Integral das Populações do Campo, das Florestas e das Águas / National Policy for Comprehensive Health of People from the Land, the Forest, and the Waters

(9)

There is no global social justice without global cognitive justice.

(10)

1. Introduction

Global efforts to provide water and sanitation to the world’s population are in place since before the 1980s. In terms of international joint action, different programs by the United Nations have aimed to increase or universalize access, the most recent ones being the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), between 2000 and 2015, and the Sustainable Development Goals, between 2015 and 2030. However, most of the targets set by past agendas were not met1_(Mara & Evans, 2017). Despite more than 40 years of worldwide arrangements, water and sanitation are still one of the biggest challenges of our time. Today, 844 million people around the globe lack basic drinking water services, while another 2.3 billion do not have access to basic sanitation facilities (WHO & UNICEF, 2018). When considered all the elements of an appropriated provision, in 2017, 29% of people worldwide did not access safe water and 55% lacked sanitation services (WHO & UNICEF, 2019). Besides that, rural provision of water and sanitation still is one of the largest gaps globally. 80% of those without access to basic drinking water and 70% without basic sanitation live in rural areas, with the biggest share residing in poor countries (WHO & UNICEF, 2019). The reasons over the persistence of this scenario around the globe can be constantly under debate. O’Reilly and Louis (2014) highlight how literature on MDGs shortcomings points to a consensus around how supply driven interventions have: excluded the most vulnerable; not been correctly designed or constructed; and, fallen short in addressing cultural specificities. Despite that, even if the SDGs have incorporated part of the critics to the MDGs, some might argue it still fails to acknowledge political dimensions behind its targets and indicators (Weststrate, Dijkstra, Eshuis, Gianoli, & Rusca, 2018). Already in 2006, the UNDP Human Development Report, called “Power, poverty and the global water crisis”, announced how water and sanitation problems were more related to inequality and unequal power relations than to physical supply (Watkins, 2006).

As Swyngedouw (2009) puts it, the “present debate over water resources often sacrifices democratic governance on the altar of technological or economic efficiency, while safeguarding existing power relations” (p. 59). In opposition to most efforts focused on how to bring water to people, the real question in water and sanitation, as discussed by Swyngedouw (2007), would be then “why some have access to services while others do not?”. For that, it would be necessary to investigate how power imbedded in social relations, and their economic, political, and cultural expressions are connected to how policy and technological choices in the sector are imagined, planned and put into practice (Swyngedouw, 2009). In this same line, Castro (2012) discusses how “social conditions and constraints that are mostly neglected or even ignored in traditional public policy and management practices” (p. 3) in the sector of water and sanitation can explain the barriers in achieving universalization. Such conditions and constraints are what the author calls systemic conditions, which are factors not commonly related to the sector, but with great impacts on its functioning. According to Castro (2012), the two main systemic conditions operating in water and sanitation are structural social inequalities and the inertial forces of mainstream politics. These speak to how knowledge in the field ignores the failure of policies in place for decades, and in which ways the severe lack of access to services in poor countries are related to a broader “constellation of factors, including economic, gender, age and ethnic inequalities” (p.7).

1_{Even if the MDGs have reached the aimed marks for safe drinking water, many consider its figures to be too}

(11)

The origins of sanitation in Brazil, and in many poor countries in the world, followed development patterns set by European nations and the liberal economic reasoning, resulting in lack of attention to the local context and its particularities (Britto, Lima, Heller, & Cordeiro, 2012). The first measures in the sector of water and sanitation happened on the bases of foreign capital, with companies – mainly from England – importing their technicians and technologies (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). Supported by local elites that aimed at imitating European lifestyles and its ideals of progress, urban modernization occurred while excluding and subjugating lower classes and ethnic groups (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009; Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). With time, the sanitary model and its technocentric approach became the sector’s modus operandi, which happened together with the country’s incorporation into current international flows of private capital (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). The focus in maximizing profit let poorer regions of the country unattended (C. M. N. Souza et al., 2015). With advancements almost exclusive to urban areas, creating and aggravating inequalities and leaving rural population on their own (Fiocruz, 2018a).

Even after the State reassuming the responsibility of the sector and a great expansion between 1891 and 1970 on the number of public institutions regulating the sector and providing services, old patterns persisted, such as the systematical abandonment of rural population and the concentration of investments on the richer regions (S. C. Rezende & Heller, 2008). Nowadays, and since the 1980s-90s, a neo-liberal agenda has driven action in the sector, with global financial and development institutions enforcing a new wave of privatization, followed by deregulation and a stronger perception of water as a commodity (Heller, 2007). Therefore, sanitation as known today developed in close relation with life in cities, establishing a paradigm that included, among other things, the devaluation of the rural. Indeed, besides being forgotten for most of Brazil’s history, the interior of the country and people living there have been historically represented as backward and underdeveloped, which influenced how they were treated, and the type of policies enforced to them (Lima, 2010). The water and sanitation gap in Brazil persist despite decades of public policy and action. Around the country, 35 million people remain without access to water and 100 million lack proper sanitation (Brasil, 2018). In the rural environment, only 41,1% of the households are connected to water supply networks, and 10,4% to wastewater facilities (Funasa, 2019).

Although social factors have been increasingly recognized as part of the main challenges in the sector, many aspects related to political and historical constraints remain neglected (Castro, 2012). Nilsson (2011), investigating water provision in Kenya and Uganda, explores the role of history in explaining current problems. The author highlights how without considering historical factors it is not possible to fully understand the problems faced today. Such consideration applies to the Brazilian context in similar ways. Thus, an approach connecting political, economic, social and historical factors to understand current shortcomings, as well as to propose better policies and action, remains a gap in the field (Swyngedouw, 2009; Nilsson, 2011; Castro 2012; Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). In this context, an important component of power structures articulating such factors lies upon how knowledge in the sector is constructed and validated since, as Nilsson (2017) questions, “what if the people who finance, design and construct infrastructures can only envision specific setups of these systems? (p. 482). With that in mind, considering the historical gap of rural sanitation in Brazil, as well its political, economic and social contexts, this thesis starts by questioning: what if policies and actions in the sector have always been and continues to be imagined under the same knowledge paradigm? Following in this line, the thesis sets as a background the ways in which global networks of power, stablished since the colonization of the Americas, constitutes also a network of power

(12)

over knowledge, and what is accepted as valid knowledge, that is epistemology. Starting with a historical outlook of water and sanitation in Brazil, the study positions the forces operating in sector and around the recently launched National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR – in Portuguese)., taken as a case study. The thesis then deploys a decolonial and Latin-American political ecology framework to help in guiding reflections on alternative epistemologies in water and sanitation, contextualizing the epistemological violence suffered by communities living in rural Brazil. In this line, it is explored how water and sanitation have always been subject to hegemonic paradigms that delimitate action in the sector, imposing universal notions and concepts that erase other possibilities of knowledge construction. The background and the framework fed into the case study to reveal, through in-depth interviews with key actors and analysis of different documents, how the PNSR represents an epistemological turn in the sector, which is examined through its formulation process and final outcome. The analysis shows how the PNSR brings up alternative epistemologies taking a decisive step: recognizing first the knowledge made by people in the territories as valid, acknowledging their rights of existing in their own term and receive adequate support from the State. In this sense, the PNSR put together efforts in different spheres to construct a program of rural sanitation not “for”, but “with” communities of rural Brazil.

1.1. Problem formulation

The present thesis draws upon such considerations to discuss one additional – and dare to say, central – systemic condition in water and sanitation: the epistemological. According to de Sousa Santos (2014), all social experiences produce and reproduce different instances of knowledge, which are based on multiple epistemologies, that is, ideas of what counts as valid knowledge. Since the construction of knowledge draws upon social actors, their practices and relationships, what constitutes its validation is always contextual (de Sousa Santos, 2014). The premise of the study, sustained by historical and contemporary considerations grounded in the literature, is that dominant rationalities, together with global power structures, have hindered planning perspectives other than those originated in the Global North. The study explores how processes of conflict, domination and exploitation, that followed colonization in the Americas and shaped the current world order, have persisted over time under specific systems of thought, subjugating alternative rationalities not grounded in western scientific tradition (Quijano, 2000a). That said, the problem lies not specifically in how colonization has influenced water and sanitation, but how power structures stablished since then have enforced specific ways of thinking, subjugating other ways of understanding the world.

In relation to that, de Sousa Santos (2014) says the globe is separated by an epistemological imaginary line, that divides the world between false and true, scientific and non-scientific. While the scientific tradition has positioned knowledge produced in Europe and United States on the valid side of the line, on the other side are all the knowledges taken as irrelevant, incommensurate and not-real. Such subjugated knowledges are those understood to be produced by popular, traditional, peasant, and indigenous experiences, among others, and assumed to be made of beliefs, opinions, mystic, intuition and subjectivity (de Sousa Santos, 2014). These characterize the “Other”, that is, people not really considered as real subjects nor capable of producing real knowledge. To this mass of knowledges produced by the subjugated “Other” and that escapes the dominant rationality, de Sousa Santos (2014) gives the name of Epistemologies of the South. Following this, the present thesis approaches what it calls “Other”

(13)

epistemologies in water and sanitation, that is, other spheres of valid knowledge produced by alternative rationalities.

The study assumes this “Other”, historically constructed, can be found throughout the experiences and realities of people living in Rural Brazil, capable of bringing forward alternative epistemologies in water and sanitation. Populations of rural Brazil are characterized by multiple identities and modes of living and the historical and systematical suppression and abandonment of their needs by different governments, as well their equal resistance under a diverse set of conflicts. Thus, through a case study approach, the thesis investigates how possible alternative epistemologies playout in Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation. Already in 2018, the PNSR was granted a prize of innovation in the public sector for its participative approach, which brought together public administrators, academy and social movements in its formulation process. For that, considering the power structures present in water and sanitation, as well as the different forces involved in the knowledge construction arenas, the present thesis has taken the PNSR as a case study of alternative epistemologies in the sector. Departing from these asymmetries and grounded in its theoretical framework, the thesis conducts a critical examination over PNSR’s formulation processes through a combination of means data collection and analysis.

Additionally, it is recognized how sustainability has increasingly been an important concept in the current literature on water and sanitation, which can be clearly seen in the recent Agenda 2030 of the United Nations (Rosenqvist, Mitchell, & Willetts, 2016). Society’s perception around sanitation have evolved over the decades, going from purely focused on technology, to broader notions of sustainable services and systems (Rosenqvist et al., 2016). Considering that, the thesis proposes to discuss how mainstream ideas of sustainability can also be connected to dominant rationalities, exploring how alternative epistemologies can contribute to the challenge of sustainable universalization of water and sanitation, grounding the analysis on the established framework.

1.2. Aim and research questions

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how “Other” epistemologies, that is, alternative rationalities, in water and sanitation can contribute to the challenge of its sustainable provision, examining the gaps of the sector in rural Brazil through a historical perspective and the analysis on the contributions of the recently launched National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR). The present study begins its investigation based on theoretical inputs from the adopted frameworks, to, through a case study approach, discuss in which ways the formulation process of the PNSR can foster discussions and learnings over alternative epistemologies within water and sanitation policy, as well as global claims for sustainability. For that, two research questions were posed to delimitate the scope of analysis and discussions:

RQ1: How does PNSR’s processes of constitution brings up alternative epistemologies in water and sanitation policy? In which ways are these expressed through PNSR’s formulation and final product?

RQ2: What are the elements related to alternative epistemologies in the sector connected to sustainability and its representations in the PNSR?

(14)

1.3. Delimitation of the Study

The goal of this thesis it is not to examine how specific technological interventions have been or have not been efficient, oppressive or not oppressive, neither their particular impacts in the life of people on the ground. This study is not an assessment of solutions or specific services. On the opposite, the thesis approaches global power structures established on the basis of political, economic, social and historical factors and how systemic conditions have influenced what counts as valid knowledge in the water and sanitation sector, delimitating policy and action in the field. The study explores the origins of sanitation and knowledge making in Brazil as an argument for its systematical failure in reaching universalization, examining alternative approaches to the problem through the learnings of the case study under consideration.

The deployed concepts on water and sanitation follows primarily the Brazilian tradition expressed through the idea of “basic sanitation”, which comprises a broaden meaning of sanitation as including water supply, sanitation services, solid waste management and drainage. Although this is the definition adopted by the PNSR, the present thesis focuses its analysis on the first two components, water and sanitation, but always in the context of “basic sanitation”. Thus, the term water and the term sanitation are used almost interchangeably. Even if specific considerations can be made regarding solid waste management and drainage, it is assumed most of the topics approached here, in general terms, also apply to these sectors.

(15)

2. Background

2.1. Contextualizing water and sanitation in Brazil

The history of sanitation in the world follows that of population growth, urbanization processes and, ultimately, industrialization. Even if actions towards improving environmental health, such as those connected to provision of clean water and personal hygiene, can be traced back to several thousand years ago, it was with the end of feudalism and emergence of the bourgeoisie that sanitation, as understood today, started to be structured (C. M. N. Souza, Costa, Moraes, & Freitas, 2015). In this context, the advancement of sanitation occurred together with the scientific and technological progress of the modern era. Such processes, also involved changes in the way of thinking and understanding the linkages between health and occurrence of diseases, once the lack of sanitary control became a threat to workers of the industrial society (S. C. Rezende & Heller, 2008). Research focusing on the relationship between water, waste and cholera outbreaks made the way for a discourse soon to become hegemonic: the perception of health as the absence of disease (C. M. N. Souza et al., 2015). From this understanding, came the idea that diseases could be prevented by sanitizing cities, a process that began mainly in the nineteenth century with the development and application of technologies in health and sanitation in the biggest cities around the world (Fiocruz, 2018a). Such actions were mainly enforced in an authoritarian way, neglecting social engagement and participation (S. C. Rezende & Heller, 2008; C. M. N. Souza et al., 2015). In Brazil, the same approach followed until the beginning of the twentieth century, with efforts primarily condensed in the capital of the country and scaling up after rapid population growth due to migration (Fiocruz, 2018a). At this time, the government based the expansion of sanitation services in private investments, mainly from English origin, which put decisions concerning public health under the logic of capital and profit that lingers up to today.

2.1.1. The beginnings of the sector in the country

Going deeper on such historical processes surrounding water and sanitation since colonization, Murtha, Castro, & Heller (2015) discuss how water and sanitation developed in Brazil between the arrival of the Portuguese and the 1930’s. The first interventions connected to action in the sector happened in the cities of Recife and Rio de Janeiro and involved mainly the canalization of rivers and construction of aqueducts and public fountains, that between the eighteen and nineteenth centuries became popular as urbanization processes took place. At the time, slaves were the ones responsible for bringing water to the houses of those with economic power, as well as disposing their excreta (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). In Recife, city occupied by Dutch colonizers, in the end of the seventeenth century, technicians were brought from the Netherlands for the construction of channels and dams, mainly mobilized to guarantee their economic activities in the region (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009).

In the same way as the territory was occupied following the precepts of economic expansion, the water and sanitation sector also developed connected to specific production activities, such as sugar plantation and mining. Besides that, economical agreements providing England with fiscal privileges hindered the government’s autonomy and financial capacity during the whole first half of the nineteenth century (Furtado, 2007 cited in Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). Only in 1850, the State was able to initiate the regulation of infrastructure and services, which

(16)

was led by foreign capital under ideals of industrialization. Such ideals were based on the technological paradigm brought from Europe’s biggest centers, expressed through progress in transportation, lighting, rails, and of course, sanitation (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). Such processes mirrored the sanitary patterns developed in Europe and United States, focused on centralized channeling systems. As an example, a decree from April of 1857 stablished the construction of systems similar to those adopted in England, with technologies brought from London on the basis of international capital1_{(Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). The rapidly} population growth experienced in the end of that century and beginning of the following one created new villages and cities, with regional oligarchies – holding great economic and pollical power and looking up to European lifestyles – supporting the State’s movements for modernization (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Such alignment reflects the connections between the economic development of the country, the emergent European capitalist society and its technological model, which included the transference of infrastructures, techniques, capital, materials and machines (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015).

2.1.2. Scaling up sanitation in the twentieth century

The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by large foreign investments in sanitation and many other sectors. Since companies, coming mostly from England, had profit as the primary focus, only the inhabitants capable of paying for the service would be incorporated into it (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015; S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Indeed, at this time, cities started going through sanitary reforms – inspired by theories born in Europe and United States – and in connection to the development aspirations of the time. S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza (2009) discusses how such inteventions excluded a great share of the poor population, subject to authoritarian measures that included the “persecution by the health police and the removal of houses” (p. 66), understood even to be places of “filth, perversion and anarchism” (Carvalho, 1987 quouted in S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Around this same period, cities were flooded by ex-slaves, whom were made free after abolition in 1888, but remained without access to fundamental rights. In this context, ex-slaves were also excluded from water and sanitation services, which led to protests againt elitist policies of water companies (Webb, 2019). Similarly, autoritarian sanitary measures enforced to the lowest classes by the government in Rio de Janeiro ended up in what is known as the Vaccine Uprising in 1904, which forced the state to reformulate to some extent its approach to public health (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009).

Throught such processes, the european scientific discurse of the time – gounded on the miasmatic theory – was fundamental to justify these urban interventions, planned according the interests of economical and political olygarchies, whom followed the patterns set by European cities, expressions of modernity itself (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). In that sense, urban centers iself were stablished to reflect the power of these elites, excluding, removing and forcing the poorest to live in the outskirts of the city, what with time came to be the slums (Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). Folloing that, during most part of the first half of the twentieth century, water and sanitation was dominated by ideals of scientific and technological development, mostly only focused on urban regions (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Therefore, the sector in Brazil was structured based on a model imported mainly from England, grounded in a discourse of modernization, and as part of global economic and financial flows

1_{Concession periods were of 90 years, with 33 years of exemption from import tariffs over construction and}

(17)

(Murtha, Castro, & Heller, 2015). While the urban environment was going throught significant change, rural parts of Brazil raimained largely forgotten ultil the beginning of twentieth century, when expeditions supported by the Rockefeller Foundation1_{started to “rediscover” this part of} the country under claims of better health conditions for rural populations (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009).

Such expeditions revealed a country unknown up to that moment, taken by different diseases and generalized poverty, being described at the time as “an immense hospital”2_{. In the context} of modernization, representations of rural populations were commonly characterized by backwardness, indolence and primitiveness (Lima, 2010). In the process of building a Brazilian identity, physicians had a central part in developing social thought about the territory, putting health and sanitation as a priority in a project of civilization (Lima, 2007). Many important doctors and sociologists were against racial deterministic views and critical to imitating European lifestyles, arguing the conditions of rural Brazil were mainly due to governmental abandonment and lack of public policies (Lima, 2007). Nevertheless, the main concern of physicians during this time was indeed to modernize and “civilize” rural populations, following the ideals stablished in the urban context discussed in the previous paragraphs (Lima, 2007). It was during this time that a technocratic and sanitary discourse over health and sanitation became consolidated among technicians and academics in the field of engineering and medicine (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009).

Between 1940 and 1960, the sector was dominated by the developmentalist logic of the capitalist system, which promoted even further the dichotomy between sanitation and health (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Besides that, starting in1950, aid programs coming from the United States influenced the expansion of the sector connected to international economic and political interests (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). The first national plan for sanitation – propelled by rapid urbanization – was launched in 1970, under a military dictatorship that lasted for more than 20 years, deeping in the centralization of policies and technocratic solutions, aligned to the same discourse of industrial development (Fiocruz, 2018a). Within the dictatorship, social inequalities increased, and the sanitary national shortcomings aggravated, with the sector being highly dominated by the business logic of water commodification (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009). Heller (2007) discusses how the main features of water and sanitation policies in Brazil are grounded in this period, highlighting how the sector has been always subject to external forces not essentially connected to the challenge of providing water and sanitation to the population.

In this same line, S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza (2009) expose how the sector has been consistently used as a tool of economic and political power3_{. From there, the 1980s and 1990s} were marked first by fiscal reforms and the external dept leading to economic crisis and lack of investment in the sector, and second by a new wave of neo-liberal ideas enforcing private control of services (Heller, 2007). This neo-liberal agenda in water and sanitation has only, as

1_{Institution from the United States that had as the main objective of these expeditions the study of the mining}

potential of the country (S. Rezende, Heller, & Lanza, 2009)

2_{The phrase “Brazil – an immense hospital” was coined by physician Miguel Pereira in 1916, and became the}

symbol of the movement for rural sanitation (Sá, 2009 cited in Lima, 2010)

3_{It is symptomatic of economic liberalism, which underlined most efforts in water and sanitation since the}

nineteenth century, that water was accepted as an economic good before being acknowledged as a human right. Only in 2002, when the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights published a General Comment, water was recognized and officialized as a human right (Budds and McGranahan, 2003). On the other hand, sanitation was only acknowledged as such in 2010, through the UN resolution n° 64/24 (Souza et al., 2015).

(18)

Castro (2012) argues, “just reproduced or reinforced existing constraints, such as the technocentric approach to public policy and management or the top-down, often undemocratic and authoritarian, forms of organization that have historically prevailed in this field of activity” (p. 13), which is corroborated by the historical components of sanitation in Brazil presented here. Castro (2012) highlights how policies made of “deregulation, liberalization, commercialization and privatization” of services are designed and implemented as “one-size-fits-all”, being similarly imposed over different realities around the globe. During this same period, the social determinants of health started to be acknowledged by the international community, leading to political movements and public mobilization demanding new ways of organizing health and sanitation, which was reflected in the new Federal Constitution of 1988 (Fiocruz, 2018a). Notwithstanding the principles defined in the Constitution, such as universalization, equality and social participation, which set the bases for the country’s Unified Health System1_{, a period of neo-liberal governments resulted in privatization policies and} reduction of investments in the sector, which was only reversed after 2003 with the change of administration (Fiocruz, 2018a). The effects of this system built upon economic and political interest and sustained by structural social inequalities can be seen today around Brazil. In Recife, water systems, although designed for its equal distribution among the population, enforces daily rationings only in poor areas (Rocha Ferreira, 2006 cited in Castro, 2012)

2.1.3. Sanitation nowadays

In 2007, the National Law for Sanitation (n° 11.445/2007) established the benchmark for the sector, consolidating a broad definition of sanitation as including water supply, sewage systems, solid waste management and drainage. The law defined services should be guided by fundamental principles aiming to universalize coverage, provide integral assistance, promote health, and social participation and control, while considering local contexts and seeking to reduce inequalities (Brasil, 2007). The law n° 11.445/2007 was an important advancement in the perception of sanitation as central to a better quality of life, as well as being determined by different aspects, moving away from old conceptions of health separated from social factors. Following the law, in 2013 was launched the National Plan for Sanitation (Plansab – in Portuguese), divided into three national programs: urban sanitation, rural sanitation and structuring sanitation, the latter comprehending actions for social participation and management (Brasil, 2007). As a policy instrument, the Plansab changed the course of sanitation strategies by putting more focus in social and environmental aspects and abandoning the purely technocentric approaches observed in the past (Fiocruz, 2018a). In 2014, the component foreseen to cover rural sanitation started to be elaborated, being finalized in the end of 2019. The National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR – in Portuguese), followed in the footsteps of the Plansab in seeking a participative approach promoting social control. The context of sanitation in Brazil revels a complex landscape of historical misconceptions, conflicting logics, divided interests, fragmented actions and disregard for the social reality of the country, but also one of resistance and mobilization around understandings other than the hegemonic. Such conjecture mirrors the realities of rural Brazil.

Brazil is one of the few Latin American countries with rural sanitation coverage lower than 50%, with great disparities within the country as some locations have treatment rates as low as 1% (IBGE, 2017). Brazil is home to one of the highest biodiversity in the world, also in cultural

1_{Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS (in Portuguese), is one of the biggest and more complex systems of public health}

in the world, providing free and universal services in different levels for a population of over 209 million people, and being an important piece for sanitary integrated actions.

(19)

terms, with rural Brazil being home to a variety of people, religions, languages and traditions. Between 1980 and 1990, urban water supply coverage jumped from 40% to 80%, while sewage systems went from 30% to 40% in the same period (S. C. Rezende & Heller, 2008). In the rural setting, water supply networks went from 9% in 1991 to 28% in 2010, while households depending on wells decreased from 60% to 55% in the same period (Funasa, 2019). Despite the advancements in water systems, sanitation have consistently lagged behind – even in urban areas – being one the most hampered sectors in Brazil (C. M. N. Souza et al., 2015). Sanitation solutions in rural parts of the country are consisted mainly by rudimentary cesspits, condition that have barely changed between 1991 and 2010 (Funasa, 2019). The percentage of households without a toilet, however, have dropped from 60% to 15% during this same period (Funasa, 2019), yet, 4 million people are still lacking access to one (IBGE, 2017). One of the main challenges of rural sanitation nowadays is exactly connected to how public policies have prioritized approaches from the urban perspective, not acknowledging the particularities of rural environment, such its connection with other sectors and policies, resulting in fragmented, insufficient action (Ferreira et al., 2019). Thus, the National Program for Rural Sanitation in Brazil represent a new milestone in the sector, envisioning planning in water and sanitation for rural populations especially designed according to their specificities.

2.2. Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation

As previously discussed, the National Law for Sanitation, known as law n° 11.445/2007, was and still is the main landmark in the sector, setting the bases for action in sanitation – in its broader meaning – at national level. As one of the three components originated from the law – urban, rural, and structuring sanitation – the National Program for Rural Sanitation, PNSR, addresses how to ensure appropriate services for rural populations through solutions reflecting the particularities of such peoples, including: indigenous (native), black slavered descendent rural communities (quilombolas), peasants, fishing and extractivist communities living in coastal and riparian areas (e.g. caiçaras; ribeirinhos), and communities living in natural reserve areas. Although the PNSR represents an unique advancement for sanitation in rural areas, earlier efforts have contributed to its foundations, however, at their time, such efforts presented limited and insufficient action1_{(Funasa, 2019)}

Sanitation is an important component of individual and environmental health, being assured as a right by the Brazilian Federal Constitution, with its provision – in universal and equitable ways – being an obligation of the national state. In that sense, the aim of the PNSR is the universalization of sanitation services in rural areas, fostering equity, comprehensive services, intersectoral coherence, sustainability of services, and participation and social control. For that, the Program is structured around 5 main lines: diagnoses; guidelines; targets; investments, and strategies, covering 20 years in the future (Funasa, 2019). The formulation of the PNSR was assigned to the National Health Foundation (Funasa) in 2014, that started its preparation based on the guidelines set by the Plansab. In 2015 a partnership was formed with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) for coordination of studies, with other institutions also integrating the project, such as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). Later on, the Group of

1_{Pro-sanitation league in 1918; Especial Service on Public Health in 1942) that together with the Superintendence}

against malaria originated the current National Health Foundation (Funasa) in 1990, that became responsible for action and health and sanitation and 2010; previously national efforts to address rural sanitation and development such as the National Project for Rural Sanitation in 1980, and the Program for Rural Sanitation (ProRural) in 1990 (Funasa, 2019).

(20)

the Earth (Grupo da Terra – in Portuguese) – a collegiate body part of the Ministry of Health made of representatives of social movements – also became part of the team.

The PNSR took a participative approach that included, among other things, workshops, seminars and field work. The program has both an operational and a methodological part, encompassing measures to be taken as well as de definition of concepts and consolidation of knowledge, being grounded in four initial benchmarks – sanitation as a human right, sanitation as health promoting, sanitation and the end of extreme poverty, and sustainable and solidary rural development. Such benchmarks guided its formulation and will guide its implementation. Besides that, the guidelines and strategies brought by the PNSR are organized around three strategic lines of action: (I) management of services; (II) education and social participation; and, (III) technology1_.

1_{Given cultural differences and the specific traits of native communities, an subproject was developed with}

(21)

3. Method

The research questions posed by this thesis aim at examining alternative epistemologies in water and sanitation through Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR) formulation process, investigating its constitution, elements, narrative and tools, with a focus also on sustainability representations. To define a method, it is first necessary to establish a paradigm in which to ground methodological choices. Such choices relate to how the researcher understands different perceptions of reality and, therefore, knowledge-making processes. For that, the research can use deductive or inductive approaches, going from theory to findings in the first case, and from findings to theory in the second case (Bryman, 2012). These approaches are pervaded, according to Bryman (2012), by two important considerations: epistemological and ontological, which can be either positivist or interpretivist in the first case, and objectivist or constructivist in the second.

Notwithstanding specific features of these lines of though, Bryman (2012) defines that, in general terms, qualitative research usually assumes more deductive, interpretivist and constructivist positions. In this sense, qualitative research establishes a strong conceptual ground to understand context, concepts and individual causal relations, making use of different approaches (Bryman, 2012). The purpose of this thesis is to study epistemological processes imbedded in water and sanitation and new approaches brought up by the PNSR, including the construction of what makes for sustainability in the sector. With that in mind, the proposed method follows a qualitative research design based in interpretivist epistemological – that is, with attention in understanding human behavior, rather than explaning it – and constructivist ontological conceptions – which reads reality as a “continuous state of construction and reconstruction” by the social actors (Bryman, 2012, p. 34). Such assumptions are operationalized through a inductive process of reasoning, which gives more flexibility to define and redefine the terms of the research along the way. That means, the exploratory approach to subjective elements of PNSR’s formulation include in what ways knowledge was constructed and presented throughout these processes, expressed by its products, outcomes and the views of participants.

3.1. Case study approach

As presented above, the present thesis aims to study PNSR’s formulation process, making it a case study for the interplay between current and alternative epistemologies in water and sanitation. Yin (2009) differentiates a case study approach from other types of research design by the nature of the questions one tries to answer, with case studies usually addressing matters of “how” and “why”. In this sense, a case study has a more explanatory focus, dealing with “operational links needing to be traced over time” (Yin, 2009, p. 9). Eisenhardt (1999) highlights how case study is a strategy that aims to understand the dynamics within specific situations, which, according to Yin (2009), can be an entity, an event or a single individual. One of the most interesting features of case studies lays on its “intimate connection with empirical reality” (Glaser and Strauss, 1967 cited in Eisenhardt, 1999, p. 532), making it possible an in-depth investigation of a phenomenon and its context (Yin, 2009). In sum, to conduct a case study is to examine in detail a particular case (Bryman, 2012). Yin (2009) discusses how data in case studies comes from different sources, building up conclusions based on the triangulation of evidences, that include the contributions of theoretical prepositions.

(22)

Therefore, a case study approach involves a linear, but strong, iterative process (Eisenhardt, 1999; Yin, 2009). Yin (2009) defines five main components of case studies: study’s questions; study’s propositions; unit of analysis; logic between data and propositions; and the criteria used for analysing results.

The present research uses the definitions and scope of a case study to delimitate its approach. Given the research questions of this thesis, the unit of analysis is the PNSR, including the many components for its construction and final outcome. The study’s prepositions, as well as the logic and criteria used to guide analysis and discussions, are related to the theoretical framework, presented in the next chapter. Establishing a framework is important as it sets the bases for structuring results and findings, as well the discussions originating from them (Eisenhardt, 1999). With that in mind, this case study used qualitative research theory to guide the design, collection, analysis and discussion of data. An inductive process of reasoning was pursued in order to give space for the data to speak for itself, avoiding fitting the results to any specific theory, nonetheless using a framework that relates with the background of the study as a guide. For that, the thesis followed four main methodological steps: delimitation of a framework; document mapping; semi-structured interviews and content analysis.

As discussed before, even if essentially linear, such steps are mostly iterative, meaning its processes of constitution implies going back and forth between theory, data and analysis. Hence, the outcome includes steps that influence each other in multidimensional ways. In that sense, for example, the theoretical framework emerged from the study background – that is, the real-life context of the PNSR – and the inductive analysis of multiple sources of evidence, linking findings, theory and design simultaneously. To investigate epistemologies in the formulation of the PNSR and its connections with sustainability expressions, two procedures were used to collect information: document mapping from relevant sources and semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the program’s construction processes. The mapped documents included articles, reports, law texts, registers and materials of seminars and workshops, plus videos, in most cases made available on the webpage of the PNSR1_{, detailed} in Annex I.

3.2. Qualitative interviews with key actors

In opposition to quantifiable aims, qualitative research intends to penetrate the human part of a given phenomenon under study (Jacob & Furgerson, 2012). In that sense, Aberbach and Rockman (2002) indicate how useful interviews can be in the process of revealing, for example, the experience, thoughts and interpretations of a given set of people on a specific topic or event. In this same line, Rowley (2012) points out how interviews can play an important role in understanding situations from the perspective of key people involved in them. Indeed, one of the benefits of this method lies exactly in creating space for details to arise, as well ground for new insights from the researcher. The relationship between choices of theory and method must guide how interviews are designed, conducted and reported. As outlined earlier, this study follows an interpretivist and constructivist approach to conceptualize the nature of knowledge and reality, such positioning guided choices regarding interview methologies.

(23)

3.2.1. Semi-structure interviews

When the researcher has a rather clear focus, a semi-structure interview is recommended given the possibility of addressing more specific matters. According to Schensul and LeCompte (2013), one of the main purposes of semi-structured interviews is to identify patterns and themes related to events, factors and variables within one or multiple phenomenon. The interview then has a semi-fixed – in order to allow flexibility – schedule, directly related to the study research questions, that is, matters of already revealed importance. Stakeholders to whom conduct interviews include those affecting and/or being affected by any given process, that is, the social actors. Given its nationwide reaching and participative approach, the PNSR involved multiple actors with different backgrounds, including public agencies, public administrations, social movements, research instantiates, public universities, local associations and NGOs, among others. For the present study, the mapping of stakeholders was narrowed down to the main institutions responsible for the final formulation of the PNSR and operationalization of its constitution processes. Those included four main groups of actors, presented in Table 1.

Table 1 - Description of the four main institutions involved in the PNSR’s formulation.

National Health Foundation (Funasa) Federal institution that was assigned with the responsibility _{of formulating the PNSR. Funasa was established in 1991}

as a public and federal foundation linked to the Ministry of health. The foundation is responsible for actions regarding the prevention and strategies against diseases, sanitation, health education and service for poor populations, besides conducting research activities. In that sense, Funasa promotes actions that improve the quality of life of Brazilians, also fighting extreme poverty. Funasa has a diverse body of public employees, acting in different fields.

Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) Public university of the state of Minas Gerais in Southeast _{Brazil. Formed a partnership with Funasa for PNSR’s}

formulation, becoming the technical coordinator of the program’s constitution, and involving an interdisciplinary team of researchers, students and professors, mainly from the university’s engineering department.

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) Public foundation linked to the Ministry of health _{responsible for carrying scientific and technological}

research in the fields of health and social development. As an institution of national relevance and historical contribution to knowledge-making, it was an important partner in PNSR’s development and knowledge background.

Group of the Earth Collegiate body part of the Ministry of Health, constituted _{by representatives of social movements and public}

administrators of different natures, being responsible for participating in the formulation, evaluation and monitoring of public policies that involve populations of peasants, native and traditional communities, among others. The group works to integrate into public processes the political and technical knowledge of social movements, representing around 20 social organizations. It was included in the PNSR’s formulating team after a demonstration of interest and recognition of its relevance for the process.

(24)

Given the multiplicity of actors, backgrounds, and reaching represented by these four institutions and the focus of the present study in the formulation of the PNSR, as well as constrains in time and resources, 4 qualitative interviews were delimitated as the scope of this thesis, each one conducted with one actor of these institutions. The contacted interviewees hold coordination positions and were actively and intensively engaged in the many steps of PNSR’s constitution. Their participation in the interviews was voluntary, following an invitation made by e-mail and clear explanation of the research aims. The interviews followed an interview guide – presented in Annex II – with questions thought to address the main elements of the PNSR, but with the main intention of giving space for the interviewee to express his or her experience and perceptions. The encounters were conducted through the software Zoom and in Portuguese language. Table 2 presents the details of each interview.

Table 2 - Interviews conducted with representatives of the four main institutions involved in the PNSR’s formulation.

Institution Date Duration

Interviewee 1 (I01) Fiocruz 28th_{of April of 2020} _01:12:22

Interviewee 2 (I02) Funasa 5th_{of May of 2020} _01:00:22

Interviewee 3 (I03) UFMG 5th_{of May of 2020} _01:05:25

Interviewee 4 (I04) Group of the Earth 8th_{of May of 2020} _01:05:22

Although the interviews followed a guide, the interviewees had complete freedom to explore other topics, change the direction of the question and speak freely about issues they found interesting. In the beginning of the interview, matters of anonymity and confidentially were assured by the researcher and permission to record the interview was consented by the interviewees. Following the interpretative approach, some questions were added over the course of the interviews, as important topics were reveled throughout the conversation.

3.3. Content analysis

Content analysis is a common approach for the examination of documents and texts materials resulting from qualitative interviews, usually occurring through the identification of themes (Bryman, 2012). Preliminary identification of factors and domains can emerge from previous research, knowledge and experience of the researcher. In the present thesis, the preparetion for the interviews and identification of preliminary topics of discussion were based on the study of PNSR’s background, context and final policy report. According to Ryan and Bernard (2003) the identification of thematic categories makes it possible to describe, compare and explain ideas. The authors point out themes are the “manifestation of expressions in data” (p. 86). Saldaña (2009) approach this process as a progression between the real and the abstract, the particular and the general. While performing a content analysis, the researcher goes from smaller units, such as codes, aggregating these into categories, to finally get to themes and concepts, which will inform possible theories.

Since this study took an inductive approach, the identification of themes came mainly from the examination of data and relevant documents. The interviews were transcribed to a word document and the content analysis was conducted in the software Atlas.ti. The steps

(25)

implemented in the analysis were similar to those described by Bengtsson (2016): decontextualization, recontextualization, categorization, and compilation. In the decontextualization of data, the material was read through in order to provide the researcher with acquittance of its content and a primary identification of units of meaning. Since the study took a inductive approach, no codes were defined a priori, but ideas of topics of interest were highlighted according to preliminary readings of the PNSR’s final text and the considerations brought by the theoretical framework. The recontextualization involved reading again the material and double check the identified coded according to their relevance and connections with each other. Following to the categorization, codes were grouped according to their global meanings for the delimitation of categories – that were identified through aggregating a variety of other codes – and themes. The last step, the compilation, was the writing process. Through the identification of themes, it was possible to observe different the views and experiences of actor throughout the formulation of the PNSR, capturing notions of relative importance among topics of discussion and their relevance for the process as a whole.

3.4. Ethical considerations and limitations

Different authors advocate for quality criteria in qualitative research, especially given the multitude of possible perspectives over the social world. Two primary criteria to be mentioned include trustworthiness and authenticity. While authenticity relates to the broad political impact of the research, trustworthiness, includes four more objective subcriteria: credibility (best practices/accepted by the research community); transferability (“thick descriptions”/ transferability of results); dependability (records are kept intact and accessible); and, confirmability (free from personal bias) (Guba and Lincoln, 1985; 1994 cited in Bryman, 2012). Thus, issues concerning trustworthiness and authenticity are addressed by the methodological choices and descriptions made by the researcher, as well the process of scrutiny by which a thesis is subject to. Besides that, the present study aimed to inform clearly its epistemological and ontological conceptions of knowledge and reality, positioning the adopted method within the relevant literature and providing in depth descriptions of the process and its assumptions, including the procedures around qualitative interviews.

In relation to a constructivist approach specifically, criticism around this conception might relate to an allegedly narrow analytical focus and findings that are too context-dependent, possibly resulting trivial (Roulston, 2010). Similarly, Yin (2009) stress how a common concern with cases studies is its limitation in providing basis for scientific generalization. As an answer to that, the author explains case studies offer generalization of theoretical prepositions, that is, analytical generalization, in opposition to statistical generalization focused in enumerating frequencies. With that in mind, the present thesis understands its contributions within the domain of a case study, exposing and analyzing details of an event, and possibly offering analytical subsidies for learning in the field. The subjective role of the researcher in the interpretation of data is also taken into consideration, which led to a critical self-evaluation throughout the processes. It is acknowledged how data originating from the interviews represent partial and subjective views of interviewees, that together with documental analysis and support from the literature, help to compose a representation of a specific event, in this case, the formulation of the PNSR and its final product. Following these considerations, for this thesis, there is no objective truth to be reached, but a case to be explored in all its complexities, contradictions and possible learning outcomes

(26)

In relation to the means by which the interviews were conducted, one of the positive sides of remote interviews is the possibility of contacting geographically dispersed groups with little cost, which was particularly relevant given Brazil’s extension and location of actors. One of the downsides though can be related to a higher possibility in technical issues concerning connection and recording resources, besides the greater challenge in perceiving the body language of the participant. In this matter, the present study recognizes how the rapport and richness of the interaction might be jeopardized. Another limitation relates to the language of the interviews and the language of analysis. Translation of data segments were made by the researcher, being therefore subjective and based on personal skills. Besides that, the particularities of one language cannot always be translated to another without some losses. Additionally, a final limitation concerns the openness of the interviewees to share sensitive details to them, or disposition in deepening the discussion.

(27)

4. Theoretical framework

As shown in the trajectory of the water and sanitation sector in Brazil, the influence of hegemonic ideas coming from countries of the North followed the implementation of services since the origins of the sector in the country. Analyzing the historic legacy of water and sanitation in Brazil, Britto et al. (2012) highlights how technologic and administrative structures in place derive from a past of colonization and power relations that continues operating until present times. This thesis draws upon the idea that, starting in colonization, specific systems of thought established a dominant knowledge paradigm grounded in technocentric solutions and European scientific rationalities, symbols of progress and modernization. Together with global structures of power, sustained by political and economic asymmetries, such paradigm became hegemonic. In water and sanitation, as discussed in the background’s chapter, this paradigm included the dissemination of standardized solutions, enforced many times thought authoritarian and anti-democratic measures, not sensitive to local contexts and that ended-up aggravating inequalities.

Throughout this process, rural populations were systematically forgotten by authorities, which happened together with an overall devaluation of their ways living and local realizations. Considering that, the present study explores how dominant rationalities have possibly hindered different possibilities of thinking about water and sanitation and what could be other ways of approaching knowledge in the sector, that is, alternative epistemologies. In that sense, the theoretical framework works in guiding reflections on how the processes that established such hegemony, concentrating power around how knowledge is produced, transmitted, organized and institutionalized, represents an epistemological unbalance (Fornet-Betancourt, 2009a). By exposing how current power configurations were constructed throughout history by articulating Eurocentric paradigms of knowledge, it is possible to start understanding how the realizations and worldviews of excluded groups have been overlooked. Such considerations set the basis for the analysis of alternative epistemologies in the PNSR. Therefore, based on a decolonial and Latin-American political ecology framework, this chapter goes through on how colonization and the subjugation of ethnic groups were essential in establishing dominant rationalities, which justified exploitation of natural resources and the suppression of local identities not consonant with ideals of development. Such scenario characterizes the struggles of communities living in Rural Brazil, historically resisting political and economic interests sustained by global power structures and fighting for having their ways of living recognized. In that sense, the chapter also exposes how such historical forces have shaped rurality and the sector of water and sanitation, in the world as well as in Brazil, positioning the PNSR and the voices it represents.

4.1. Political ecology, decolonial thinking and the Latin-American perspective

The origins of political ecology can be traced back to the 1970’s, when growing concerns about environmental issues – propelled by economic and political changes coupled with perceptions about the limits to growth1_{– led to reflections combining political economy and ecology to} approach matters of access and control over resources (Peet, 2004). In this context, a new field

1_{The report entitled The Limits to Growth, launched in 1972 by the Club of Rome, marked the beginning of}

Sustainable life, not sustainable development - “Other” epistemologies in sanitation policy in Rural Brazil : The case of Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation