56 3. Colorado River Basin water policy: using Bourdieu’s field theory in the environmental policy arena Brian F. O’Neill, Joan Cortinas Muñoz and Franck Poupeau This chapter explores the methodological application of the notion of social fields, as defined by Pierre Bourdieu, to water policy. The empirical theme we explore is the question of the policies necessary to manage water in the southwestern United States. This issue is of the utmost importance for the sustainability of several large metropolitan areas. In what follows, we begin by describing the historical context for readers who may be unaware. We then explain the methodological and analytical moves that facilitated our analysis. The chapter functions not so much as the presentation of successive empirical results, but as a discussion of a reflexive process that simultaneously also makes clear the core threads of analysis that we have more fully developed in other publications (Cortinas et al. 2016; Poupeau et al. 2016; O’Neill et al. 2018; Cortinas-Muñoz et al. 2019; Cortinas and Poupeau 2020; Poupeau et al. 2019). In this way, we attempt to remain true to Bourdieu’s own tradition of reflexive sociology, while pushing its boundaries. BOX 3.1 CRISIS CONTEXT Much of the contemporary interest in water in the American West is due to what climate scientists are calling a “megadrought.” Indeed, the drought has extended beyond 20 years. Paleoclimatic data shows that it is the worst of its kind in more than 1000 years (Williams et al. 2020). The fervor about society’s vulnerability (Barbier 2015; Boyer and Bernat 2020) in the region Brian F. O’Neill, Joan Cortinas Muñoz, and Franck Poupeau - 9781803924007 Downloaded from https://www.elgaronline.com/ at 02/05/2024 01:38:20PM by Joancortinasmunoz@gmail.com via JOAN CORTINAS MUNOZ