The Types of Water Conflicts in an Irrigation System in Northern Mexico: Conflict as a Negative Link in Social Network Analysis

Ixtoc Marlo Rivera-Nuñez (), Diana Luque Agraz, Arthur D. Murphy, Eric C. Jones and Martha Alejandra Flores-Cuamea
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Ixtoc Marlo Rivera-Nuñez: Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo A.C., Hermosillo 83304, Mexico
Diana Luque Agraz: Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo A.C., Hermosillo 83304, Mexico
Arthur D. Murphy: Department of Anthropology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA
Eric C. Jones: School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Martha Alejandra Flores-Cuamea: Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo A.C., Hermosillo 83304, Mexico

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-23

Abstract: We used social network analysis (SNA) to identify the types of water-related conflicts between the users and members of the institutional arena of the Rio Mayo Irrigation District (RMID) within the ancestral territory of the Yoreme Mayo indigenous group in Sonora, northeastern Mexico. We combined ethnography with an analysis and visualization of bimodal networks that consisted of 118 users and their connections to the institutional arena’s 30 identified social actors who influence water management. Using a clustering algorithm, we identified four types of conflicts: (1) disputes between small- and large-scale farmers over (i) irrigation water and (ii) payments for water rights and land rental; (2) the struggle by large-scale farmers against the upper level of the water hierarchy, to obtain more water; (3) struggles by rural indigenous women against water providers, to conserve indigenous vernacular systems of managing water for domestic use; and (4) a “conflict” that turned out to be merely a structural remnant of the algorithm. We conclude that land- and water-grabbing in the RMID mainly affect indigenous small-scale farmers and that the combination of SNA and a clustering algorithm can identify the types of natural resource-related conflicts that might go undetected by other methodologies. However, SNA should in some cases be accompanied by a qualitative methodology.

Keywords: social network analysis; water-related conflicts; indigenous people; Yoreme Mayo; irrigation districts; Rio Mayo; irrigation systems; water insecurity; land tenure; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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