UC Merced

Managing the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus for sustainability is one of the grand challenges of the 21st century, representing a critical space for social change. In recognition of the inadequacy of conventional approaches to WEF nexus research and management and to decolonize the sustainability movement, this dissertation contributes a variety of radical and social science approaches to nexus research. As a complex socio-environmental system, the dissertation broadly asks how the broader political-economic system influences the WEF nexus. A mixed methods case study of the rural industrialized WEF nexus of Kern County, CA, was conducted. The case study moves beyond technical explanations and solutions typical in WEF nexus research and management by conceptualizing local socio-environmental processes as embedded within and operating according to broader patterns and relations of domination stemming from the global economic system of capitalism. Key contributions of this dissertation are its focus on water pollution stemming from nexus processes, critical theoretical explanations for the behavior of the nexus as a complex socio-environmental system, and social dimensions of the WEF nexus. Each chapter of this dissertation, following chapter one introduction, contributes answers to the broad research question, fills gaps in WEF nexus research, and provides complimentary insights relevant to the WEF nexus for sustainability management.

Chapter two of the dissertation joins the limits to growth to Marx's metabolic rift theory as the theoretical frame to investigate and explain water pollution stemming from the rural nexus industries of fossil fuel development and industrial agriculture using nexus industry-related chemicals, spatial analysis, and CA’s public health goal safety thresholds. The results showed that the limits to nexus industry growth have been exceeded and that nexus industry pollution exposure risk increases with proximity to nexus industries. The limits to growth explained that the rural industrialized nexus of Kern County is producing pollution exposure risk stemming from three main complex systemic functions within the demands for infinite industrial expansion and the ecological limits for ecosystem renewal. On the other hand, Marx's metabolic rift theory provided qualitative explanations for the spatial analysis that showed pollution exposure risk increased with proximity to nexus industry sources of pollution, thus symbolizing the metabolic rift as a water quality crisis of capitalism and a need for social change. The pollution exposure risk zones provided a region to engage with the local community for investigating local social dimensions in the nexus in subsequent research.

Chapter three evaluates the two interdependent dimensions of sense of place, place attachment and place meaning, as drivers of perceptions of the impacts of industrial agriculture and fossil fuel development in the pollution exposure risk zones delineated in chapter two. Methods of analysis include factor analysis, bi-variate correlation, comparison of the perceptions of impacts between the two industries, and theoretical explanations for the results in the discussion section. Two key findings of chapter three are that nexus industries have shaped place meaning and that, while place attachment appears to be weak due to environmental alienation, it is rooted in nexus industries, particularly the fossil fuel industry. The chapter discusses the implications of the results for sustainability management and concludes with strategies to build support for sustainability policy. The strategies include directing funds from Kern County's renewable energy industry to local sectors of society, implementing regenerative agriculture, cooperative management, and nurturing place meaning as aligned with nature's restorative quality.

Chapter four includes a spatial analysis of tap water pollution and explores the social dimensions of experience and rationality in the rural industrialized WEF nexus using critical thematic analysis and a green criminology lens. The chapter contributes a radical approach to WEF nexus research and ultimately suggests a redefined version of the UN's sustainable development goal 6 – clean water and sanitation. The chapter provided evidence that industrial agriculture and fossil fuel development are producing harm (green crime) in the form of ecological disorganization, environmental injustice victimization, and unequal ecological exchange. The chapter also problematizes economic rationale in sustainable "development" and as a local social dimension in the WEF nexus, with the nexus representing the treadmill of production. Evidence from the case study provides the basis for a critique of the sustainable development goals based on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit as a neoliberal articulation of sustainable development. A key takeaway from chapter four is that environmental problems in the WEF nexus and sustainability cannot be reduced to capitalism alone because the logic, or rationale, of geopolitics also drives the problems. Redefining the sustainable development goals to attain sustainability must also take on the enormous task of transforming the logic and rationalization of individuals. Additional key takeaways from this chapter include the need for scientific thresholds for water quality in the sustainable development goals and a list of target chemicals for water quality monitoring related to rural WEF nexus industries. Further green crime case studies of the rural WEF nexus are also advised to build momentum for support for social change.