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Social Drivers of Water Utility Privatization in the United States: An Examination of the Presence of Variegated Neoliberal Strategies in the Water Utility Sector
Author(s) -
Greiner Patrick Trent
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/ruso.12099
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , census , neoliberalism (international relations) , water utility , logistic regression , injustice , order (exchange) , water sector , economic growth , public economics , economics , business , political science , sociology , water supply , demography , political economy , social science , environmental science , finance , statistics , population , environmental engineering , law , mathematics
This study uses a logistic regression analysis to investigate the social drivers of water utility privatization in the United States at the local level. In order to do so I combine data gathered from the Environmental Protection Agency's 2012 Safe Drinking Water Information System database and use it in conjunction with the U.S. census's 2008–12 county‐level demographic estimates. I use a logistic regression analysis in order to examine the relationship between theoretically relevant social factors and the probability of a privately owned or operated water system being located within a community. Key findings suggest that water utility privatization in the United States follows the logic of a variegated neoliberalism and constitutes a form of environmental injustice.