SOCIO-STRUCTURAL FORCES PREDICTING GLOBAL INEQUALITY OF WATER CONSUMPTION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY AND PATH MODEL

Abstract

Water quantity and use are important in the modern world system, as natural resources are exploited extensively by capitalist interests in industrially advanced, core nations while the lower strata of the world system in the economically peripheral countries are left with limited access to natural resources, particularly water resources. Despite the sociological importance of water resources, there is little research on global water usage from a world systems perspective. This study uses data from 174 countries to examine how socio-structural forces—world system position, per capita beef consumption, per capita energy consumption, and urbanization—affect water resource consumption as measured by per capita water footprint. Findings show that 50% of the variance in per capita water footprint is explained by these structural forces. Per capita beef consumption and per capita energy consumption have significant positive direct effects, and world system position has a significant indirect effect, on per capita water footprint, after controlling for other variables.