Abstract:

Abstract Water, both as a natural and a cultural phenomenon, is studied by various disciplines due to its multi-dimensional and multi[1]layered structure at the natural and societal levels. Thus, it offers unique opportunities to bridge between different geographies, disciplinary approaches and perspectives. However, instead of understanding this diversity as a potential, water studies are confined into disciplinary boundaries during evaluation of the water-related problems and each discipline seeks solutions within its scope of area of research. On the one hand, as Felix Guattari (1989) claimed that the logic of ecology (namely, relationship) is multi-dimensional. This study is an outcome of in-depth interviews held with professionals from different disciplines working on water. These interviews present the complex interconnected system of professionals’, in other words ecosystems of professionals, to identify their ecological understanding of the problem-potential-solution towards human-water relationship and their mental-physical[1]tactical methods against water-related-problems. Thus, this study aims to provide a holistic picture of the human - water dialectic of professionals with a transdisciplinary perspective. The study seeks answers to the following questions: What kind of ecosystem does professionals working on water reveal without disciplinary boundaries? What kind of solutions does this ecosystem offer responding to the disconnections in our relationship with water in the modern era? Rather than an exclusionary perspective, what opportunities does a transdisciplinary perspective provide for a sustainable future? When the interviews were evaluated, it matches with Guattari’s notion of ecology at three levels: mental, social, and environmental levels. The first group of professionals defined their relationship with water through sensory experiences on an individual basis that should be kept alive through local stories, myths and memories as well as daily routines and rituals. It is similar to Guattari’s mental ecology that refers to phenomenological constructs covering subjective and individual-based relationship with water. The second group of professionals argued that there was a social-political relationship between human and water in the broader urban reality and the main reason behind the recent problems with water was political. In Guattarian term, it is social ecology constructed by as social, ideological and cultural production that is significantly discussed by various critical social theorists.These interviewees suggested that the distrupted relationship can only be the renewed through activism, constructing public opinion, and activity-based reuse to evoke the sense of place. Another group of professionals emphasized the dynamics of water by analyzing and mapping of its nature, to return to the true ecology of water through physical arrangements and design, rather than focusing on who is in charge of disrupting the relationship with water. It matches with Guattari’s environmental ecology that refers to the physical and spatial organizations and processes constructing the relationship. Each ecological level is closely linked, synchronized and juxtaposed with each other. The professionals ecosystem sheds light on the transdisciplinary relationship with water from a holistic and transdisciplinary ecological perspective (from the mental, societal and environmental level. )A holistic approach to water requires combining different levels of ecology (or type of relationship) at the same time. As Guattari (1992) stated, there can be no change in mentalities without changes in the social and physical environment. Or, if the mental relationship does not reach the social level and not led a physical transformation, it will remain incomplete. Bringing water into daily life practices and routines, becoming a part of urban life at the social level, revitalizing memory, and planning it in such a way to regain its natural flow and ecology will lay the foundations of a sustainable and resilient relationship. A holistic management and planning approach will renew our relationship with water on an individual (subjective), social and physical level and provide clues to renew our relationship with the planet in a sustainable and resilient way. Considering the limitations of the study, it should be noted that the interviews only reflect the views of a group of professionals.

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