Water Wars in Detroit: Custodianship and the Work of Institutional Renewal

We examine the role of custodianship in the renewal of the institution of public water services in Detroit, Michigan. Our longitudinal qualitative study begins prior to the 33,000 household water shutoffs of 2014 and follows this ongoing crisis through 2017. It reveals the complexity of the task of renewing neglected societal institutions suffering institutional entropy. We provide an in-depth study of the characteristics, motivations, and actions of institutional custodians-actors who maintain and enhance institutionalized practices. We inductively identify four groups of custodians ("operatives," "warriors," "converts," and "agnostics") who are catalyzed to act at different times, take on unique roles, and have distinct understandings of institutional rules. In doing so, we establish that custodianship is both distributed and heterogeneous, rather than static and homogeneous, and highlight key intersections across custodians. Our study also offers timely insights into resource access and affordability in marginalized communities, and the role of institutions in addressing grand challenges such as the emerging global water crisis.