Résumé
Modelling and models influence how water and its flows are understood and governed. It is thus essential to critically explore the roles that models play in producing or addressing uneven water distribution. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we discuss approaches to analysing models and modelling practices. We start by establishing that they deserve special attention because they produce knowledge of another nature than gained from observations and measurements -knowledge that abstracts, generalises and offers access to potential futures and remote places. The paper outlines the ways in which models can appear to have universal relevance because of how they are able to travel between contexts; it also stresses that the rationalisation they offer aligns with the idea of control that underpins the modern water paradigm and related techno-managerial interventions. Despite their widespread appeal and use, this introduction stresses that models remain rather opaque, difficult to understand and navigate for non-experts and even sometimes for experts. The paper goes on to show how, in the context of water research and governance, models derive authority from the networks and discourses that surround them as well as from the epistemic and non-epistemic values that are shared by particular modelling communities. We present three complementary entry points for engaging with models: first, by interrogating their function as tools of representation; second, by exploring how they are produced and operated within constellations of actors, practices, discourses and material artefacts; and third, by analysing how models are deployed to legitimise water governance decisions that are inherently political. We then expand our critical engagement with water modelling, placing it in the broader context of attacks on science and scientists, particularly in the context of rising post-truth politics. Finally, by discussing the papers in this Special Issue, we conclude that models not only contribute to reproducing water inequalities but that they can also be mobilised to understand and address them. We suggest that future critical water research on modelling should continue to ground models and modelling in local realities, while also being invested in models as knowledge practices. Future research would benefit from bringing the diverse approaches that are showcased in this Special Issue into conversation as they enable rich and plural accounts of the worlds of water modelling.