Exploring the Causal Mechanism of Collective Action for Susttainable Resource Management

Atsushi Hanatani

No 23, Working Papers from JICA Research Institute

Abstract: Studies of commons management make it clear that collective action for resource management is a highly complex process in which the impact of different conditions often will vary according to physical and socio-economic contexts. This paper attempts to contribute to the understanding of this process by exploring the causal mechanism of collective action through an examination of the intervening variables that connect contextual and policy factors with resource management outcomes in an indirect way. Using four hypothetical causal variables – a) degree of resource dependence; b) predictability of benefit flows; c) possibility of sanctions application; and d) possibility of trust building – and relying on the institutionalist framework, a comparative institutional analysis is applied to the community-managed rural water supply systems of two Senegalese villages. The analysis demonstrates that collective action is possible even when some of the facilitating conditions normally associated with successful commons management – such as resource scarcity and small/homogeneous user groups – are missing. It thus confirms that intervening variables are important for understanding the broader process of institutional change for sustainable resource management, and consequently to the crafting of more suitable policy interventions.

Keywords: collective action; community-based resource management; motorized water supply system; ASUFOR; Senegal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10685/78 (text/html)
https://jicari.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_u ... &file_id=9&file_no=1 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jic:wpaper:23

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from JICA Research Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Japan International Cooperation Agency Library ().