Frances Cleaver

Paradoxes of Participation: Questioning Participatory Approaches to Development

This article suggests that the concepts underlying participatory approaches to development should be subject to greater critical analysis. Drawing on research on water resource management in sub-Saharan Africa, and on social theory concerning the recursive relationship between agency and structure, it illustrates the need for a more complex understanding of issues of efficiency and empowerment in participatory approaches. Particularly, two key concepts are examined: ideas about the nature and role of institutions ; and models of individual action . The article concludes by identifying the questions such an analysis raises about the relationships between community, social capital and the state. Copyright

Moral Ecological Rationality, Institutions and the Management of Common Property Resources

This article considers theories of collective action in relation to the management of communal water resources in Nkayi District, Zimbabwe. Taking a critical view of institutional explanations of common property resource management, it illustrates how the addition of social theory can enrich such approaches. The prevalence of rational choice premises in defining the problem of collective action and the persuasiveness of institutionalism in apparently offering solutions to it is questioned. The article rejects simple evolutionary theorizing about institutions in favour of an embedded approach that allows for complexity, for the social and historical location of collective action and for an examination of the interface between agent and structure. It is argued here that collective management of water supplies does exist but that it is more partial, changeable and evolving and less attributable to single factors than suggested in much of the literature.

Development through bricolage: rethinking institutions for natural resource management.

Acknowledgements. Preface 1. Getting Institutions Right: Interrogating Theory and Policy 2. Introducing Bricolage 3. The Way we have Always Done it 4. Plural Institutions New Arrangements, Old Inequalities? 5. Continuity and Change: Gendered Agency and Bricolage 6. Piecing Together Policy Knowledge: Promises and Pitfalls 7. Remapping the Institutional Landscape 8. Transforming Institutions? Index

Water governance and poverty: a framework for analysis

This paper engages with policy on meeting development goals for water through interventions, which promote good governance. Addressing an under-researched area, we propose a new analytical framework for understanding water governance, not as a set of abstract principles, but as interlinked processes with variable practical outcomes for poor people. The framework is informed by theories of governance, institutions and structuration, empirical research and field insights. We apply the framework to a case in south-western Tanzania, and we identify a range of issues for further research, particularly relating to water access for the poor.

Understanding Agency in Collective Action

Participatory approaches to natural resource management encompass ideas about the desirability of citizens actively engaging in the institutions, policies and discourses that shape their access to resources. Underpinning such approaches are assumptions about the nature of human agency. Purposive individual action is seen as instrumentally desirable as well as potentially radical and transformatory. Through participation in collective resource management it is claimed that people can re‐negotiate norms, challenge inequalities, claim their rights and extend their access. This paper draws on insights from theories of structuration, governmentality and gendered empowerment to explore understandings of how individual human agency shapes and is shaped by social relationships and institutions. It outlines six factors that constrain and enable the exercise of agency for different people; cosmologies, complex individual identities, the unequal interdependence of livelihoods, structure and voice, embodiment and emotionality. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications for research and development interventions.

Incentives and informal institutions: Gender and the management of water

In this paper I consider thecontribution that theories about common propertyresource management and policies relating toparticipation can make to our understanding ofcommunal water resource management. Common totheoretical and policy approaches are the ideas thatincentives are important in defining the problem ofcollective action and that institutions apparentlyoffer a solution to it. The gendered dynamics ofincentives and institutions are explored. This paperbriefly outlines theoretical approaches toinstitutions as solutions to collective actionproblems and indicates the linkages with policiesregarding participation in water resource management.It suggests that, whilst offering considerableinsights, such approaches are limited and may resultin policy prescriptions that do little to involve orempower women. In particular, I argue that themodeling of incentives is impoverished in itseconomism and its abstraction of the individual froma life world. I suggest that the conceptualization ofinstitutions is primarily an organizational one,which, whilst alluding to the role of norms,practices, and conventions, focuses primarily onformal manifestations of collective action; contracts,committees, and meetings. Where women‘s participationis concerned, I illustrate that incentives tocooperative may be devised from reproductive concernsand the minor exigencies of daily life (as well asfrom productive concerns) and that alternative modelsof institutions may better reflect the way in whichdecisions are made and implemented within a socialcontext.

Choice, complexity, and change: Gendered livelihoods and the management of water

This paper highlights some of thethemes elaborated by other authors in this specialissue. Critiquing prevailing policies on the groundsof sectoral bias, instrumental approaches toparticipation, and an inadequate understanding ofsocial context, I suggest that these detract from atruly gendered understanding of water resourcemanagement. Suggestions for further research andalternative analytical tools are pursued in thefollowing papers.

Institutional bricolage in community forestry: an agenda for future research

This chapter outlines the concept of institutional bricolage as a tool for understanding how community forest arrangements actually work. We characterise two contrasting schools of institutional thinking and show how bricolage belongs to a ‘critical institutionalist’ rather than a ‘mainstream institutionalist’ perspective. The key elements of bricolage are outlined to elaborate the concept. These are further explored through an examination of the different practices adopted by local actors in shaping institutional arrangements. Illustrations are drawn from studies of community forestry in Bolivia and Ecuador and areas for further work are identified.

Institutions, Security, and Pastoralism: Exploring the Limits of Hybridity

This article furthers our understanding of how state and citizens interact to produce local institutions and examines the effects of these processes. It brings critical institutional theory into engagement with ideas about everyday governance to analyze how hybrid arrangements are formed through bricolage. Such a perspective helps us to understand governance arrangements as both negotiated and structured, benefiting some and disadvantaging others. To explore these points the article tracks the evolution of the Sungusungu, a hybrid pastoralist security institution in the Usangu Plains, Tanzania. It also considers the wider implications of such hybrid arrangements for livelihoods, social inclusion, distributive justice, and citizenship. Cet article approfondit notre perception de la manière dont l’état et les citoyens interagissent lors de la création d’institutions locales et il examine également les conséquences de ces interactions. Nous instituons un dialogue entre la critique théorique institutionnelle et les idées sur la gouvernance au quotidien pour analyser de quelle manière les arrangements hybrides se forment. Une telle perspective de “bricolage institutionnel” se base sur des arrangements de gouvernance juxtaposant négociation et structure, au profit des uns et au désavantage des autres. Afin d’explorer ces idées, cet article retrace l’évolution de Sungusungu, une institution de gouvernance hybride pastorale dans les plaines de l’Usangu, en Tanzanie. Nous considérons également les implications au sens large de tels arrangements sur les phénomènes de subsistance, d’inclusion sociale, de justice distributive, et de citoyenneté.

ASR FORUM: ENGAGING WITH AFRICAN INFORMAL ECONOMIES

Abstract: This article furthers our understanding of how state and citizens interact to produce local institutions and examines the effects of these processes. It brings critical institutional theory into engagement with ideas about everyday governance to analyze how hybrid arrangements are formed through bricolage. Such a perspective helps us to understand governance arrangements as both negotiated and structured, benefiting some and disadvantaging others. To explore these points the article tracks the evolution of the Sungusungu, a hybrid pastoralist security institution in the Usangu Plains, Tanzania. It also considers the wider implications of such hybrid arrangements for livelihoods, social inclusion, distributive justice, and citizenship. Résumé: Cet article approfondit notre perception de la manière dont l’état et les citoyens interagissent lors de la création d’institutions locales et il examine également les conséquences de ces interactions. Nous instituons un dialogue entre la critique théorique institutionnelle et les idées sur la gouvernance au quotidien pour analyser de quelle manière les arrangements hybrides se forment. Une telle perspective de “bricolage institutionnel” se base sur des arrangements de gouvernance juxtaposant négociation et structure, au profit des uns et au désavantage des autres. Afin d’explorer ces idées, cet article retrace l’évolution de Sungusungu, une institution de gouvernance hybride pastorale dans les plaines de l’Usangu, en Tanzanie. Nous considérons également les implications au sens large de tels arrangements sur les phénomènes de subsistance, d’inclusion sociale, de justice distributive, et de citoyenneté.