Collective Action is now recognized as central to addressing the water governance challenge of delivering sustainable development and global environmental benefits. This book examines concepts and practices of collective action that have emerged in recent decades globally. Building on a Foucauldian conception of power, it provides an overview of collective action challenges involved in the sustainable management and development of global freshwater resources through case studies from Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. The case studies link community-based management of water resources with national decision-making landscapes, transboundary water governance, and global policy discussion on sustainable development, justice and water security. Power and politics are placed at the centre of collective action and water governance discourse, while addressing three core questions: how is collective action shaped by existing power structures and relationships at different scales? What are the kinds of tools and approaches that various actors can take and adopt towards more deliberative processes for collective action? And what are the anticipated outcomes for development processes, the environment and the global resource base of achieving collective action across scales?

Water Footprint Assessment is a young research field that considers how freshwater use, scarcity, and pollution relate to consumption, production, and trade patterns. This book presents a wide range of studies within this new field. It is argued that collective and coordinated action—at different scale levels and along all stages of commodity supply chains—is necessary to bring about more sustainable, efficient, and equitable water use. The presented studies range from farm to catchment and country level, and show how different actors along the supply chain of final commodities can contribute to more sustainable water use in the chain.

In the 1970s, the accepted environmental thinking was that overpopulation was destroying the earth. Prominent economists and environmentalists agreed that the only way to stem the tide was to impose restrictions on how we used resources, such as land, water, and fish, from either the free market or the government. This notion was upended by Elinor Ostrom, whose work to show that regular people could sustainably manage their community resources eventually won her the Nobel Prize. Ostrom’s revolutionary proposition fundamentally changed the way we think about environmental governance. In The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom, author Erik Nordman brings to life Ostrom’s brilliant mind. Half a century ago, she was rejected from doctoral programs because she was a woman; in 2009, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Her research challenged the long-held dogma championed by Garrett Hardin in his famous 1968 essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” which argued that only market forces or government regulation can prevent the degradation of common pool resources. The concept of the “Tragedy of the Commons” was built on scarcity and the assumption that individuals only act out of self-interest. Ostrom’s research proved that people can and do act in collective interest, coming from a place of shared abundance. Ostrom’s ideas about common resources have played out around the world, from Maine lobster fisheries, to ancient waterways in Spain, to taxicabs in Nairobi. In writing The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom, Nordman traveled extensively to interview community leaders and stakeholders who have spearheaded innovative resource-sharing systems, some new, some centuries old. Through expressing Ostrom’s ideas and research, he also reveals the remarkable story of her life. Ostrom broke barriers at a time when women were regularly excluded from academia and her research challenged conventional thinking. Elinor Ostrom proved that regular people can come together to act sustainably—if we let them. This message of shared collective action is more relevant than ever for solving today’s most pressing environmental problems.

Tackles one of the most enduring and contentious issues of positive political economy: common pool resource management.

Modern models of groundwater governance require a rethink of scale and jurisdictional boundaries. Using case studies and a gaming activity to explore the incentives and challenges to aquifer governance, this book demonstrates how the principles of unitization agreements, applied to aquifers, could provide a new approach to governance models.

Drawing on in-depth empirical research spanning a number of countries in Africa, Booth and Cammack's path-breaking book offers both an accessible overview of issues surrounding governance for development on the continent, whilst also offering a bold new alternative. In doing so, they controversially argue that externally imposed 'good governance' approaches make unrealistic assumptions about the choices leaders and officials are, in practice, able to make. As a result, reform initiatives and assistance programmes supported by donors regularly fail, while ignoring the potential for addressing the causes rather than the symptoms of this situation. In reality, the authors show, anti-developmental behaviours stem from unresolved - yet in principle soluble - collective action problems. Governance for Development in Africa offers a comprehensive and critical examination of the institutional barriers to economic and social progress in Africa, and makes a compelling plea for fresh policy thinking and new ways of envisioning so-called good governance.

Natural Resource Governance in Asia: From Collective Action to Resilience Thinking identifies key leverage points where interventions can be made surrounding current and future impacts of ongoing environmental and sociopolitical challenges. The book utilizes case studies from Asia, a key demographic for natural resource management, that can be applied globally in understanding solutions and the current state of knowledge in natural resource dynamics. Users will find valuable sections on community forestry and socioecological systems, community irrigation, competing water demand, robustness issues, climate change, and natural resource dynamics and challenges. This interdisciplinary tome on the topic is invaluable to researchers and policymakers alike. - Combines collective action and resilience thinking to help readers understand complex issues and challenges in natural resource management - Presents methods and case studies to validate theory in practice - Includes up-to-date research applied to current issues to address both current and future risks and uncertainties