Social capital, collective action, and communal grazing lands in Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID12960239
AuthorsMaia Call (0000-0002-6967-9627, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author), Pamela Jagger (0000-0001-7148-432X, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Year2017
Volume11
Issue2
Pages854-876
Publication date2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of the Commons (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1875-0281 • E-ISSN: 1875-0281
PublisherUbiquity Press, Ltd. (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.18352/ijc.761
PMID29377036
OpenAlexW2766170357
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited38

Recent scholars have found that collective action can be harnessed to sustainably manage common property, contrary to longstanding hypotheses that without effective external regulation community members will exploit communal resources. Researchers have also found that social capital, in addition to biophysical conditions and community attributes, is an important element of successful collective action. However, few studies exploring this topic have specifically examined communal grazing land, which is a critical component of rural livelihoods in many parts of the developing world. To address this gap, we explore the role that collective action plays in maintaining communal grazing lands through bridging, bonding, and linking social capital. In cases where the community does have communal grazing lands, we also explore the role of social capital in determining the condition of the land and the inclusiveness of access. Our analyses draw upon a community-level dataset composed of Uganda RePEAT survey data linked with high resolution gridded socio-environmental data. We observe that strong community bonds are associated with higher odds of successful collective action. However, increased links to external market forces may decrease the odds of successful collective action. These findings provide additional evidence for the complex relationship between social capital, collective action, and common property natural resource management

Biology · Business · Collective action · Common-pool resource · Economics · Microeconomics · Natural resource · Natural resource management · Political science · Politics · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Sustainability · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Ecology

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