The promise of common pool resource theory and the reality of commons projects
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23024136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fred Saunders (0000-0002-6112-0984, Södertörn University, corresponding author), Fred P Saunders |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 636 |
| Publication date | 2014-08-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of the Commons (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1875-0281 • E-ISSN: 1875-0281 |
| Publisher | Ubiquity Press, Ltd. (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.18352/bmgn-lchr.477 |
| OpenAlex | W4238827578 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 42 |
Commons projects, such as community-based natural resource management, have widespread appeal, which has enabled them to shrug off a mixed performance in practice. This paper discusses how the theoretical assumptions of common pool resource (CPR) theory may have inadvertently contributed to the unfulfilled expectations of commons projects. The paper argues that the individual ‘rational resource user’, encapsulated in the CPR design principles, struggles to provide clear direction for meaningful consideration of local norms, values and interests in commons projects. The focus of CPR theory on efficiency and functionality results in a tendency in commons projects to overlook how local conditions are forged through relations at multiple scales. Commonly politically complex and changing relations are reduced to institutional design problems based on deriving the incentives and disincentives of ‘rational resource users. The corollary is that CPR theory oversimplifies the project context that it is seeking to change because it offers little or no direction to deal with the social embeddedness of resource use or implications of different stratifications.
Business · Common-pool resource · Commons · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental resource management · Law and economics · Microeconomics · Political science · Resource (disambiguation) · Sociology · Tragedy of the commons · Agricultural Innovations and Practices · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Law · Philosophy
Village republics
Community-Based and -Driven Development
Institutions and the Environment
Moving beyond panaceas
A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas
Halting Degradation of Natural Resources
Governing the Commons
Social Capital Versus Social Theory
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance
The strategic pillars of communal natural resource management
Forests, Governance, and Sustainability
Participatory Development in the Presence of Endogenous Community Imperfections
The Logic of Collective Action
Understanding Institutional Diversity
Common pool resources and contextual factors
Social capital in community level environmental governance
Forests, Governance, and Sustainability
Institutional Transformation and Planning
What kinds of knowledge, knowing and learning are required for addressing resource dilemmas
Reinventing Institutions
Beyond Governance
Recentralizing While Decentralizing
Is Small Really Beautiful? Community-based Natural Resource Management in Malawi and Botswana
The Contested Role of Heterogeneity in Collective Action
Participatory development and empowerment
Development as institutional change
Desert Islands and Other Texts, 1953–1974
Conservation and community in the new South Africa
Political Ecology
Background on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework
Enchantment and Disenchantment
Property-Rights Regimes and Natural Resources
Engaging Simplifications
The Illusion of Equity
Heterogeneity, Group Size and Collective Action
Patronage or Participation? Community-based Natural Resource Management Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa
Beyond Regulations in Fisheries Management
Methodological Approaches to the Question of the Commons
Uncommon Ground
The Negation of Politics in Participatory Development Projects, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh
Moral Ecological Rationality, Institutions and the Management of Common Property Resources
Sustainable Governance of Common-Pool Resources
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,27 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2023 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |