Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?

Elinor Ostrom's research has opened up a field of study into locally developed institutions for commons governance and has successfully disproved the notion that it is impossible for individuals to address collective problems cooperatively (Ostrom, 1993:110). South Africa has a semi-arid country wit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rust, Jennifer
Other Authors: Butler, Anthony
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Studies 2017
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613302394191872
access_status_str Open Access
author Rust, Jennifer
author2 Butler, Anthony
author_browse Butler, Anthony
Rust, Jennifer
author_facet Butler, Anthony
Rust, Jennifer
author_sort Rust, Jennifer
collection Thesis
description Elinor Ostrom's research has opened up a field of study into locally developed institutions for commons governance and has successfully disproved the notion that it is impossible for individuals to address collective problems cooperatively (Ostrom, 1993:110). South Africa has a semi-arid country with scarce water resources. Multiple diverse users such as farmers, private citizens, companies, and municipalities draw groundwater. Groundwater governance involves water allocation, regulation and management through socially acceptable institutions. This relationship between government and society is fundamentally a political one (Rogers, Hall, 2003). A primary concern of the new draft National Groundwater Strategy is governance and enabling the participatory processes involved (Department of Water and Sanitation, 2016). By drawing on Ostrom's principles of successful institutions to analyze groundwater governance challenges in South Africa it is evident that while her principles help to focus inquiry and largely reflect the literature on challenges to groundwater governance in South Africa. That said, Ostrom's principles may present an image of what aspects successful institutions tend to have, but these do not help us to develop a comprehensive understanding of the South African social and economic challenges to participatory institutional development. In South Africa the challenges of inequality and marginalization, and resulting social dynamics, as well as the issues of government capacity to be both a central actor and facilitative actor, and when each role is appropriate, are significant challenges to the sustainable governance of groundwater resources. The question of how to address these challenges must be addressed by government and all stakeholders if local participation is to be encouraged in South Africa.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22969
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:59.204Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Political Studies
publisherStr Department of Political Studies
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22969 Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa? Rust, Jennifer Butler, Anthony Political Science Elinor Ostrom's research has opened up a field of study into locally developed institutions for commons governance and has successfully disproved the notion that it is impossible for individuals to address collective problems cooperatively (Ostrom, 1993:110). South Africa has a semi-arid country with scarce water resources. Multiple diverse users such as farmers, private citizens, companies, and municipalities draw groundwater. Groundwater governance involves water allocation, regulation and management through socially acceptable institutions. This relationship between government and society is fundamentally a political one (Rogers, Hall, 2003). A primary concern of the new draft National Groundwater Strategy is governance and enabling the participatory processes involved (Department of Water and Sanitation, 2016). By drawing on Ostrom's principles of successful institutions to analyze groundwater governance challenges in South Africa it is evident that while her principles help to focus inquiry and largely reflect the literature on challenges to groundwater governance in South Africa. That said, Ostrom's principles may present an image of what aspects successful institutions tend to have, but these do not help us to develop a comprehensive understanding of the South African social and economic challenges to participatory institutional development. In South Africa the challenges of inequality and marginalization, and resulting social dynamics, as well as the issues of government capacity to be both a central actor and facilitative actor, and when each role is appropriate, are significant challenges to the sustainable governance of groundwater resources. The question of how to address these challenges must be addressed by government and all stakeholders if local participation is to be encouraged in South Africa. 2017-01-24T09:07:35Z 2017-01-24T09:07:35Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22969 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Political Science
Rust, Jennifer
Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
title_full Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
title_fullStr Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
title_full_unstemmed Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
title_short Do Elinor Ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in South Africa? What limits are there to using Ostrom's principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in South Africa?
title_sort do elinor ostroms principles of successful institutions illuminate the challenges to participation in groundwater governance in south africa what limits are there to using ostrom s principles to analyse groundwater governance challenged in south africa
topic Political Science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22969
work_keys_str_mv AT rustjennifer doelinorostromsprinciplesofsuccessfulinstitutionsilluminatethechallengestoparticipationingroundwatergovernanceinsouthafricawhatlimitsaretheretousingostromsprinciplestoanalysegroundwatergovernancechallengedinsouthafrica