o-production is a rapidly growing endeavour now widely applied in the fields of health, development, education, climate change, industrial production and sustainability [1][2][3][4][5][6] . It broadly seeks to connect researchers with diverse societal actors to collaboratively and iteratively produce knowledge, action and societal change 1 . The promise is compelling: developing solutions through legitimate processes that draw on diverse and credible expertise with, by and for those best placed to use them 5,7,8 . Sustainability

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ABSTRACT. We enlarge the notion of institutional fit using theoretical approaches from New Institutionalism, including rational choice and strategic action, political ecology and constructivist approaches. These approaches are combined with ecological approaches (system and evolutionary ecology) focusing on feedback loops and change. We offer results drawn from a comparison of fit and misfit cases of institutional change in pastoral commons in four African floodplain contexts (Zambia, Cameroon, Tanzania (two cases). Cases of precolonial fit and misfit in the postcolonial past, as well as a case of institutional fit in the postcolonial phase, highlight important features, specifically, flexible institutions, leadership, and mutual economic benefit under specific relations of bargaining power of actors. We argue that only by combining otherwise conflicting approaches can we come to understand why institutional fit develops into misfit and back again.

Many scholars claim that open access due to the effective absence of state control is the major reason for the overuse of common-pool resources such as fisheries.

Discussions about the cultural dimensions of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa persist. Drawing on data on fish-for-sex deals between local Ila or Tonga women and immigrant fishermen in the Zambian Kafue Flats, we argue against the notion that traditional institutions governing extra-marital sexual relationships are responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS. We argue that fish-for-sex exchanges are based not on tradition, but on the economic opportunities provided by the fish trade in conditions of poverty and changing livelihoods. Stigmatization of women involved in fish-for-sex deals is, however, on the increase, since they are accused of spreading the disease in their community. Women's inability to follow the sexual prescriptions conveyed by HIV prevention programmes produces shame and moral distress, associated with the fear of social exclusion. In this situation, lubambo, a former customary regulation of extramarital sexual relations among the Ila, may provide women with legitimacy for sexual transactions. Additionally, customary marriage arrangements institutionally secure their access to fish.