Sustainable development as a community of practice: insights from rural water projects in Egypt

Abstract

A community-of-practice (CoP) approach is used to analyze rural water sustainability. In combining CoP with the capability approach (CA), a dichotomy is generated between project goals and project practices and whether they are locally or externally driven. Four possible project scenarios are developed from this framework: empowerment (local goals and practices), apprenticeship (local practices and external goals), assistencialism (external practices and local goals) and determinism (external goals and practices). A novel arrangement of indicators is used that incorporates economic (costs), environmental (natural resources) and engineering (skills) sustainability. A meta-synthesis of 23 Egyptian rural water projects indicates that sustainability potential should optimize environmental and engineering sustainability on one hand, with economic sustainability on the other. The policy implication is that managing a series of village-level water projects at a regional level best achieves both economy of scale and adequate cultivation of local practices. However, such a policy is only possible if national institutions enable decentralized regional governance. If institutions resist decentralization, institutional incentives are likely necessary to ensure a more enabling environment.

Evaluation of sustainable supply chain management performance: Indicators

“…In this paper, metasynthesis was used to determine the SSCM performance indicators (Sandelowski & Barroso, ). Metasynthesis is a qualitative method that, through a systematic approach, combines selected studies to discover new subjects and enhance knowledge (Armanios, ).…”

“…Metasynthesis is a qualitative method that, through a systematic approach, combines selected studies to discover new subjects and enhance knowledge (Armanios, 2012). The reason for choosing metasynthesis approach is that it can help discover the new and fundamental themes and metaphors by providing the researchers with a systematic frame and by combining different researches and consequently making it possible to have a comprehensive perspective toward issues (Serdarasan, 2013).…”

Identifying Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Water Environment Treatment Public‐Private Partnership Projects

“…Previous studies focused on the environmental aspects of sustainability in project deliverables while giving less attention to sustainable project management during project delivery [13]. Armanios [14] believed that if we are to possess a more complete and holistic view of sustainability, engineering sustainability needs to be considered and discussed more. At present, few investigations are available on the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects.…”

Sustainability of local renewable energy projects: A comprehensive framework and an empirical analysis on two islands

“…In another study from Indonesia the authors concluded that micro hydro projects perform well in most sustainability indicators except economic, as they do not have an economic scheme in place (Purwanto & Afifah, 2016). Armanios (2012) proposed three sets of indicators economic, engineering, and environmental to assess three village water projects in Egypt. The innovation of his approach is the use of a framework that includes the community‐of‐practice (CoP) approach and the capability approach (CA), while he distinguishes between project goals and practices.…”