The role of social structure for governing natural resources in decentralized political systems: Insights from governing a fishery in Indonesia

Abstract

This empirical research investigates whether distinct network configurations between actors facilitate or impede successful local natural resource governance in decentralized political systems. Network analysis is applied to disentangle the interaction between actors involved in a decentralized fishery governance system in Indonesia from a polycentric perspective. Using an embedded network case study design, the study examines whether common interaction patterns are observed in local study sites with more successful governance outcomes compared to study sites with less successful outcomes. Three common patterns are identified: (i) higher frequency of interaction of local actors, and (ii) stronger activity of local non‐governmental actors in the polycentric governance network are found in the sites with more successful outcomes. Furthermore, the results show (iii) a higher centralization of the local governance networks with rent‐seeking actors in strong brokerage positions where highly unsustainable resource use prevails. This points to the existence of a ‘dark side’ of brokerage.

Studying human–nature relationships through a network lens: A systematic review

“…Although not operationalized as part of the network and included in the formal network analysis, qualitative or quantitative information on the respective other dimension (e.g. environmental change or ecological conditions in SNA studies) can be included in the study design and analysis to obtain meaningful insights on human–nature relationships; for instance, to obtain understanding of the relation between social structure and the ability of governance actors to successfully deal with environmental change (Bodin, Sandström, et al, 2016; Gorris, Glaser, Idrus, & Yusuf, 2019). The focus on either the social or the ecological dimension limits, however, the discussion of social–ecological feedbacks and outcomes on the SES level to indirect measures and the capability of capturing emergent properties of the system.…”

Social Network Analysis for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH): Application in Governance of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment in India Using a Novel Validation Methodology

“…For recent applications of SNA on questions of governance in low-and middleincome countries, see e.g.,Brockhaus et al (2014),Andriamihaja et al (2019),Fischer et al (2019),Gorris et al (2019).4 In order to be consistent in terminology, for all the interviews, "small scale sanitation systems" were used to refer to decentralized STPs that serve between 10 and 1,000 households.…”

Untitled

“…This field of investigation has generated important new knowledge for environmental governance over the past two decades. Thus, for instance, Gorris et al (2019) and Gorris and Glaser (this issue) present a comparative analysis on different governance network structures and discuss the resulting capacities of governance networks. What such work on network states has generally lacked to date is the temporal dimension.…”

“…Additionally, with rising network size, reporting errors and omissions increase. Recent fieldwork (Gorris et al, 2019;Nagel, this issue) indicates that beyond a certain network size, a total network survey will suffer unacceptable data quality problems as the attention span and capacities of both interviewer and participants are increasingly overstretched. In small networks, on the other hand, ethical problems arise with the difficulties of guaranteeing anonymity to interviewees.…”

“…These include, for instance, the prohibition of destructive activities (e.g., bomb and poison fishing) by informal agreements, which are enforced locally (Gorris, 2016). Such dispersal of authority across the political system in combination with high degrees of overlap of responsibilities establishes a polycentric governance system that strongly relies on self-organized coordination and collaboration among the relevant actors (Andersson & Ostrom, 2008;Carlisle & Gruby, 2019;Gorris et al, 2019).…”