Institutional Bricolage in Irrigation Governance in Rural Northwest China: Diversity, Legitimacy, and Persistence

Wang, Raymond Yu1; Cho, Tineng2; Wang, Oscar Bin3

2021-06-01

Water Alternatives-An Interdisciplinary Journal on Water Politics and Development   影响因子和分区

1965-0175

The emergence and development of diverse institutions is an important yet understudied subject in community-based irrigation governance. Drawing on empirical evidence gathered from 30 administrative villages located in the upstream Yellow River, northwest China, this paper builds on the theoretical perspective of institutional bricolage and adopts an interpretative approach to examining diversity, legitimacy and the persistence of different institutional modalities in the case-study area. It is shown that monocentric, polycentric, bureaucratic and individualised institutions emerge and co-exist in a relatively small area and have been sustained by various sources of legitimacy. Moreover, the process of legitimisation is heterogeneous, as the various institutional modalities have drawn their legitimacy from different sources. These may be both internal and external, synthesise and contradict simultaneously, and change as the irrigation institutions initiate, operate and evolve. The findings connect irrigation institutions with everyday practices, which are non-linear and uncertain, thus bringing about a more nuanced understanding of institutional bricolage and offering more in-depth explanations for the puzzles of why institutions demonstrate different characteristics in similar contexts and why some institutions persist when faced with challenges and tension.

Irrigation governance institutions bricolage legitimacy China

SCI ; SSCI

英语

第一 ; 通讯

National Natural Science Foundation of China[41801132] ; Humanities and Social Science Fund of the Ministry of Education of China[17YJCZH183] ; Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province[2018A030313964]

Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Water Resources

Environmental Studies ; Water Resources

WOS:000659682100003

WATER ALTERNATIVES ASSOC

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Ctr Social Sci, Shenzhen, Peoples R China
2.Sun Yat Sen Univ, Sch Govt, Guangzhou, Peoples R China
3.Univ Hong Kong, Dept Polit & Publ Adm, Hong Kong, Peoples R China

Wang, Raymond Yu,Cho, Tineng,Wang, Oscar Bin. Institutional Bricolage in Irrigation Governance in Rural Northwest China: Diversity, Legitimacy, and Persistence[J]. Water Alternatives-An Interdisciplinary Journal on Water Politics and Development,2021,14(2).

Wang, Raymond Yu,Cho, Tineng,&Wang, Oscar Bin.(2021).Institutional Bricolage in Irrigation Governance in Rural Northwest China: Diversity, Legitimacy, and Persistence.Water Alternatives-An Interdisciplinary Journal on Water Politics and Development,14(2).

Wang, Raymond Yu,et al."Institutional Bricolage in Irrigation Governance in Rural Northwest China: Diversity, Legitimacy, and Persistence".Water Alternatives-An Interdisciplinary Journal on Water Politics and Development 14.2(2021).