Belling the cat: Designing collective action institutions for natural resource management in the peri-urban interface

• 
  By Vishal Narain
  Professor

  Co-Authors
  Pranay Ranjan, Northern Arizona University, USA
  

  Journal : Urban Studies: an international journal for research in urban studies
  Publisher : Sage Publications

Article citation: Narain, V., & Ranjan, P. (2023). Belling the cat: Designing collective action institutions for natural resource management in the peri-urban interface. Urban Studies, 00420980231211681.

Abstract
Peri-urban spaces are experiencing tremendous growth in the Global South, which in turn has fuelled a suite of environmental and natural resource management challenges, including inequitable access to and conflicts over natural resources, and the existence of institutional lacunae. Against this backdrop, we examine how scholars study collective action institutions around natural resource management in peri-urban spaces, with a regional focus on South Asia, and present its implications for institutional design and development in peri-urban contexts. In order to do so, we use ‘organic institutions’ and ‘pragmatic institutions’– a type of institutional classification grounded in the origin of institutions, as a conceptual entry point. We find that less is known about the role of organic institutions in enabling collective action around natural resource management in peri-urban spaces, even though their understanding is key for efforts at building effective pragmatic institutions. The paper concludes that practitioners working in peri-urban spaces should invest resources into understanding underlying social differences and developing strategies to mobilise social groups, by developing an understanding of organic institutions in peri-urban spaces.