Doctoral Dissertation Research: Collective Action for Solving Resource Dilemmas in a Rapidly Urbanizing Context

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Natural resource sustainability remains a key challenge exacerbated by climate uncertainty and continued resource exploitation for meeting development goals. Sustainable management of these resources necessitates coordinated efforts among stakeholders who interact closely with the resource. As the world is increasingly becoming urbanized, this shift impacts the way communities operate. Institutions, the formal and informal rules governing human behavior, are critical for communities to manage shared resources. When communities transition from rural to urban, the transition period coincides with uncertainty about which rules and regulations are current. This transitional uncertainty may impact how people interact and engage in collective action to manage their shared resources. While the role of rural and urban institutions in determining collective action for resource governance is well-researched, much less is understood about how institutional transitions resulting from urbanization affect collective action. Understanding these dynamics is essential for developing strategies to manage natural resources sustainably amid urban growth and development pressures. This project aims to understand how urban transitions influence collective decision making for shared groundwater governance – a key resource for meeting much of the world’s drinking water and irrigation needs. By employing semi-structured interviews with key resource users, document analysis and experimental surveys, the project investigates the relationship between urban transitions and propensity for collective action at the level of the community and the individual resource user. First, the project investigates institutional changes prompted by urbanization that aid or hinder shared management of groundwater. Second, the study empirically tests resource users’ reliance on collective action for coping with resource uncertainties as mediated by rural-urban institutional transitions. In doing so, this research advances understanding of the potential for collective action to address resource dilemmas in the context of rural-urban transition. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.