"We are Zambians—Don't Tell Us How to Fish!” Institutional Change, Power Relations and Conflicts in the Kafue Flats Fisheries in Zambia

Many scholars claim that open access due to the effective absence of state control is the major reason for the overuse of common-pool resources such as fisheries. Based on data from the Kafue Flats fisheries in Zambia, we argue that the main problem in open-access situations is the paradox of a state that is simultaneously absent and present: present in actions that dismantle local fishery institutions but absent when it comes to the ability to enforce the laws that might protect the resources. Thus, the state is present in the voice of immigrants from other parts of the country who use their Zambian citizenship to legitimize free access to the fisheries. But it is absent when the Department of Fisheries is not able to enforce its own formal rules or control these immigrants' activities. Local groups are unable to act collectively to reinstall new institutions due to the absence of formal law enforcement. This paper analyses this historic process of institutional change within the theoretical framework of New Institutionalism. We test the hypothesis that the main reason for the lack of local collective action in the Kafue Flats is ideology (the notion of citizenship) strengthening the bargaining power of external actors, who profit most from open access constellation

Crafting Our Own Rules: Constitutionality as a Bottom-Up Approach for the development of By-Laws in Zambia

This paper details the process of bottom-up crafting of by-laws to the state fishery laws in Zambia, the initial empirical case informing the development of the constitutionality concept. It explores the historical, political as well as environmental and economic conditions on which the process of sense of ownership of the institution building process came to be. The role of the researchers as well as the process of crafting new rules in a situation of an absent state but which is ideologically present as the owner of the resource are discussed. Furthermore, we underline that for this process the issue of bargaining power in communities that are very heterogeneous is a major challenge to a fair process for the crafting of institutions. The paper explains the main factors leading to what Haller et al. have labeled “constitutionality” addressing these power disparities. However, a clear examination of the process of the by-law crafting, including the content of the by-laws themselves, reveals that newly crafted institutions developed by local actors a) go beyond pure resource governance issues to include other areas related to fisheries (health and sanitation), b) address vital gender and power relations, and c) show high innovation potential to interrelate governance issues that are locally important but not addressed in fragmented state governance

The Implications of College Tuition Cost: Multiple Considerations

In the United States, it is the responsibility of the State to provide free public-school education for all children from K-12 grade. There is no obligation on the part of the government to provide higher education to all. This poster will address the issues and considerations of the cost of college tuition

Green Agendas and White Markets: The Coloniality of Agroecology in Senegal

Development actors in West Africa have been promoting agroecological farming as a solution to combat climate change and to create more sovereign food systems that enhance the autonomy of local smallholders. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the actual implementation of such programs and their potential to empower smallholders, especially in the West African region. Drawing on co-produced knowledge from anthropological fieldwork in Western Senegal, the case study of an alternative food network explores the interlinkages between the promotion of agroecology, anti-migration policies, and unequal power and market relations. Informed by decolonial political ecologies, the analysis reveals different layers of coloniality which complicate embodied effects on horticultural smallholders. The authors conclude that instead of fostering the emancipation of smallholders, development actors promote a labor-intensive and unprofitable way of farming that exploits local resources for the sake of green agendas and white markets. This article highlights the need for a critical reflection on the potential limitations of agroecology and calls for a more nuanced approach that considers the complex realities of smallholders in West Africa

Commons and peasant studies: Insights from social anthropology, human geography and agrarian economics

In Chapter 4, ‘Commons and peasant studies: insights from social anthropology, human geography and agrarian economics’, Tobias Haller, Karina Liechti and Stefan Mann discuss socio-cultural, economic and space-related systems and take an interdisciplinary social science perspective on the institutional change of the commons. They offer a broad overview of relevant approaches related to Swiss rural societies and commons studies in anthropology, human geography and agrarian economics. They explain the role that new institutionalism plays in the analysis, outline the work of Netting and Ostrom, and subsequently focus on institutional change and the role of bargaining power and ideology elaborated by Jean Ensminger (and revised by Tobias Haller), as well as the way power can be analysed from political ecology perspectives. They conclude by outlining the relevance of non-economic and identity utility for the maintenance of the commons, and reflect on resilience, vulnerability and bottom-up institution-building (constitutionality) in the ‘Swiss lab’

On the New Politics of Distribution

In this interview, conducted during Anthro-pology Talks 2015 at the University of Bern, James Ferguson engages with the key ideas guiding his thinking on new politics of distribution

Transformation and diversity: Synthesis of the case studies

Chapter 10, ‘Transformation and diversity: synthesis of the case studies’, provides a comparative analysis of the five commons regions discussed in the book. It outlines central points in the history of common property institutions, and their diversity focusing on central changes in politics and structural changes (development of state and bureaucracy, industrialisation, change in relative prices for agricultural and forest-related products and energy ages). The authors further discuss how political, economic and energy-related changes are currently affecting the five study regions. On the one hand, relative prices of common-pool resources are still decreasing, but on the other hand, pastures and forests are increasingly valued for their functional contribution to the ecosystem and landscape quality. Among the factors that explain local differences, they emphasise the role of history, political (power relations) and economic context, as well as culture and topography. The authors discuss the balancing strategies designed by commoners to adapt to the market context and show how the commoner’s organisations in Uri, Chur, Sarnen, Val d’Anniviers and Olivone are differently capable of balancing with market and state in terms of resilience and bargaining power. The chapter also offers a final conclusion regarding how the findings of this comparative study relate to global commons studies. It argues that Switzerland provides a lab for the bottom-up institution building by commoners’ organizations to cope with the challenges stemming from market and state