TY - JOUR
T1 - Shared cultural norms for justice in water institutions
T2 - Results from Fiji, Ecuador, Paraguay, New Zealand, and the U.S.
AU - Wutich, Amber
AU - York, Abigail
AU - Slade, Alexandra
AU - Stotts, Rhian
AU - Roberts, Christopher M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the in-country research directors, student researchers, and study participants who contributed with their time to this research. We are grateful to Tod Swanson for his help in interpreting findings from the Ecuador site. The U.S. site research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. SES-0345945 Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) and NSF Grant No. DEB-0423704 Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research. We received funding supporting the international research from the Arizona State University Late Lessons from Early History program . Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.
PY - 2012/12/30
Y1 - 2012/12/30
N2 - It is widely agreed that current institutions are insufficient to meet global water challenges, and extensive institutional reforms are needed. To achieve effective local water management, institutional rules should be congruent with local cultural norms. Conversely, a major potential challenge is posed by tensions between institutional rules and local cultural norms for justice. We propose and demonstrate a new approach to cross-cultural analysis designed to investigate this tension, which can assess when local cultural norms are likely to facilitate or impede the acceptance of specific institutional rules. Using data from 238 respondents in five global sites (in Fiji, Ecuador, Paraguay, New Zealand, and the U.S.) analyzed using cultural consensus analysis, we find evidence of culturally-shared norms of justice in water institutions in at least six domains: a human right to water, water governance, water access, environmental stewardship, aspects of water markets, and aspects of water quality and health. Additionally, local cultural models across sites differed on only two topics: (1) ownership and allocation and (2) restrictions and enforcement. Indigenous heritage is the best single predictor of views on controversial institutional rules dealing with water restrictions/enforcement and ownership/allocation. This approach can help build effective water management solutions by identifying cases in which specific institutional reforms are congruent with local cultural norms (or not), and when those will matter most.
AB - It is widely agreed that current institutions are insufficient to meet global water challenges, and extensive institutional reforms are needed. To achieve effective local water management, institutional rules should be congruent with local cultural norms. Conversely, a major potential challenge is posed by tensions between institutional rules and local cultural norms for justice. We propose and demonstrate a new approach to cross-cultural analysis designed to investigate this tension, which can assess when local cultural norms are likely to facilitate or impede the acceptance of specific institutional rules. Using data from 238 respondents in five global sites (in Fiji, Ecuador, Paraguay, New Zealand, and the U.S.) analyzed using cultural consensus analysis, we find evidence of culturally-shared norms of justice in water institutions in at least six domains: a human right to water, water governance, water access, environmental stewardship, aspects of water markets, and aspects of water quality and health. Additionally, local cultural models across sites differed on only two topics: (1) ownership and allocation and (2) restrictions and enforcement. Indigenous heritage is the best single predictor of views on controversial institutional rules dealing with water restrictions/enforcement and ownership/allocation. This approach can help build effective water management solutions by identifying cases in which specific institutional reforms are congruent with local cultural norms (or not), and when those will matter most.
KW - Cross-cultural
KW - Cultural consensus
KW - Fairness
KW - Institutions
KW - Justice
KW - Water
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.09.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.09.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 23083693
AN - SCOPUS:84869879146
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 113
SP - 370
EP - 376
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
ER -