Effect of Social and Institutional Fragmentation on Collective Action in Peri-Urban Settings

Abstract

Voluntary collective action is essential to natural resource governance. In peri-urban settings, a complex behavioural and institutional matrix frames such action, and the net balance of incentives and disincentives, supports and impediments determines the likelihood of effective action on any issue. Coupled with this, each issue has its own biophysical and social characteristic, which intersects with the character of the community. Taken together these issues suggest the need for a realistic understanding of what will make collective action feasible, and design of institutional arrangements to manage the totality of the behavioural setting and the reality of the problem being addressed. Taking invasive species (and in particular invasive animals) as an example, this chapter explores the dynamic nature of the challenge of collective action in a peri-urban setting.