Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research
Challenges of governance often constitute critical obstacles to efforts to equitably improve livelihoods in social-ecological systems. Yet, just as often, these challenges go unspoken, or are viewed as fixed parts of the context, beyond the scope of influence of agricultural, development, or natural...
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doaj-baf88f7be76b43e78ec9692083c673992020-11-24T21:02:06ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872017-03-01221910.5751/ES-08929-2201098929Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action researchJ. Marina. Apgar0Philippa J. Cohen1Blake D. Ratner2Sanjiv de Silva3Marie-Charlotte Buisson4Catherine Longley5Ram C. Bastakoti6Everisto Mapedza7formerly WorldFish, Penang, MalaysiaWorldFish, Honiara, Solomon IslandsWorldFish, Penang, MalaysiaInternational Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri LankaInternational Water Management Institute, New-Delhi, Indiaformerly WorldFish, Lusaka, ZambiaInternational Water Management Institute, Kathmandu, NepalInternational Water Management Institute, Pretoria, South AfricaChallenges of governance often constitute critical obstacles to efforts to equitably improve livelihoods in social-ecological systems. Yet, just as often, these challenges go unspoken, or are viewed as fixed parts of the context, beyond the scope of influence of agricultural, development, or natural resource management initiatives. What does it take to get governance obstacles and opportunities out in the open, creating the space for constructive dialogue and collective action that can help to address them? We respond to this question by comparing experiences of participatory action research (PAR) in coastal and floodplain systems in four countries (Zambia, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, and Cambodia) with a focus on understanding how to build more equitable governance arrangements. We found that governance improvement was often an implicit or secondary objective of initiatives that initially sought to address more technical natural resource or livelihood-related development challenges. We argue that using PAR principles of ownership, equity, shared analysis, and feedback built trust and helped to identify and act upon opportunities to address more difficult-to-shift dimensions of governance particularly in terms of stakeholder representation, distribution of authority, and accountability. Our findings suggest that the engaged and embedded approach of researcher-facilitators can help move from identifying opportunities for governance change to supporting stakeholders as they build more equitable governance arrangements.http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art9/aquatic agricultural systemsequityfacilitationgovernanceparticipatory action researchrepresentationtransformation |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
J. Marina. Apgar Philippa J. Cohen Blake D. Ratner Sanjiv de Silva Marie-Charlotte Buisson Catherine Longley Ram C. Bastakoti Everisto Mapedza |
spellingShingle |
J. Marina. Apgar Philippa J. Cohen Blake D. Ratner Sanjiv de Silva Marie-Charlotte Buisson Catherine Longley Ram C. Bastakoti Everisto Mapedza Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research Ecology and Society aquatic agricultural systems equity facilitation governance participatory action research representation transformation |
author_facet |
J. Marina. Apgar Philippa J. Cohen Blake D. Ratner Sanjiv de Silva Marie-Charlotte Buisson Catherine Longley Ram C. Bastakoti Everisto Mapedza |
author_sort |
J. Marina. Apgar |
title |
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
title_short |
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
title_full |
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
title_fullStr |
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
title_full_unstemmed |
Identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
title_sort |
identifying opportunities to improve governance of aquatic agricultural systems through participatory action research |
publisher |
Resilience Alliance |
series |
Ecology and Society |
issn |
1708-3087 |
publishDate |
2017-03-01 |
description |
Challenges of governance often constitute critical obstacles to efforts to equitably improve livelihoods in social-ecological systems. Yet, just as often, these challenges go unspoken, or are viewed as fixed parts of the context, beyond the scope of influence of agricultural, development, or natural resource management initiatives. What does it take to get governance obstacles and opportunities out in the open, creating the space for constructive dialogue and collective action that can help to address them? We respond to this question by comparing experiences of participatory action research (PAR) in coastal and floodplain systems in four countries (Zambia, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, and Cambodia) with a focus on understanding how to build more equitable governance arrangements. We found that governance improvement was often an implicit or secondary objective of initiatives that initially sought to address more technical natural resource or livelihood-related development challenges. We argue that using PAR principles of ownership, equity, shared analysis, and feedback built trust and helped to identify and act upon opportunities to address more difficult-to-shift dimensions of governance particularly in terms of stakeholder representation, distribution of authority, and accountability. Our findings suggest that the engaged and embedded approach of researcher-facilitators can help move from identifying opportunities for governance change to supporting stakeholders as they build more equitable governance arrangements. |
topic |
aquatic agricultural systems equity facilitation governance participatory action research representation transformation |
url |
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art9/ |
work_keys_str_mv |
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