Methodology

No matter how ‘scientifically’ elaborated a water policy is, a state never really implements it.

Background

Joel Migdal has explored how a state trying to implement a rule unavoidably needs to strike compromises with a wealth of local actors who are also involved in establishing social control. This is especially true in the case of water because it is a vital resource that is accessible at a multitude of points over a territory.

Exploring the interface between the customary and informal institutions that spell out the rules of water management and the formal institutions also trying to achieve the same aims requires field intensive methodologies. Within this research, we have used several methods of qualitative research: participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentary research figured prominently here.

The Process

The field researchers use grounded theory to guide their work. This requires them to go back and forth between a theory and data because the questions they ask arise from the data they collect.

• A 2003 sample interview of a stakeholder leading to more questions for the research
• A 2004 sample interview is accessible here.
• A 2006 case study involved local people in discussion of water supply.

Interviews need to be supplemented by observations because the ‘rules in use’ need to be identified. These often do not appear anywhere in writing. They cannot be observed directly either. Only the activities that are actually carried out according to the ‘rules in use’ can be observed. The field researchers therefore proceed to extensive observations of activities surrounding water and these observations allow them to reconstruct the ‘working rules’ or ‘rules in use’. The concept of ‘rules in use’ was pioneered by Elinor Ostrom.

Outputs

We have a summary of the Zambia fieldwork, and an outline of the legal framework as PDF ; the legal framework for South Africa is also available.

Dr Zoe Wilson, head of the team at Kwazulu University has also contributed the following presentations in furtherance of the project:

• Water and Sanitation Crisis: innovations from Africa (6.9 Mb)
• SOWSSA: mapping complexity and contradictions (12 Mb)
• Hydropolitics of Water and Sanitation Delivery (10.8 Mb)

Paxina Chileshe at Newcastle University has contributed the following Paper presented at the Water Governance seminar series at the University of Bradford, February 2006:

• The modes of water resource appropriation in Zambia