Farmer Participation and Institutional Capture in Common-Pool Resource Governance Reforms. The Case of Groundwater Management in California

• Published in: Society & natural resources Vol. 33; no. 12; pp. 1486 - 1507
• Main Authors: Méndez-Barrientos, Linda Estelí, DeVincentis, Alyssa, Rudnick, Jessica, Dahlquist-Willard, Ruth, Lowry, Bridget, Gould, Kennedy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 01-12-2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Case studies; Central government; Climate adaptation; farmer; Farmers; Farms; Governance; Groundwater; Groundwater management; Group identity; institutional change; Off-farm; Participation; Reforms; Resource management; Rural communities; Social networks; Social organization; State intervention; water policy; United States > US; California
• ISSN: 0894-1920; 1521-0723
• DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2020.1756548

Farmers are often critically important to the success of common-pool resource governance reforms. Nevertheless, their participation in these off-farm reform processes has received limited research attention. This paper investigates farmer participation in state-mandated common-pool resource governance. Using groundwater governance in California as a case study, we show that existing social networks, in combination with asymmetries in resource access within the farming community, and a collective identity framed against central government intervention, explain participation and representation in groundwater governance processes. An important governance paradox has emerged, in which groundwater-dependent users are unequally represented in the very groundwater management agencies that have been developed to protect them. This case sheds light on documented shortcomings of common-pool resource governance reforms and aims to inform the design of future reform processes.