Local Institutions in Globalized Societies

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LINGS - Local INstitutions in Globalized Societies

is a comparative anthropological research project that aims to understand how pastoral communities in Namibia govern water. Over the last years the Namibian state has – following a global trend – partly assigned ownership and usage rights of its natural resources (water, forest and game) to rural communities. In the course of this decentralization process wells and the infrastructure necessary to secure water supply are handed over to local user associations. As a consequence of these globally initiated and nationally administered changes hundreds of communities have to develop new institutions to regulate the usage and distribution of water in a semi-arid environment.

The two major research objectives are:
1) To analyse how local institutions regulating water usage emerge at the intersection of local norms and global ideas of justice, gender equality and sustainability.
2) To determine under what conditions community-based water management is successfull, using a variety of social and economic indicators.

To achieve these goals we conduct extensive comparative field research in three localities within the Kunene Region - Fransfontein, Otwani and Okangwati - in Northwest Namibia. Additionally, the results are supplemented by a fourth field study that focuses on the emergence of global models of water governance and their influences on water management policies and practices in Namibia.