CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) Glossary

Glossary

This glossary provides common definitions of major terms, along with references to readings from which the definitions are derived.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Agency: Bureaucratic arm of the government, such as an Irrigation Department, Forestry Service etc.
New Institutional Economics: Agency relationship: when a principal delegates some rights - for example user rights over a resource - to an agent who is bound by a (formal or informal) contract to represent the principal's interests in return for payment of some kind (Eggertsson 1990).
Sociology: Purposeful action. This term implies that actors have the freedom to create, change and influence events (Bilton et al. 1996: 654).
Altruism: The principle of acting without selfish concern, in the interests of others (Bilton et al. 1996: 654).
Capital
Social Capital: The shared knowledge, understandings, norms, rules, and expectations about patterns of interactions that groups of individuals bring to a recurrent activity (Ostrom 1999); Social capital is the arrangement of human resources to improve flows of future income (Ostrom 1994: 527-8).; Social capital is created by individuals spending time and energy working with other individuals to find better ways of making possible the achievement of certain ends that in its absence would not be possible (Coleman et al.); Features of social organisation - such as networks and values, including tolerance, inclusion, reciprocity, participation and trust - that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit. Social capital inheres in the relations between and among actors. (UNDP 1997).; Social capital refers to the norms and networks that enable collective action (World Bank 2002); Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions (World Bank 2002); The social resources (networks, membership of groups, relationship of trust, access to wider institutions of society) upon which people draw in pursuit of livelihoods (Carney 1998:7)
Bonding social capital: Horizontal ties that give communities a sense of identity and common purpose (World Bank 2002).
Bridging social capital: Ties that transcend various social divides (e.g. religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status) (World Bank 2002).
Human capital: Human capital is the knowledge and skills that individuals bring to the solution of a problem (Ostrom 1994: 528).; The knowledge, skills, and experience of people that make them economically productive. Human capital can be increased by investing in education, health care, and job training (Soubbotina et al. 2000a).; The skills, knowledge, ability to labour and good health important to the ability to pursue different livelihood strategies (Carney 1998:7)
Physical capital: Produced asset: Buildings, machines, and technical equipment used in production plus inventories of raw materials, half-finished goods, and finished goods (Soubbotina et al. 2000b); Physical capital is the arrangement of material resources to improve flows of future incomes (Lachmann 1978).; The basic infrastructure (transport, shlter, water, energy and communications) and the production equipment and means which enable people to pursue their livelihoods (Carney 1998:7)
Natural capital: A stock of natural resources- such as land, water, and minerals- used for production. Can be either renewable or nonrenewable (Soubbotina et al. 2000c).; The natural resource stocks from which resource flows useful to livelihoods are derived (e.g land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, environmental resources)(Carney 1998:7)
Financial capital: The financial resource which are available to people (whether savings, supplies of credit or regular remittances or pensions) and which provide them with different livelihood options (Carney 1998:7)
Cultural capital: Refers to the extent to which individuals have absorbed the dominant culture. Associated with Pierre Bourdieu, who claimed that the greater degree of cultural capital individuals possessed (the more absorbed they were in the dominant culture), the more successful they would be in the educational system. (Bilton 1996:656).
CBNRM: community-based natural resource management, in which the government plays a relatively minor role
Collective action: "action taken by a group (either directly or on its behalf through an organization) in pursuit of members' perceived shared interests" (Marshall 1998); coordinated behavior of groups toward a common interest or purpose (Vermillion in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio ed. 2000); Collective action arises when the efforts of two or more individuals are needed to accomplish an outcome (Sandler 1992:1); Collective action arises when individuals join together to work for a collective good (Ensminger, 1992:30); Action undertaken in a relatively spontaneous way by a large number of people assembled together in a particular place or area. One of the most important forms of collective action is crowd behaviour. In crowds, individuals can seek to achieve objectives which in ordinary circumstances are denied to them (Giddens 1997:581).; The study of collective action examines the factors that motivate individuals to coordinate their activities to better their collective well-being. (Sandler 1992:19)
Collective Action Dilemma: The paralysis that can result when members of a group fail to produce a collective good due to free rider problems (McCay et al. 1999).
Co-management: "partnership arrangements in which government, the community of local resource users, external agents (non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions), and other resource stakeholders share the responsibility and authority for decision making over the management of a natural resource; it covers various partnership arrangements and degrees of power sharing and integration of local (informal, traditional, customary) and centralized government management systems" (Pomeroy in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio, 2000); refers to programs that seek to increase users' direct involvement in resource management in conjunction with a continuing role for the state at some level (Vedeld 1996; Hesseling 1996)
Culture: Meaning and social behavior transmitted by non-biological means (i.e. communication and imitation)(McCay et al., 1999).; The total lifestyle of a people from a particular social grouping, including all the ideas, symbols, preferences, and material objects that they share. (University of Richmond accessed 2002)
Decentralization: transfer of both decision-making authority and payment responsibility to lower levels of government; "systematic and rational dispersal of power, authority and responsibility from the central government to lower or local level institutions" (Pomeroy in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio ed. 2000); movement of management roles from higher or central levels to lower or local units within the same agency or ministry (Vermillion in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio, 2000)
Deconcentration: "the shifting of workload from central government ministry headquarters to staff located in offices outside of the national capital." (Rondinelli et al. 1989); transfer of authority and responsibility from the national government departments and agencies to regional, district and field offices of national government offices. Also referred to as administrative decentralization
Delegation: "passing of some authority and decision-making powers to local officials. The central government retains the right to overturn local decisions and can, at any time, take these powers back." (Pomeroy in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000); "transfers of authority to public corporations or special authorities outside the regular bureaucratic structure." (Ostrom et al. 1993)
Denationalization: refers to the selling to the public or to workers of government-owned assets or enterprises meant for the production of goods or services (Dahal 1996)
Deregulation: involves the dismantling of price controls, quotas, and barriers to entry so that market forces determine savings, investment, and consumption decisions of economic actors (Dahal 1996)
Devolution: transfer of responsibility and authority over natural resources from the state to non-governmental bodies, particularly user groups; "increased empowerment of local organizations with no direct government affiliation" (Maniates 1990); "strategy of governance prompted by external or domestic pressures to facilitate transfers of power closer to those who are most affected by the exercise of power" (Agrawal and Ostrom in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000); shift of responsibility and authority for resource management from the state to non-governmental bodies, which includes traditional institutions, the private sector and other organizations of civil society, such as herders' associations or village committees (Scoones 1995; Meinzen-Dick and Knox in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000); "transfer of power and responsibility for the performance of specified functions from the national to the local governments without reference back to central government. The nature of transfer is political (by legislation), in contrast to deconcentration's administrative; and the approach is territorial or geographical, in contrast to sectoral" (Ngaido in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000)
Externality: An external economy (diseconomy) is an event which confers an appreciable benefit (inflicts and appreciable damage) on some person or persons who were not fully consenting parties in reaching the decision or decisions which led directly or indirectly to the event in question (Meade, 1973).; Effects of a person's or firm's activities on others which are not compensated. Externalities can either hurt or benefit others- they can be negative or positive. One negative externality arises when a company pollutes the local environment to produce its goods and does not compensate the negatively affected local residents. Positive externalities can be produced through primary education- which benefits not only primary students but also society at large (Soubbotina, 2000d).
Frames, Framing, Frame Analysis: The concept of frames or framing is used in the contexts of some social movement analysis to mean patterns of perception and/or schemata of interpretation employed by social movement participants or social movement organizations viewed collectively. A frame might be imagined as a kind of template or filter that organizes how one processes new information encountered in the world. Frames organize that information based on previously held beliefs or previously shaped patterns of perception and interpretation. (University of Wisconsin, accessed 2002)
Governance: "the exercise of legitimate authority in transacting affairs, broadly understood to refer to the maintenance of social order through endogenously evolved sets of rules or authority structures, or some combination of locally evolved and externally imposed rules sets (Mearns 1996:300)"
Government: "exercise of influence and control, through law and coercion, over a political community, constituted into a state within a defined territory (Mearns, 1996)"
Institutions: "The rules of the game in a society or, more formally, the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction" (North, 1990); Institutions are not organizations - although they embrace them - but are best understood as a set of formal and informal rules, which are administered by organizations (North 1990); [Institutions are] like the 'rules of the game' in competitive sport. They are created by the participants and they set the social and physical parameters in which the game is played (Evans 1993).; encompasses both rules and organizations that shape and enforce these rules (Kirk, 1999); Sociology: A reciprocal typification of habitualized action by types of actors. (Berger 1967:72); A partial order for community life which serves specific purposes and which has the capacity to undergo further evolution independently. It offers a firm basis for shaping social actions over long periods of time (Schmoller von 1990:61).
Interest Group: Groups characterized by the will to influence political decision-making, in order to successfully implement certain political goals or values. They tend to be integrated into the political process, although groups may at times employ destructive methods in order to accomplish their goals (University of Virginia, accessed 2002).; A group of people who share common traits, attitudes, beliefs, and/or objectives who have formed a formal organization to serve specific common interests of the membership (Johnson, accessed 2002).
Joint management: see co-management
Legal pluralism: the multiple, often overlapping, and even contradictory bases for claims on a resource (e.g. state law, customary law, religious laws, project regulations, and local norms)
Local law: dominant local interpretations of customary law, religious law, and other relevant normative and legal frameworks (Benda-Beckmann, Benda-Beckmann, and Spiertz 1996)
Local level: usually the village or its equivalent
Management transfer: formal transfer of management responsibility over natural resources from the state to other organization, with the state withdrawing from its former role
NGOs: non-governmental organizations, usually referring to voluntary and non-profit organizations, but not membership organizations like user groups
Norms: Rules of conduct which specify appropriate behaviour in a given range of social contexts. A norm either prescribes a given type of behaviour, or forbids it. All human groups follow definite types of norm, which are always backed by sanctions of one kind or another - varying trom informal disapproval to physical punishment or execution (Giddens, 1997:583).
Organization: a team of individuals who seek some agreed upon collective goals within the framework of collective choice rules
Policies: includes instruments, rules, regulations on various levels, especially by government
Power: The ability of individuals, or the members of a group, to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Power is a pervasive aspect of all human relationships. Many conflicts in society are struggles over power, because how much power an individual or group is able to achieve governs how far they are able to put their wishes into practice at the expense of those of others. (Giddens 1997:584)
Privatization: transfer of rights and responsibilities from the public sector to private groups or individuals. This can include non-profit service organizations (grassroots or external NGOs) and for-profit firms (Uphoff 1998); "denotes transfers of responsibility for public functions to voluntary organizations or private enterprises." (Rondinelli and Nellis 1986, cited in Ostrom et al. 1993); transfer of responsibility for certain governmental functions to non-governmental organizations, voluntary organizations, community associations and private enterprises
Property rights: "the capacity to call upon the collective to stand behind one's claim to a benefit stream" (Bromley 1991:15, emphasis in original); "an enforceable authority to undertake particular actions in a specific domain" (Commons 1968); "actions that one individual can take in relation to other individuals regarding some "things" (Agrawal and Ostrom in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000); the claims, entitlements and related obligations among people regarding the use and disposition of a scarce resource (Furubotn and Pejovich 1972)" (Vermillion in Meinzen-Dick, Knox, Di Gregorio 2000)
System of property rights: A method of assigning to particular individuals, 'authority' to select, for specific goods, any use from an unprohibited class of uses" (Alchian 1965)
Public goods: Goods that are nonrival- consumption by one person does not reduce the supply available for others- and nonexcludable- people cannot be prevented from consuming them. These characteristics make it impossible to charge consumers for public goods, so the private sector is not interested in supplying them. Instead, they are often supplied by government. Public goods are usually national or local. Defense is a national public good- benefiting the entire population of a country. Rural roads are local public goods, benefiting a smaller group of people. There can also be global public goods, benefiting most of the world's population, for example global peace and security, or information needed to prevent global climate change. Providing such goods (and services) is a function of international organizations (Soubbotina et al. 2000).
Collective goods: Non-excludable goods (both tangible and abstract) from which a person may benefit without having to contribute to the production or maintenance of the good (McCay et al. 1999).
Non rivalry: Non rivalry of consumption (= indivisibility of benefits): A good in non rival when a unit of the good can be consumed by one individual without detracting, in the slightest, from the consumption opportunities still available to others from the same unit (Cornes and T. Sandler 1986:6).
Social groups: Collections of individuals who interact in systematic ways with one another. Groups may range from very small associations to large-scale organizations or societies. Whatever their size, it is a defining feature of a group that its members have an awareness of a common identity. Most of our lives are spent in group contact; in modern societies, most people belong to groups of many different types (Giddens 1997:585).
Social Structure: Patterns of interaction between individuals or groups. Social life does not happen in a random fashion. Most of our activities are structured: they are organized in a regular and repetitive way. Although the comparison can be misleading, it is handy to think of the social structure of a society as rather like the girders which underpin a building and hold it (Giddens 1997).
Structure: Refers generally to constructed frameworks and patterns of organisation which, in some way, constrain or direct human behaviour (Bilton et al. 1996:670).
State: (as defined in many political texts) the political unit that has been assigned a monopoly over the authoritative allocation of values in a society
Statutory law: law of the state; official government law
Subsidiarity: "principle requiring that the distribution of power and responsibility should be in favor of lower-level governmental institutions and smaller jurisdictions (Vanberg 1997) and political authority to be always allocated at the lowest possible institutional level, that is, close to the citizens, who are the ultimate sovereign. Moreover, it must be compatible with efficiency and accountability" (Swift 1995)
Sustainability: ability to be maintained over the long term; usually refers to environmental sustainability, but may also refer to organizational or financial aspects
Transactions Costs: Costs incurred for using the price mechanism for coordinating economic activity (Coase 1960).; "Transaction costs" must be defined to be all the costs which do not exist in a Robinson Crusoe economy….. just about all the conceivable costs in society except those associated with the physical processes of production and transportation (Cheung 1998).
Trust: Emphasising the fact that modern life requires people to rely on large-scale, abstract systems of knowledge, expertise and social organisation beyond their full understanding or control (see risk and reflexivity) (Bilton et al. 1996:671).
User groups: membership organizations composed primarily of natural resource users
Value: Ideas held by human individuals or groups about what is desirable, proper, good or bad. Differing values represent key aspects of variations in human culture. What individuals value is strongly influenced by the specific culture in which they happen to live (Giddens 1997:586).

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