posted on 2024-09-05, 22:40authored byCraig A. Johnson
The central aim of this paper is to review the current understanding of how
institutional arrangements can either encourage or discourage the pursuit of
sustainable livelihoods. It explores the relationship between resources and capital,
examining the nature of property rights and regimes, looking at the ways in which
social exclusion affects the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods, and critiquing Common
Pool Resource (CPR) theory. It concludes that socially shared rules can encourage
sustainable livelihoods provided the rate at which individuals extract benefits from the
resource base remains relatively low, and distribution of benefits remains wide.
However, when such rules reinforce more narrow distributional patterns, livelihoods
can be profoundly unsustainable, irrespective of the physical state of the resource
base.
History
Publisher
IDS
Citation
Johnson, C.A. (1997) Rules, Norms and the Pursuit of Sustainable Livelihoods, IDS Working Paper 52, Brighton: IDS.