Governing the ungovernable: practices and circumstances of governance in the irrigation sector

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cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Instituteen_US
cg.contributor.crpWater, Land and Ecosystemsen_US
cg.coverage.countryGhanaen_US
cg.coverage.countryIndonesiaen_US
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2GHen_US
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2IDen_US
cg.coverage.regionWestern Africaen_US
cg.coverage.regionSouth-eastern Asiaen_US
cg.creator.identifierDiana Suhardiman: 0000-0001-7892-4148en_US
cg.identifier.wlethemeGender, Poverty and Institutionsen_US
cg.identifier.wlethemeLand and Water Productivityen_US
cg.issn2211-4491en_US
dc.contributor.authorVenot, Jean-Philippeen_US
dc.contributor.authorSuhardiman, Dianaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2015-03-17T14:39:56Zen_US
dc.date.available2015-03-17T14:39:56Zen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/58407en_US
dc.titleGoverning the ungovernable: practices and circumstances of governance in the irrigation sectoren_US
dcterms.abstractSince the early 2000s, governance has been at the core of the international water agenda. This has elicited calls for reforms in the irrigation sector, including efforts to address the problem of corruption. Nevertheless, the history of policy reform in the irrigation sector is one of repeated institutional refinements, which have hardly materialized into grounded policy measures and practices. Though international donors, policy makers, irrigation scholars and practitioners have long agreed to invest in the ‘soft issues’ of irrigation, most policy interventions have retained a focus on infrastructure-oriented development. This paper identifies decisive factors that preserve the status quo in irrigation development. We draw our analysis on empirical data from countries with a recent (Ghana, West Africa) and long (Indonesia) irrigation history. Beyond the idiosyncrasies of the two case studies that highlight that everyday practices are embedded in, and constrained by, existing institutional rules and mechanisms, but also contribute to shaping these, we make a broader theoretical point. We argue that the ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory that characterizes the irrigation sector is also rooted in the very concept of governance, which is fundamentally about “governing”, that is a practice aiming at steering people towards defined ends, and through different means such as infrastructure, management practices and policies.en_US
dcterms.accessRightsLimited Accessen_US
dcterms.bibliographicCitationVenot, J.-P.; Suhardiman, Diana. 2014. Governing the ungovernable: practices and circumstances of governance in the irrigation sector. International Journal of Water Governance, 2:41-60.en_US
dcterms.extentp. 41-60en_US
dcterms.issued2014en_US
dcterms.languageenen_US
dcterms.subjectirrigation managementen_US
dcterms.subjectdevelopmenten_US
dcterms.subjectgovernanceen_US
dcterms.subjectpolicy makingen_US
dcterms.subjectbureaucracyen_US
dcterms.subjectwater resourcesen_US
dcterms.subjectwater users associationsen_US
dcterms.subjectinvestmenten_US
dcterms.subjectreservoirsen_US
dcterms.subjectfarmersen_US
dcterms.subjectcase studiesen_US
dcterms.typeJournal Articleen_US

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