Governing Access to Essential Resources

Governing Access to Essential Resources

Edited by: Katharina Pistor and Olivier De Schutter

Columbia University Press | 2015

https://doi.org/10.7312/pist17278

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book argues that essential resources ought to be governed by a combination of Voice and Reflexivity. Voice is the ability of social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed. Reflexivity is the opportunity to question one's own preferences in light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective learning process. The contributors to this volume weigh the potential of Voice and Reflexivity against such alternatives as the pricing mechanism, property rights, common resource management, political might, or brute force.

This book argues that essential resources ought to be governed by a combination of Voice and Reflexivity: the ability of social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed and the opportunity to question one's own preferences in light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective learning process.

Author information

Katharina Pistor teaches at Columbia Law School and directs its Center on Global Legal Transformation. She is widely recognized for her scholarship on privatization, property rights, comparative corporate law and governance, and law and finance. In 2012, she was a co-awardee of the Max Planck Research Award for her work on international financial regulation.

Olivier De Schutter teaches international law at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and Sciences Po (Paris). A specialist in economic and social rights, he is a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food and currently serves as a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. He has held visiting professorships at Columbia University, New York University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

Peter Rosenblum, Bard College:
The pleasure in Katharina Pistor and Olivier De Schutter's book is that it presents materials of massive complexity—and obvious relevance—in an accessible manner. It is a book of interest to anyone who is struggling with (but refuses to be overwhelmed by) the implications of globalization, the resource curse, land grabs, and water scarcity. The editors and contributors explain the failings of a global system, but the book offers a way forward—not a one size that fits all solution, but elements to overcome entrenched problems and looming disasters.

Sanjay Reddy, New School for Social Research:
This landmark volume presents a unifying and analytical view of the crisis besetting humanity as a result of the way we collectively protect, produce, and distribute various resources so as to benefit some while leaving insufficient resources for others to fulfill their most basic requirements. Impressively, it goes beyond description and explanation to present sensible yet imaginative practical prescriptions.

Christian Lund, University of Copenhagen:
Resource economics is too important to be left to economists alone. If we want to understand the plight and potential of humankind's most vulnerable, we must also consider people's own ideas of justice and their capacity to voice and act on them politically. Governing Access to Essential Resources offers a rich, suggestive set of analytical entry points for this challenge.

Tania Murray Li, University of Toronto:
Since the market routinely fails to secure access to the resources essential for survival, what are the alternatives? The editors of this volume propose a strong normative framework to resolve the 'tragedy of exclusion.' The contributors, writing from different theoretical perspectives and with diverse empirical materials in mind, highlight the challenges. The result is a real exchange that pushes forward a crucial debate.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
CONTENTS Free access PDF PDF	v
Introduction Olivier De Schutter and Katharina Pistor Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	3
2. Land’s Essentiality and Land Governance Derek Hall Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	49
3. Governing Boundaries Edella Schlager Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	67
4. Property Theory, Essential Resources, and the Global Land Rush Hanoch Dagan Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	81
5. MultipliCity Nikhil Anand Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	106
6. Voice, Reflexivity, and Say Eva Pils Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	127
7. Tenure Security and Exclusion Processes in Peri-urban Areas and Rural Hinterlands of West African Cities Alain Durand-Lasserve Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	156
8. Redirecting Regulation? Michael B. Dwyer Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	186
9. Erosion of Essential Resources in Neoliberal India Vamsi Vakulabharanam Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	201
10. Comparing Water Access Regimes Under Conditions of Scarcity Michael Cox Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	214
11. Go with the Flow Vanessa Casado-Pérez Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	237
12. Ecology Scott McKenzie Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	251
13. Water Scarcity in Morocco John Hursh Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	270
14. Solving Transborder Water Issues in Changing Climate Scenarios of South Asia Nilhari Neupane Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	288
15. Voice and Reflexivity in Essential Resources Laila Macharia Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	302
16. Do Traditional Institutions Matter in Participatory Essential Resource Governance Systems in Zimbabwe? Manase Kudzai Chiweshe Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	316
17. Local Corporationss James Krueger Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	336
Epilogue Olivier De Schutter and Katharina Pistor Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	355
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	359
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	365

Governing Access to Essential Resources

Details

Formats