From shiny shoes to muddy reality: understanding how meso-state actors negotiate the implementation gap in participatory forest management

Kairu, Anne; Upton, Caroline; Huxham, Mark; Kotut, Kiplagat; Mbeche, Robert; Kairo, James

doi:10.1080/08941920.2017.1382628

From shiny shoes to muddy reality: understanding how meso-state actors negotiate the implementation gap in participatory forest management

Kairu, Anne; Upton, Caroline; Huxham, Mark; Kotut, Kiplagat; Mbeche, Robert; Kairo, James

Authors

Anne Kairu

Caroline Upton

Prof Mark Huxham M.Huxham@napier.ac.uk
Professor

Kiplagat Kotut

Robert Mbeche

James Kairo

Abstract

Recent research on participatory forest management (PFM) in the global south has highlighted the existence of a widespread “implementation gap” between the ambitious intent enshrined in legislation and the often partial, disappointing rollout of devolved forest governance on the ground. Here, through an ethnographic case study of forest officers (FOs) in Kenya, we draw on a framework of critical institutionalism to examine how key meso-level actors, or “interface bureaucrats,” negotiate and challenge this implementation gap in everyday forest governance. We go beyond consideration of institutional bricolage in isolation or as an aggregate category, to analyze how bricolage as aggregation, alteration, and/or articulation is variously driven, shaped, and constrained by FOs’ multiple accountabilities and agency. Our analysis highlights the locally specific, contingent, and mutually reinforcing nature of accountability, agency and bricolage, and their explanatory power in relation to the performance and nature of “actually existing” PFM.

Citation

Kairu, A., Upton, C., Huxham, M., Kotut, K., Mbeche, R., & Kairo, J. (2018). From shiny shoes to muddy reality: understanding how meso-state actors negotiate the implementation gap in participatory forest management. Society and Natural Resources, 31(1), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1382628

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 21, 2017
Online Publication Date	Nov 16, 2017
Publication Date	Jan 2, 2018
Deposit Date	Aug 29, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Nov 20, 2017
Journal	Society and Natural Resources
Print ISSN	0894-1920
Electronic ISSN	1521-0723
Publisher	Routledge
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	31
Issue	1
Pages	74-88
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1382628
Keywords	Accountability; agency; bricolage; critical institutionalism; ethnography; Kenya
Public URL	http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/978437