Collective action in an exceptional governance context: a critical analysis of co-operative water management in the West Bank of Palestine

This thesis is a comparative study on local level water management in six villages in the West Bank of Palestine. It examines community-based management of local freshwater resources in two groups of villages, which correspond to two geopolitical zones set up under the Oslo Peace Accords—one marked by more acute exceptional governance conditions (Area C villages), and the other marked by “minimal” exceptional governance conditions (Area A villages). More specifically, it critically examines these six collective action institutions as embedded within wider institutional and power structures. While this study takes a multi-scalar approach, it specifically seeks to understand the micro-scale dynamics that characterize these collective action institutions. It also seeks to understand the ways in which these dynamics interact with meso-scale (Palestinian Authority) and macro-scale (Israeli state) power—framed as exceptional governance. This study comprises a two-fold attempt: to contribute to a burgeoning body of literature on local level resource management in Palestine; as well as to extend the vast literature on collective action in local resource management around the world to include settings of atypical governance—specifically ones in which sovereignty is compromised. The research findings illuminate that macro-scale power facilitates more successful collective action outcomes in Area C villages. The findings also illuminate that meso-scale power hinders successful collective action in several ways: by imposing co-management arrangements that hinder collective action outcomes and reproduce intra-community inequalities—while simultaneously concealing the lingering presence of Israeli control over their water resources.