Based on comparative case studies drawn from rural communitiesin both northern Thailand and southern Yunnan, China, this study associatesinstitutional transformation during the transition period with reshaped resourcemanagement practices at the local level. Evidence shows that driven by the two state'sdecentralization efforts and development intervention, the increasing involvementof market forces, new technological possibilities, intensified migration as well asintensified interaction with the outside world, local institutions in the two study areashad experienced dramatic change. This transformation process was characterized byincreased enclosure and explicit endowments, market-oriented incentives and decision-making patterns, increasing flexibility and increased adaptability.Evidence from the case studies also shows that, local institutions containedweaknesses when handling wide-scale and cross-boundary issues due to their informal,small scale, context-specific nature, especially when conflicts have been intensifiedby increasing market value and contested rights claim over natural resource broughtforth by extending marketiztion. At the same time, the extension of individualismand opportunism brought forth by market-oriented values and privatization policieshave threatened the functioning of the local institutions. Therefore, rekindling localinstitutions and integrating with formal decentralized institutional innovations in orderto build up a pluralist institutional framework, were critical in the two study areas.
展开▼
