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Book Book Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Dividing the commons: politics, policy, and culture in Botswana
Author:Peters, Pauline E.ISNI
Year:1994
Pages:277
Language:English
City of publisher:Charlottesville
Publisher:University Press of Virginia
ISBN:0813915473; 0813915511
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:land reform
water management
Abstract:This book is a detailed study of changes in rights to land and water in the pastoral economy of the Kgatleng District of southern Botswana. By the 1930s, faced with growing pressure on seasonally variable water supplies, Tswana livestock owners and colonial officials had invested in deep wells with motorized pumps. These so-called boreholes alleviated overall scarcity and reduced seasonal fluctuations in water supplies, but they also raised new issues of access and management. Debates over responsibility for the construction and maintenance of the boreholes and pumps took place within existing institutions and also gave rise to new ones. At the same time changes in the spatial and temporal configuration of water supplies led to new struggles over access to both water and pasture. The author reexamines theoretical debates over the role of property rights in political and economic change and demonstrates the importance of understanding policy as part of the process of development rather than as a 'deus ex machina'. The book is based on fieldwork carried out during the years 1979/1980.
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