Central, Individual, or Collective Control?

Abstract

In this article, natural resource management is conceptualized as a social dilemma, a conflict between the short-term self-interest of users and the long-term collective interest of the user community. A self-interest versus community perspective is offered to explain individuals' decision making in resource dilemmas. The self-interest model assumes that users seek to maximize their personal benefits regardless of the collective implications. To foster sustainable use, it is necessary to restrict people's access to the resource either through controlling the resource centrally (centralization) or by creating a system of individual access (individualization). The alternative community model suggests that communities can foster self-restraint among users provided that they feel attached to their community. These two perspectives and their implications for natural resource management are systematically compared using findings from research on water conservation.