Common‐pool resource governance and uneven food security: Regional resilience during the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1852

Abstract

AbstractThis paper deals with two principal questions, drawing closely on the experience of Ireland. First, it addresses a deficit in our knowledge of resource governance institutions and land tenure systems as moderators of the impact of famine. We have known for some time of the extent of common‐pool resource systems in districts of 19th‐century Ireland and wider Europe, but their role in determining levels of ecological risk exposure is less understood. Knowing that both food insecurity and common tenancy were higher in marginal Irish districts, this represents a gap in our understanding of the geographical impact of the Great Irish Famine. Second, although current thinking on common‐pool resource governance suggests that such systems were potentially robust to ecological stress, why did this not translate into greater resilience in Ireland? To make sense of this contradiction, we must consider both the local behaviour of ecological stressors and wider context of Irish colonialism. Using local clustering analysis and geographically weighted regression, we see how the impact of key stressors varied geographically. These findings suggest that analyses of the role of common‐pool resource governance in conferring ecological resilience must be tempered with a fuller appreciation of geopolitical context.