Using power, mental model, and learning to analyze the evolution of water governance in Bangalore

Abstract

Over the last few decades processes of water governance have been characterized by a gradual evolution from “governance by unitary state” to “governance by partnerships.” However, there is limited understanding of how such shifts take place. The case of Bangalore's lakes is an interesting example of such a transition. In the past Bangalore's lakes have been governed by unitary state actors. But over time, this changed. Today a multiplicity of governance processes is associated with the lakes: state-dominated unitary-systems coexist with partnerships between state and nonstate actors. Therefore, in order to understand how governance by unitary state evolves into governance by partnerships, this article answers the following research question: “How did the governance of some of Bangalore's lakes evolve from a state-dominated, publicly governed model to one in which local communities have a much larger say?” Using data collected via semi-structured interviews and secondary research, this article argues that while processes of urbanization may indeed have contributed to changing the city's landscape, in more recent years, socio-political processes have contributed to governance transition: actor interactions and changing power dynamics interacted with processes of learning to bring about changes in mental models leading to change. This finding assumes significance in view of the fact there is limited research which demonstrates how these socio-scientific processes interact with each other for bringing about governance transition.