624e52f1c8669ff4720d1e5ab698bfc7 Currents_of_Water_Commons_Research_A_Review.pdf 0765cbb8fd42b708d5759257f9656e3c34009133 Currents_of_Water_Commons_Research_A_Review.pdf e511f954d09a4a747936d97851a13564532ed6bc986be8ddad8260ddadd79766 Currents_of_Water_Commons_Research_A_Review.pdf Title: Currents of Water Commons Research: A Review Subject: Since Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, research on the commons, and particularly on water commons, has expanded significantly in volume and theoretical diversity. This paper offers a scoping review of 61 'water commons' studies to identify theoretical strands and ways in which water commons are currently operationalised and problematised. First, the review reflects on the evolution of water commons research from the Ostromian – that is, more institutional – approach, towards one that is more critical, relational and social constructivist. The paper shows that recent contributions have the potential for both constituting an inflection point and expanding the Ostromian tradition. Second, the review identifies four interconnected ways of operationalising water commons, that is, as a resource, an organisation, a community and a process. It highlights a shift away from purely resource- and right-centric understandings towards more complex sociopolitical conceptualisations. Also, water commons are predominantly framed as responses to market- and state-driven governance failures, though warnings against romanticisation remind us of their limits in addressing large-scale challenges and internal power asymmetries. The analysis further identifies two major debates – on the role of the state and on the relationship between rights-based approaches and relational commons governance – and two emerging threads concerning commons endurance under external pressures and the ambivalent role of social movements. Overall, the review enriches our understanding of the literature on water commons beyond the ‘institutional vs. critical studies’ dichotomy, and sheds new light on the diverse ways in which scholars have empirically worked with, and on, water commons. Keywords: Water, commons, Ostrom, critical theory, commoning, definitions, governance Author: Sergio Villamayor-Tomas;Paulina Raniecka;Jampel Dell’Angelo Creator: Microsoft® Word 2019 Producer: Microsoft® Word 2019 CreationDate: Fri Jun 5 10:50:28 2026 CEST ModDate: Fri Jun 5 10:50:28 2026 CEST Custom Metadata: no Metadata Stream: yes Tagged: yes UserProperties: no Suspects: no Form: none JavaScript: no Pages: 25 Encrypted: no Page size: 595.32 x 841.92 pts (A4) Page rot: 0 File size: 475948 bytes Optimized: no PDF version: 1.7 name type encoding emb sub uni object ID ------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- --------- BCDEEE+Calibri TrueType WinAnsi yes yes no 6 0 BCDFEE+Calibri CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 10 0 TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT TrueType WinAnsi no no no 15 0 TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT CID TrueType Identity-H yes no yes 19 0 BCDGEE+Calibri-Bold TrueType WinAnsi yes yes no 25 0 BCDHEE+Calibri-Italic TrueType WinAnsi yes yes no 43 0 BCDIEE+Calibri-Italic CID TrueType Identity-H yes yes yes 53 0 Jhove (Rel. 1.28.0, 2023-05-18) Date: 2026-06-27 03:57:46 CEST RepresentationInformation: Currents_of_Water_Commons_Research_A_Review.pdf ReportingModule: PDF-hul, Rel. 1.12.4 (2023-03-16) LastModified: 2026-06-26 06:34:09 CEST Size: 475948 Format: PDF Version: 1.7 Status: Well-Formed and valid SignatureMatches: PDF-hul MIMEtype: application/pdf PDFMetadata: Objects: 691 FreeObjects: 547 IncrementalUpdates: 1 DocumentCatalog: ViewerPreferences: HideToolbar: false HideMenubar: false HideWindowUI: false FitWindow: false CenterWindow: false DisplayDocTitle: true NonFullScreenPageMode: UseNone Direction: L2R ViewArea: CropBox ViewClip: CropBox PrintArea: CropBox PageClip: CropBox PageLayout: SinglePage PageMode: UseNone Language: en-GB Info: Title: Currents of Water Commons Research: A Review Author: Sergio Villamayor-Tomas;Paulina Raniecka;Jampel Dell’Angelo Subject: Since Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, research on the commons, and particularly on water commons, has expanded significantly in volume and theoretical diversity. This paper offers a scoping review of 61 'water commons' studies to identify theoretical strands and ways in which water commons are currently operationalised and problematised. First, the review reflects on the evolution of water commons research from the Ostromian – that is, more institutional – approach, towards one that is more critical, relational and social constructivist. The paper shows that recent contributions have the potential for both constituting an inflection point and expanding the Ostromian tradition. Second, the review identifies four interconnected ways of operationalising water commons, that is, as a resource, an organisation, a community and a process. It highlights a shift away from purely resource- and right-centric understandings towards more complex sociopolitical conceptualisations. Also, water commons are predominantly framed as responses to market- and state-driven governance failures, though warnings against romanticisation remind us of their limits in addressing large-scale challenges and internal power asymmetries. The analysis further identifies two major debates – on the role of the state and on the relationship between rights-based approaches and relational commons governance – and two emerging threads concerning commons endurance under external pressures and the ambivalent role of social movements. Overall, the review enriches our understanding of the literature on water commons beyond the ‘institutional vs. critical studies’ dichotomy, and sheds new light on the diverse ways in which scholars have empirically worked with, and on, water commons. Keywords: Water, commons, Ostrom, critical theory, commoning, definitions, governance Creator: Microsoft® Word 2019 Producer: Microsoft® Word 2019 CreationDate: Fri Jun 05 10:50:28 CEST 2026 ModDate: Fri Jun 05 10:50:28 CEST 2026 ID: 0x91dba69be5c0564c9a2ed358f44e3025, 0x91dba69be5c0564c9a2ed358f44e3025 Filters: FilterPipeline: FlateDecode FilterPipeline: DCTDecode Images: Image: NisoImageMetadata: FormatName: image/jpg CompressionScheme: JPEG ImageWidth: 1334 ImageHeight: 83 ColorSpace: RGB BitsPerSample: 8 BitsPerSampleUnit: integer Interpolate: true Image: NisoImageMetadata: FormatName: image/jpg CompressionScheme: JPEG ImageWidth: 155 ImageHeight: 107 ColorSpace: RGB BitsPerSample: 8 BitsPerSampleUnit: integer Interpolate: true Image: NisoImageMetadata: FormatName: image/png ImageWidth: 90 ImageHeight: 33 ColorSpace: RGB BitsPerSample: 8 BitsPerSampleUnit: integer Filter: FlateDecode Interpolate: false Fonts: Type0: Font: BaseFont: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT Encoding: Identity-H ToUnicode: true Font: BaseFont: BCDIEE+Calibri-Italic Encoding: Identity-H ToUnicode: true Font: BaseFont: BCDFEE+Calibri Encoding: Identity-H ToUnicode: true TrueType: Font: Name: F1 BaseFont: BCDEEE+Calibri FontSubset: true FirstChar: 32 LastChar: 243 FontDescriptor: FontName: BCDEEE+Calibri Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -503, -250, 1240, 750 FontFile2: true Encoding: WinAnsiEncoding Font: Name: F5 BaseFont: BCDGEE+Calibri-Bold FontSubset: true FirstChar: 32 LastChar: 121 FontDescriptor: FontName: BCDGEE+Calibri-Bold Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -519, -250, 1263, 750 FontFile2: true Encoding: WinAnsiEncoding Font: Name: F6 BaseFont: BCDHEE+Calibri-Italic FontSubset: true FirstChar: 32 LastChar: 122 FontDescriptor: FontName: BCDHEE+Calibri-Italic Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -725, -250, 1260, 750 FontFile2: true Encoding: WinAnsiEncoding Font: Name: F3 BaseFont: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT FirstChar: 32 LastChar: 121 FontDescriptor: FontName: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -558, -216, 2000, 677 Encoding: WinAnsiEncoding CIDFontType2: Font: BaseFont: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT CIDSystemInfo: Registry: Adobe Registry: Identity Supplement: 0 FontDescriptor: FontName: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -558, -216, 2000, 677 FontFile2: true Font: BaseFont: BCDIEE+Calibri-Italic CIDSystemInfo: Registry: Adobe Registry: Identity Supplement: 0 FontDescriptor: FontName: BCDIEE+Calibri-Italic Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -725, -250, 1260, 750 FontFile2: true Font: BaseFont: BCDFEE+Calibri CIDSystemInfo: Registry: Adobe Registry: Identity Supplement: 0 FontDescriptor: FontName: BCDFEE+Calibri Flags: Nonsymbolic FontBBox: -503, -250, 1240, 750 FontFile2: true XMP: Microsoft® Word 2019Water, commons, Ostrom, critical theory, commoning, definitions, governance Currents of Water Commons Research: A ReviewSergio Villamayor-Tomas;Paulina Raniecka;Jampel Dell’AngeloSince Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, research on the commons, and particularly on water commons, has expanded significantly in volume and theoretical diversity. This paper offers a scoping review of 61 'water commons' studies to identify theoretical strands and ways in which water commons are currently operationalised and problematised. First, the review reflects on the evolution of water commons research from the Ostromian – that is, more institutional – approach, towards one that is more critical, relational and social constructivist. The paper shows that recent contributions have the potential for both constituting an inflection point and expanding the Ostromian tradition. Second, the review identifies four interconnected ways of operationalising water commons, that is, as a resource, an organisation, a community and a process. It highlights a shift away from purely resource- and right-centric understandings towards more complex sociopolitical conceptualisations. Also, water commons are predominantly framed as responses to market- and state-driven governance failures, though warnings against romanticisation remind us of their limits in addressing large-scale challenges and internal power asymmetries. The analysis further identifies two major debates – on the role of the state and on the relationship between rights-based approaches and relational commons governance – and two emerging threads concerning commons endurance under external pressures and the ambivalent role of social movements. Overall, the review enriches our understanding of the literature on water commons beyond the ‘institutional vs. critical studies’ dichotomy, and sheds new light on the diverse ways in which scholars have empirically worked with, and on, water commons. 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