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Browsing by Author "Freeman, David M., advisor"

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    Reregulating the flows of the Arkansas River: comparing forms of common pool resource organizations
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Lepper, Troy, author; Freeman, David M., advisor
    What sociological attributes characterize the form of an enduring social organization that empowers individually rational self-interested actors to provide themselves with a common property resource and collective good? In order to address this research question, the analyst compared three common property resource and collective goods organizations for water management located in the Arkansas River basin of Colorado to an integrated ideal type model combining the work of David Freeman and Elinor Ostrom. It was the objective of this research to employ empirical observations while giving consideration to existing common property resource theories in an effort to formulate new theory. The three organizations being studied in this research were: (1) The Arkansas River Water Bank Pilot Program, (2) The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, (3) The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Management Association. A brief overview of the findings were as follows: (1) The Arkansas River Water Bank Pilot Program failed to show the characteristics that the analyst's integrated ideal type model would suggest were important to the creation of a long-enduring organization. The pilot program also failed to generate local interest. (2) The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District had some attributes of the integrated ideal type model, and is believed to have been partially successful for this reason. This organization will require further observation in the future to see just how successful it will be. (3) The Lower Arkansas Water Management Association had virtually all the characteristics of the integrated ideal type model. It was the only organization studied that should be considered a success story, success being defined by member support for the organization and the capacity of that organization to re-regulate flows on the Arkansas River. Implications for policy and theory are also addressed in this dissertation. The conceptual "ideal type" models do identify variables and relationships that can be associated with success and failure of social organizational experiences in the Arkansas Valley. The empirical observations of the three valley organizations do support aspects of the conceptual models found in the literature. Additionally, new theoretical propositions will be advanced.
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    Wildlife habitat and agricultural commodities: organizing a common property resource in northern Colorado's Phantom Canyon
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2001) Epperson, Annie, author; Freeman, David M., advisor; Taylor, Peter Leigh, committee member; Smith, Freeman M., committee member
    Colorado surface water, an intensively-managed common property resource, has been allocated to serve primarily agricultural and municipal needs rather than ecological needs. This thesis inductively explores a case study in which two organizations, a mutual irrigation company (North Poudre Irrigation Company) which distributes common property irrigation water, and an environmental organization (The Nature Conservancy) protecting habitat for fish and wildlife, a collective good, forged a relationship. This organizational arrangement produces instream flows for habitat during fall, winter, and spring months, transcending individual rationality and creating organizational rationality as an agent of social and environmental change. Organizational variables, synthesized from the work of Elinor Ostrom (1990) and David Freeman (1989), are proposed as necessary for the successful creation of social capital in the form of an agreement between the two organizations. Qualitative methods, using in-depth interviews and document review, showed that the expected organizational variables were indeed present. Clear boundaries, equitable rules, and local control, were shown to contribute to the social construction of the agreement which resulted in the provision of a new good, with properties of both a collective good and a common property resource.