On 21 January 2020, Salomey Afrifa successfully defended her PhD thesis on 'Processes of Institutional Change: The Case of Small Town Water Supply Systems in Ghana'
The study:
- examined the contextual factors which constrain or enable institutional change;
- explained how institutional changes manifest in actual practices and what resources actors employ to frustrate or promote institutional change
- analysed the motivating factors and logic behind actors’ capacity to emerge as institutional entrepreneurs and change institutional arrangements
- explored ways in which the concepts of bricolage, translation and institutional entrepreneurship contribute to our understanding of institutional change
Findings from the case studies demonstrate that institutional entrepreneurs, through processes of bricolage and translation, recombine and modify existing institutional principles and practices. With these recombined institutions and practices, change agents are able to address some of the challenges that emerge in the process of transferring centrally designed water policies to participating communities.
The research finds that the local social and institutional context constrains actors’ understanding, interpretation and implementation of institutional change in the water sector. Yet, the constraining factors also enable institutional entrepreneurs to find solutions to pressures exerted by exogenous factors such as technological developments, economic conditions, shifts in state policies and power struggles. This has led to variation in how the NCWSP has been implemented across different communities in Ghana.
Photos and video of the defence
