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A Methodological Framework for Empirical Analysis

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Water Governance in the Face of Global Change

Part of the book series: Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice ((WGCMP))

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Abstract

The theoretical framework introduced in Chap. 8 is a necessary but not sufficient condition for developing a profound understanding of transformation towards sustainability. Theoretical propositions should be supported by sound empirical evidence. An appropriate research design needs to capture as much of the complexity of processes in governance systems as possible. This suggests a comparative case-study approach and methodological pluralism. One problem arises: the processes of transformation and change occur over long time scales. Ideally longitudinal studies should be conducted that compare trajectories of change over decades. Alternatively, cases can be compared at different stages of development and transformative change. In order to compare insights from a range of cases and case study designs it is important to have a sound methodology and standardized data collection approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ostrom (2007) had 480 and Ostrom (2009) had 733 citations according to SCOPUS, 17.01.2015.

  2. 2.

    Michael Cox—personal communication and in preparation.

  3. 3.

    http://www.ifriresearch.net/.

  4. 4.

    Twin2Go (Coordinating twinning partnerships towards more adaptive governance in river basins) was a project funded under the 6th EU Framework Program. More information and access to the data from the different river basins can be found at: www.twin2go.uos.de.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Environmental Systems Research, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

    Claudia Pahl-Wostl

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  1. Claudia Pahl-Wostl
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Correspondence to Claudia Pahl-Wostl .

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Pahl-Wostl, C. (2015). A Methodological Framework for Empirical Analysis. In: Water Governance in the Face of Global Change. Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21855-7_9

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