Whither collective action? Upscaling collective actions, politics and basin management in the process of ‘legitimizing’ an informal groundwater economy

Abstract

This article examines different forms and levels of collective action by aquifer users in securing access to over-allocated groundwater resources using a case study of La Loma, Úbeda (Jaén, Spain), one of the largest olive-growing areas in the world. It shows how opportunities for collective water management increase at the basin level as bargaining spaces increase but also how political rent influences the institutional designs that emerge. The article identifies an opportunity to redesign the organizational and institutional configurations by both securing access to water and strengthening collaborative spaces at the basin level.