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Effects of Diverse Property Rights on Rural Neighbourhood Public Open Space (POS) Governance: Evidence from Sabah, Malaysia

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  • Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling

    (Urban and Regional Planning, UTM-Low Carbon Asia Research Centre, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia)

  • Pau Chung Leng

    (Urban and Regional Planning, UTM-Low Carbon Asia Research Centre, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia)

  • Chin Siong Ho

    (Urban and Regional Planning, UTM-Low Carbon Asia Research Centre, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia)

Abstract

There are severe issues of public open space (POS) underinvestment and overexploitation. However, few studies have been conducted on the property rights structure and its impacts on rural commons governance, specifically concerning local neighbourhood residential POS quality and sustainability. The social-ecological system framework and the new institutional economics theory were employed to examine the local diverse property rights system and its effects on the emergence of POS dilemmas. Rural commons covering neighbourhood residential Country Lease (CL) and Native Title (NT) POS from the districts of Kota Kinabalu and Penampang, Sabah Malaysia were selected. A mixed-method phenomenological case study, involving multi-stakeholders’ perspectives across public-private-user sectors, was employed. This study revealed four main interconnected property rights issues, including attenuated rights, incomplete rights, maladaptive rights, and security-based de facto perceptive rights, under the complex state-private regime, which incentivise the opportunistic behaviour of individuals in externalising POS commons dilemmas. The findings further inferred that the local diverse property rights issues and POS dilemmas caused, and are associated with, other rights issues and dilemmas, forming a rights-dilemmas nexus. Not only do the institutional failures actuate POS dilemmas, but the former also engender other forms of property rights failures, while the latter cause other POS dilemmas. This paper suggests policy and management insights to public officials, in which the importance of the institutional-social-POS behavioural factor and the re-engineering of POS governance via adaptive property rights realignment are emphasised.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling & Pau Chung Leng & Chin Siong Ho, 2019. "Effects of Diverse Property Rights on Rural Neighbourhood Public Open Space (POS) Governance: Evidence from Sabah, Malaysia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-33, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:7:y:2019:i:2:p:61-:d:240874
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    2. Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling & Nur Amiera binti Md Suhud & Pau Chung Leng & Lee Bak Yeo & Chin Tiong Cheng & Mohd Hamdan Haji Ahmad & Ak Mohd Rafiq Ak Matusin, 2021. "Factors Influencing Asia-Pacific Countries’ Success Level in Curbing COVID-19: A Review Using a Social–Ecological System (SES) Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-27, February.
    3. Ling, Gabriel Hoh Teck & Suhud, Nur Amiera binti Md & Leng, Pau Chung & Yeo, Lee Bak & Cheng, Chin Tiong & Ahmad, Mohd Hamdan Haji & Matusin, AK Mohd Rafiq AK, 2021. "Factors Influencing Asia-Pacific Countries’ Success Level in Curbing COVID-19: A Review Using a Social–Ecological System (SES) Framework," SocArXiv b9f2w, Center for Open Science.
    4. Danning Zhang & Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling & Siti Hajar binti Misnan & Minglu Fang, 2023. "A Systematic Review of Factors Influencing the Vitality of Public Open Spaces: A Novel Perspective Using Social–Ecological Model (SEM)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Wang, Yahua & Chen, Sicheng & Araral, Eduardo, 2021. "The mediated effects of urban proximity on collective action in the commons: Theory and evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    6. Ling, Gabriel Hoh Teck & Ho, Christina Mee Chyong, 2020. "Effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Social Behaviours: From a Social Dilemma Perspective," SocArXiv 8duvx, Center for Open Science.

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