IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v172y2025ics1389934125000048.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing actor-centered power theory through actor typology: Insights from community-based conservation in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Jiacheng
  • Zhang, Pei
  • Tian, Feng
  • Shi, Weiping

Abstract

This study addresses a critical limitation of Actor-centered Power (ACP) theory in Community-based Conservation (CBC) initiatives: its tendency to rely on predefined roles for actors, which can obscure the complex dynamics within communities. By integrating ACP theory with Scharpf's actor typology, this research aims to provide a framework that better reflects the nuanced power relationships both within communities and between communities and external actors. Using a comparative case study approach, we analyze three CBC programs in China to test this framework. Our findings underscore two key contributions. First, the combined framework allows for a more precise identification and analysis of power relations, revealing how internal and external actor roles shape community cohesion and collective action. Second, we highlight the significance of informational power in fostering communities' development as collective actors, thereby enhancing CBC effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Jiacheng & Zhang, Pei & Tian, Feng & Shi, Weiping, 2025. "Enhancing actor-centered power theory through actor typology: Insights from community-based conservation in China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:172:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125000048
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934125000048
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103425?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giessen, Lukas & Krott, Max & Möllmann, Torsten, 2014. "Increasing representation of states by utilitarian as compared to environmental bureaucracies in international forest and forest–environmental policy negotiations," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 97-104.
    2. Ongolo, Symphorien & Giessen, Lukas & Karsenty, Alain & Tchamba, Martin & Krott, Max, 2021. "Forestland policies and politics in Africa: Recent evidence and new challenges," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. Thomas, Annika & Hubo, Christiane, 2024. "Multiple crises as a policy window for forest and nature a power-analysis from Germany," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. Krott, Max & Bader, Axel & Schusser, Carsten & Devkota, Rosan & Maryudi, Ahmad & Giessen, Lukas & Aurenhammer, Helene, 2014. "Actor-centred power: The driving force in decentralised community based forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 34-42.
    5. Zhu, Ting & Krott, Max & Chen, Haiyun, 2014. "Co-management implementation in forested national reserves: Contradicting cases from China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 72-80.
    6. Prabowo, Doni & Maryudi, Ahmad & Imron, Muhammad A. & Senawi,, 2016. "Enhancing the application of Krott et al.'s (2014) Actor-Centred Power (ACP): The importance of understanding the effect of changes in polity for the measurement of power dynamics over time," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 184-186.
    7. Zhang, Pei & Zhao, Jiacheng & Krott, Max, 2023. "Strictest nature conservation: China's national park policy underpinned by power shift and turf dynamic," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Schusser, Carsten, 2013. "Who determines biodiversity? An analysis of actors' power and interests in community forestry in Namibia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-51.
    9. Zhao, Jiacheng & Liu, Jinlong & Giessen, Lukas, 2023. "How China adopted eco-friendly forest development: Lens of the dual-track mechanism," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    10. Ribot, Jesse C. & Agrawal, Arun & Larson, Anne M., 2006. "Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1864-1886, November.
    11. Ojha, Hemant R. & Ford, Rebecca & Keenan, Rodney J. & Race, Digby & Carias Vega, Dora & Baral, Himlal & Sapkota, Prativa, 2016. "Delocalizing Communities: Changing Forms of Community Engagement in Natural Resources Governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 274-290.
    12. Sahide, Muhammad Alif K. & Fisher, Micah R. & Supratman, Supratman & Yusran, Yusran & Pratama, Andita A. & Maryudi, Ahmad & Runtubei, Yubelince & Sabar, Adrayanti & Verheijen, Bart & Wong, Grace Y. & , 2020. "Prophets and profits in Indonesia's social forestry partnership schemes: Introducing a sequential power analysis," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    13. Rahman, Md Saifur & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Formal and Informal Interests of Donors to Allocate Aid: Spending Patterns of USAID, GIZ, and EU Forest Development Policy in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 250-267.
    14. Blaikie, Piers, 2006. "Is Small Really Beautiful? Community-based Natural Resource Management in Malawi and Botswana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1942-1957, November.
    15. Schusser, Carsten & Krott, Max & Yufanyi Movuh, Mbolo C. & Logmani, Jacqueline & Devkota, Rosan R. & Maryudi, Ahamad & Salla, Manjola & Bach, Ngo Duy, 2015. "Powerful stakeholders as drivers of community forestry — Results of an international study," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 92-101.
    16. Singer, Benjamin & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Towards a donut regime? Domestic actors, climatization, and the hollowing-out of the international forests regime in the Anthropocene," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 69-79.
    17. Kleinschmit, Daniela & Böcher, Michael & Giessen, Lukas, 2016. "Forest Policy Analysis: Advancing the analytical approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-6.
    18. Bouma, Jetske & Bulte, Erwin & van Soest, Daan, 2008. "Trust and cooperation: Social capital and community resource management," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 155-166, September.
    19. Sahide, Muhammad Alif K. & Fisher, Micah R. & Erbaugh, J.T. & Intarini, Dian & Dharmiasih, Wiwik & Makmur, Muliadi & Faturachmat, Fatwa & Verheijen, Bart & Maryudi, Ahmad, 2020. "The boom of social forestry policy and the bust of social forests in Indonesia: Developing and applying an access-exclusion framework to assess policy outcomes," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Do, Thi Huong & Krott, Max & Böcher, Michael, 2020. "Multiple traps of scientific knowledge transfer: Comparative case studies based on the RIU model from Vietnam, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, and Sweden," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Do, Nhinh Thi & Casse, Thorkil & Ton, Ta Viet, 2025. "Actor-centered power and forest governance: Can a conceptual framework help us understand the conflict in managing national parks in Vietnam?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fatem, Sepus M. & Awang, San A. & Pudyatmoko, Satyawan & Sahide, Muhammad A.K. & Pratama, Andita A. & Maryudi, Ahmad, 2018. "Camouflaging economic development agendas with forest conservation narratives: A strategy of lower governments for gaining authority in the re-centralising Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 699-710.
    2. Sarker, Pradip Kumar & Rahman, Md Saifur & Giessen, Lukas, 2018. "Regional governance by the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP)? Institutional design and customizable regime policy offering flexible political options," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 454-470.
    3. Rahman, Md Saifur & Sarker, Pradip Kumar & Sadath, Md. Nazmus & Giessen, Lukas, 2018. "Policy changes resulting in power changes? Quantitative evidence from 25 years of forest policy development in Bangladesh," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 419-431.
    4. Lukas Giessen & Pradip Kumar Sarker & Md Saifur Rahman, 2016. "International and Domestic Sustainable Forest Management Policies: Distributive Effects on Power among State Agencies in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-28, April.
    5. Ungirwalu, Antoni & Mansoben, J.R. & Runtuboi, Yubelince Y. & Fatem, Sepus M. & Peday, Mariana H. & Marwa, Jonni & Maryudi, Ahmad, 2025. "The fall of the kings: Power relations and dynamics in Papua's indigenous community in forest resource management," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    6. Garcia, Rocío M. & Burns, Sarah L., 2022. "Bureaucratic politics in protected areas: The voided power projection efforts of conservation vis-à-vis forest bureaucracies in Patagonia, Argentina," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Singer, Benjamin & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Towards a donut regime? Domestic actors, climatization, and the hollowing-out of the international forests regime in the Anthropocene," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 69-79.
    8. Louda, Jiří & Dubová, Lenka & Špaček, Martin & Brnkaľáková, Stanislava & Kluvánková, Tatiana, 2023. "Factors affecting governance innovations for ecosystem services provision: Insights from two self-organized forest communities in Czechia and Slovakia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Brodrechtova, Yvonne, 2024. "Assessing actor power in the trade-offs between ecosystem services affecting forest management – A case study from Central Slovakia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    10. Pradip Kumar Sarker & Md Saifur Rahman & Lukas Giessen, 2019. "Regional economic regimes and the environment: stronger institutional design is weakening environmental policy capacity of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 19-52, February.
    11. Sahide, Muhammad Alif K. & Maryudi, Ahmad & Supratman, Supratman & Giessen, Lukas, 2016. "Is Indonesia utilising its international partners? The driving forces behind Forest Management Units," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 11-20.
    12. García-López, Gustavo A., 2019. "Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 169-181.
    13. Sahide, Muhammad Alif K. & Fisher, Micah R. & Maryudi, Ahmad & Dhiaulhaq, Ahmad & Wulandari, Christine & Kim, Yeon-Su & Giessen, Lukas, 2018. "Deadlock opportunism in contesting conservation areas in Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 412-424.
    14. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Baral, Srijana & Rumba, Yam Bahadur, 2020. "Re-centralisation through fake Scientificness: The case of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Lamsal, Lok Nath & Rayamajhi, Santosh, 2018. "Legal-sounding bureaucratic re-centralisation of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 5-18.
    16. Wang, Weiye & Zhai, Daye & Li, Xinyang & Fang, Haowen & Yang, Yuanyuan, 2024. "Conflicts in mangrove protected areas through the actor-centred power framework - Insights from China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    17. Long, Hexing & de Jong, Wil & Yiwen, Zhang & Liu, Jinlong, 2021. "Institutional choices between private management and user group management during forest devolution: A case study of forest allocation in China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Gakou-Kakeu, Josiane & Di Gregorio, Monica & Paavola, Jouni & Sonwa, Denis Jean, 2022. "REDD+ policy implementation and institutional interplay: Evidence from three pilot projects in Cameroon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    19. Trejos, Bernardo & Flores, Juan Carlos, 2021. "Influence of property rights on performance of community-based forest devolution policies in Honduras," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Kumeh, Eric Mensah, 2023. "Contestations, counteractions and equitable conservation – a case study of Ghana's Krokosua Hills Forest Reserve," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:172:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125000048. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.