Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

Chapter 2: Adaptive Collaborative Management: A Conceptual Model • 43
practical terms, looking at decisions within the immediate control of the
group, capacity obviously shapes material action and outcomes.
Giddens (1984: 16) makes an important point regarding capacity and the
ability to influence actors and spheres beyond the immediate group. He
notes that resources
are media through which power is exercised, as a routine element of the
instantiation of conduct in social reproduction. Power within social systems,
which enjoy some continuity over time and space, presumes regularised
relations of autonomy and dependence between actors or collectivities
in contexts of social interaction. But all forms of dependence offer some
resources whereby those who are subordinate can influence the activities of
their superiors.
Thus, while external actors—who often have better resources, in terms
of financial capital—have power to influence local forest managers, local
forest managers also have the capacity to influence external actors at
least in some way, even if only through passive or active resistance. Local
capacity might draw on the group’s own assets or on the power of networks,
as described above. As well as the capacity itself, the awareness of this
capacity can shape material action or outcomes, because this awareness
can give groups the courage to try to shape their contexts.
Sen (1999: 87) has provided a human capability perspective on poverty
assessment and development that resonates well with the thinking here.
His perspective focuses on ‘the substantive freedoms [an individual] enjoys
to lead the kind of life he or she has reason to value’ (87). This perspective
allows discourse on poverty and development to shift away from income
and broaden outwards to include both the multifaceted ends that people
have reason to pursue and the freedoms they need to achieve them.
In closing this section it is worth citing Sen (1999: 87) twice more with
reference to capability and control, first on the state and society’s role in
generating people’s capability: ‘The state and society have extensive roles
in strengthening and safeguarding human capabilities. This is a supporting
role rather than one of ready made delivery’. Second, on giving people
the space and respect they need to exercise their innate capabilities and
freedoms: ‘People have to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively
involved—given the opportunity—in shaping their own destiny, and not
just as passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs’.
Especially for poor and often socially marginalised actors in forest areas
in developing countries, capacity to influence other actors and the