Premium
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “METROPOLITAN WATER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONS?” 1
Author(s) -
Wengert Norman
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1973.tb01765.x
Subject(s) - institutionalisation , institution , consistency (knowledge bases) , term (time) , commission , metropolitan area , meaning (existential) , subject (documents) , synonym (taxonomy) , sociology , process (computing) , psychology , positive economics , political science , social science , computer science , economics , law , medicine , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , library science , psychotherapist , biology , genus , operating system , pathology
The term “institution” and several variants are used frequently in the literature on metropolitan water management. The state‐of‐the art investigation on which this paper is based revealed that 1) many uses of the term do not include careful definitions; 2) many users of the term seemed unaware of the general, theoretical literature on the subject of institutions; 3) there was little consistency among uses, either in the practical literature dealing with water or in the conceptual literature dealing with theories of institutions or institutionalization; 4) some usages were without significant meaning; 5) in many cases the term was used as a kind of “black box” to account for behavioral, societal, or managerial factors; 6) the term was often used as a synonym for “organization”. This latter use is frequently found in federal reports, including National Water Commission studies, and is most unfortunate because it tends to slight significant social‐psychological factors. A suggested definition is: “An institution is the structured result or outcome of a process by which values are articulated, arranged, and communicated, having continuity over time, and influencing behavior of persons who did not necessarily participate in formulating those values (norms).”