Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences in 2025
2026-02-06
Institutional Ecology of Rural Environments: Power, Participation, and Sustainability in Local Governance Systems
Authors
-
Liping Lu
Keyi College of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Shaoxing 312369, China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i6.13369Abstract
Rural governance is an important condition of sustainable development, but the current literature usually considers institutional setups, power relations, participation, and sustainability results separately. The review summarizes the literature on the institutional ecology of rural settings, the interaction of formal and informal institutions with power structures and participatory processes to influence environmental, social, and economic performances. Unlike prior reviews that treat these dimensions separately, we explicitly integrate power, participation, and sustainability within a single institutional ecology framework. With the combination of theory and empirical studies, we point out how the effectiveness of governance can and will be produced based on the interplay of the three aspects: authority, agency, and institutional design, instead of on a one-dimensional basis. The asymmetries of power affect the access to resources, the decision-making process, and the mediating role of inclusive and meaningful participation improves the legitimacy, accountability, and adaptability. These processes of governance co-determine sustainability outcomes, including environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic resilience, which should be approached holistically and adaptively. Other major gaps that are pointed out in this review concern the shortage of comparative analyses of institutional interactions, the lack of longitudinal studies of adaptive governance, and the under-explored functions of emerging technologies in supporting participatory and equitable governance. This study has offered some theoretical clarity and practical guidance because it suggests an integrative conceptual framework that links institutional ecology, power, participation, and sustainability. The framework focuses on systemic, multi-scalar solutions to resilient, inclusive, and context-sensitive governance systems that can help tackle the multi-faceted issues that face rural settings across the world.
Keywords:
Institutional Ecology; Rural Governance; Power Dynamics; Participation; SustainabilityReferences
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Lu, L. (2026). Institutional Ecology of Rural Environments: Power, Participation, and Sustainability in Local Governance Systems. Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(6), 241–255. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i6.13369
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Copyright © 2026 Liping Lu
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
