From rules to practices: Assembling natural resource governance in the Peruvian Amazon

An assemblage framework improves our understanding of institutional diversity in natural resource governance. Drawing on the ‘practices of assemblage’ perspective of Tania M. Liand actor network theory studies, this chapter conceptualizes assemblage as the evolving reunion of human and non-human actors, their actions and their environments, in complex webs of relations. Given the context-specific nature of human agency, a comprehensive understanding of natural resource governance requires an examination of who creates, enforces and translates rules into practice, who aims to govern and how that is done in particular circumstances. Because not everyone holding policy power believes in sustainable resource use and/or conservation, this process involves facing opposition and interacting with other governmental projects. The study of forest governance in the Peruvian Amazon offers insights on how an assembling-governance line of inquiry can be effectively applied. Case study methods are best suited to tackle questions related to how institutions evolve.