Introduction

Collective action is central to addressing the water governance challenge of delivering sustainable development and global environmental benefits. Embedded in existing power structures and relationships across scales, the practice of collective action is often hard to initiate and difficult to sustain. This chapter argues that centring power and politics in natural resource governance is crucial for understanding the overall shaping of the commons, as local communities have become inherently linked with the overall processes of commodification and globalization. It illustrates the actual shaping of multi-scalar water struggles in the Peruvian highlands, looking specifically at how four communities in the upstream of the Pampas watershed defend their water access, wetlands, and livelihood integrity through strategic alliances, manifested in various forms of collective action. The chapter illustrates the central positioning of collective action as a key pillar for enabling joint use and management of land and water for improved rural livelihoods in Malawi.