ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the complex nature of water governance and featured the commons as a terrain for contestation, while unpacking the role of power and politics in shaping water governance and collective action across scales. Moving from "local" water governance spheres to transboundary waters, the importance of power structures and relationships in shaping water governance decisions is embedded in riparian states' political and development agendas, inter-state relationships, and the roles of intergovernmental bodies, international agencies, and non-state actors, including international NGOs and the media. The formation of a media collective as a potential means to resolve the current political deadlock in transboundary water governance in the Indus River Basin shows how ideas and norms have the power to influence discussions with regard to transboundary water governance rules and procedures. Understanding multi-scale institutional interlinkages is crucial for the shaping of collective action in water governance.
