ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, we presented governance as a practice that entails the blurring of law into societal and political modes of rule-setting and enactment. We also suggested that, applied in the field of resource exploitation and sharing, governance is interpreted in at least three main ways. Managerially, it is seen as encapsulating attempts to navigate and influence a decentred array of institutions and processes surrounding resource-use decisions. Normatively, it is sometimes conceived as a set of arrangements and practices that go beyond the state and invite stakeholder involvement in affairs of public interest. Critically, it is questioned and historicized through the notion of governmentality, as Foucauldian ‘conduct of conduct’ (Foucault, 1982, pp. 220–221). All three interpretations are evident in the programmatic applications and discursive deployments of governance to the Mekong development landscape. For the most part, however, river basin governance is interpreted and supported through development programmes with reference to a science-based decision support framework of planning and action, and the establishment of mostly procedural rules to guide the conduct of significant players.
