UNESCO unitwin + Living Labs Network + Team Yuvaa NGO 16 weeks- 2023
Commons in the Naubad Karez
an archive of research about the common pool resource of underground water in a hyper-local and hyper historical context of the Naubad Karez in Bidar, Karnataka.
Lived on-site and engaged extensively along the 3.5km long historical built underground water channeling system, to design a research approach for local NGO Team Yuvaa members.
Inspired by Elinor Ostrom and her work on CPR's, I explored the theory of commons in the Naubad Karez which dealt with the socio-cultural distribution of agency between the people living near the Karez, users of the water and organisational bodies (government and NGO's).
Interviews, focus group discussions and re-designed sociology and anthropology specific research models (IAD framework) methodologies were used for four month long research.
Research questions:
1. How well does the tragedy of commons allegory describe reality at Naubad?
2. Could the commons theory allow us to understand the usage of water and other water based practices of the Naubad Karez by the stakeholders?
3. Does the idea of commons provide a useful basis for choosing or designing regulatory solutions in the future and what methods could enable this?
A comprehensive designed map with summarised research along the 3.1km and intersecting communities as below was used to the approach the DC (executive head of district), BUDA (Bidar Urban Development Authority) and other governmental bodies.
Multiple interventions were developed throughout the entire project. The final materialisation of the research was a Kannada language call to action podcast which was co-designed with many stakeholders of the Naubad Karez.