Abstract
The research outlined in this paper examines the establishment of an environmental management regime to sustain water quality by controlling the discharge of ‘greywater’ from vessels using South Australia’s rivers and inland waters. Acknowledging the institutional nature of environmental regimes, we draw on the concept of institutional work to analyse the efforts of the South Australian environmental regulator and other stakeholders to create and maintain the mechanisms intended to alter the behaviour of users of the waterways and ensure their compliance. Through a detailed inductive data analysis of a large corpus of documentary evidence, combined with abductive reasoning in comparing our empirical observations with types of institutional work identified in the literature, we propose a provisional model of how an environmental management regime is institutionalised through four dynamic processes of institutional work: initiating, developing, implementing and stabilising.The research outlined in this paper examines the establishment of an environmental management regime to sustain water quality by controlling the discharge of ‘greywater’ from vessels using South Australia’s rivers and inland waters. Acknowledging the institutional nature of environmental regimes, we draw on the concept of institutional work to analyse the efforts of the South Australian environmental regulator and other stakeholders to create and maintain the mechanisms intended to alter the behaviour of users of the waterways and ensure their compliance. Through a detailed inductive data analysis of a large corpus of documentary evidence, combined with abductive reasoning in comparing our empirical observations with types of institutional work identified in the literature, we propose a provisional model of how an environmental management regime is institutionalised through four dynamic processes of institutional work: initiating, developing, implementing and stabilising.