Institutional Change in Socio-technical Systems: Examining Decision-making in U.S. Water Suppliers

Keywords: socio-technical systems, water suppliers, institutional logics, decision-making, adaptation
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Drinking water supply systems are socio-technical systems that are often described as resistant to change. Yet, adaptation to the multi-faceted stressors that threaten their sustainability, including increasing climatic variability, extreme weather, population shifts, and aging water infrastructure will require change. In determining how to adapt, drinking water suppliers are faced with difficult decisions that force them to confront competing priorities. Decision support tools designed to aid water supply systems in decision-making commonly emphasize infrastructure and operations, with little attention to the social processes and norms that must accompany changes in infrastructure and technology.

We posit that how drinking water supply organizations navigate multiple co-existing institutional logics—the rationalities that shape an organization’s operation—is key to adaptation decision-making. Water systems are guided by multiple logics related to social responsibilities, financial viability, environmental sustainability, and technocratic functioning. While studies have investigated how logics compete and co-exist, the dynamics of how multiple institutional logics operate under socio-technical transitions in U.S. water suppliers remains unclear.

We present results from an analysis of interviews and surveys of drinking water suppliers across the U.S. to (a) identify the institutional logics that guide water supplier decision-making; (b) classify a hierarchy of water supplier institutional logics; and, (c) characterize common tensions among logics. Tensions among logics reveal nodes at which decisions can influence broader water system transitions toward either path-dependency or enhanced resilience.