Urban water recycling has been promoted as one of several ways that water use efficiency could be improved in Australia???s cities, but few such schemes have been introduced. Many urban water-recycling schemes have been proposed, but often, these projects have been rejected because of community opposition. These difficulties suggest that recycling water is not just about having the right answer to any problem, but about the way in which the question is addressed. It is concerned with how practice is institutionalised; not just the rule making, but also the understandings and values that make the rule-making possible. In this thesis, the question of how the system of water governance could be strengthened to encourage sustainable water use through water recycling is examined. An analysis of experiences in three Australian case studies is conducted, in which recycled water was proposed for sustainability, to illuminate the way in which water use is institutionalised. Particular attention is given to the construction of meaning in relation to water use, by considering how water problems are framed and negotiated by different stakeholders and groups and the significance of the multiplicity of interpretive frameworks in use for the institutionalisation of practice. The analysis draws on institutional organisational theory and interpretive methods, which regard interpretation as one element (cognitive) in the stabilisation of social practice and closely linked to organisation (regulative) and values (normative). The study findings suggest meaning was a very important part of institutional change. Participants tended to construct policy issues as they became involved by drawing on different interpretive frameworks embodying different values and expectations. These interpretations reflected the organisational structuring of practice, such that the position/role in the organisational field reflected an actor???s interpretation of problems and/or solutions. Outcomes of the study suggest that institutionalising change in water management is problematic and depends on changes in the regulative, normative and cognitive dimensions of practice, as part of a continuous feedback loop between interpretation and practice. This view of change contrasts with existing research, which tends to see the problem in terms of influencing attitudes of specific groups and assumes preferences precede the action.

Thesis (M.Env.St.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001. / Author's name appears as Lam Lai Fong Janna on front cover. Bibliography: leaves 117-120.

Thesis (M.E.S.)--Evergreen State College, 1992. / Title from title screen viewed (3/30/2009). "June, 1992." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-46).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 41).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Agricultural Economics, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed July 31, 2009). Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Jones, Christopher, Committee Chair ; Eckert, Charles, Committee Member ; Schork, Joseph, Committee Member ; Weck, Marcus, Committee Member ; Zhang, John, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-110).

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Agricultural Food and Resource Economics, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 6, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-67). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, June 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.