Over the past decade, South African and Namibian governments have initiated processes
of water-sector reform via new legislation (RSA, 1998; GRN, 2004), designed to promote
increased equity, efficiency and economic and environmental sustainability of water
resources. These objectives correspond to those of the discourse of integrated water resource
management (Heyns, 2005; Woodhouse, 2008). Institutional reform is a key
feature of the recent legislation. Participatory institutions are being formed, which are
aligned to hydrological spatial units, such as water-user associations and basin
management committees. These institutional spaces represent 'communities' of learning
(Wenger, 1998; Johnson, 2007), and synergise with the concept of 'social learning' that
links collective interaction and learning to concerted action in the collective and
environmental interest (Roling & \Vagemakers, 1998; Keen et al., 2005; Pahl-\Vostl et al.,
2007a; Ison et al., 2007). Drawing on the 'constant comparison' principle of grounded
theory (Glaser, 1992), the thesis explores this concept of social learning using two case
studies: the South African Kat River Water User Association (KatRWUA) and the
Namibian Kuiseb Basin Management Committee (KuisebBMC). A multi-method research
approach was used to elicit qualitative information, with data-collection methods
including semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observation and secondary data
sources (Denzin & Lincoln, 2002). Subsequent data analysis revealed a mismatch between
the nature and outcomes of social learning processes within the case studies and the ideals
of socially and environmentally sustainable behaviour, which are desired by both the
integrated water-resource management discourse and by the South African and Namibian
national Water Acts. Social learning, as a process for achieving these goals of social equity
and sustainable social behaviour, was prevented by the five Ps: power relations, politics,
personality, precedence, and the past.