Go-management is a tool of fisheries management that has received much
attention in recent years. Although there are great hopes about what
it may accomplish, there are also serious doubts, questions and critic
isms regarding its general applicability. We believe that many of thes
e concerns are valid ones. However, many of the negative predictions r
eflect overly narrow perspectives on the role and nature of Institutio
ns. Other, no less valid, presuppositions lead to more optimistic hypo
theses concerning the outcomes of cc-management arrangements. The inst
itutional problems associated with comanagement have been analyzed fro
m the perspective of rational choice. We offer another perspective by
analyzing these problems from the standpoint of how institutions are e
mbedded in human community. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights
reserved.