Table 3.

Advancing methods for assessing political institutions and processes as dimensions of household water insecurity

HWI Concept	Water governance	Laws & Institutions	Informal Processes
Common methods	Participant-observation, Interviews, Critical discourse analysis, Text analysis, Surveys, Oral histories, Statistical analysis	Methods aligned with Institutional Analysis & Development Framework; Legal & institutional analysis	Ethnography, Archives, Interviews; Narrative, Interpretive & Critical Analysis; Participatory methods
Purpose or use of common methods	Discover how water governance produces water insecurity; Examine inequalities; Compare impacts of different governance regimes on HH	Determine how formal laws & institutions contribute to or mitigate HWI	Determine how informal rules or intermediaries contribute to or mitigate HWI
Is the household (HH) typically the unit of analysis?	No. Data is typically at higher scales. Some methods can disaggregate to HH	No, but HH level effects can be tracked with a variety of methods	No, but HH effects can be assessed; May need new methods to improve HH measures
Recommended HWI approaches & methods that need further development Why new approaches or methods are needed	Causal loop diagramming, Framework method, Q-Methodology To systematically track perspectives among key actors; Facilitate cross-site comparisons; Disaggregate to HH level	Agent-based modeling, Cultural Consensus Analysis To produce data on hard-to-document norms and shared knowledge; Need to disaggregate to HH level	Social Network Analysis To improve precision on analysis of informal flows of resources, influence & knowledge; Need to disaggregate at HH level