摘要：We enlarge the notion of institutional fit using theoretical approaches from New Institutionalism, including rationalchoice and strategic action, political ecology and constructivist approaches. These approaches are combined with ecologicalapproaches (system and evolutionary ecology) focusing on feedback loops and change. We offer results drawn from a comparisonof fit and misfit cases of institutional change in pastoral commons in four African floodplain contexts (Zambia, Cameroon,Tanzania (two cases). Cases of precolonial fit and misfit in the postcolonial past, as well as a case of institutional fit in thepostcolonial phase, highlight important features, specifically, flexible institutions, leadership, and mutual economic benefitunder specific relations of bargaining power of actors. We argue that only by combining otherwise conflicting approaches canwe come to understand why institutional fit develops into misfit and back again
