Institution ranking and social mapping in rural Mongolia

Following the dismantling of the pastoral collectives in Mongolia, a wide variety of formal as well as informal institutions currently exist. While informal community organisations are the main context in which pastoral livestock production is carried out, the question of which institutions will take over the functions of the former collectives is still open. This paper describes how PRA methods were used to try to understand herders' perceptions of the various institutions they participate in. Social mapping was used to identify the composition of informal neighbourhood communities. Ranking and scoring were used mainly to understand herders' perceptions of the institutions of which they are members.