Bridging divergent institutional logics through intermediation practices: Insights from a developing country context

Poverty reduction is critical for global socio-political stability. In this paper we start from the observation that divergent institutional logics may indirectly uphold conditions of poverty. We focus on the intermediation practices of an organization working in Tanzania to deepen collaboration between forest sector stakeholders. Our findings show how operational inefficiencies in the forest sector perpetuate the deprivation of low-income populations and how increased intermediation can help to reduce such inefficiencies. We identify intermediation practices that create learning, clarity and synthesis and so help to overcome key differences between divergent institutional logics. The notion of intermediation practices helps not only to understand the work of intermediaries, but also to explain how operational environments need to be developed to achieve poverty reduction and sustainable development.