Legitimacy of agriculture extension services: understanding decoupled activities in rural Ghana

In this paper we explore the links among institutionalisation and legitimacy, within capacity-building efforts in the context of development. We study the network of linked activities for agricultural extension service provision; at the level of policymaking, district management and at the field level in Ghana. Our mixed-method research approach includes extensive qualitative (observation and interviews), as well as quantitative (spatial mobility data) fieldwork at three districts. Findings concerning service delivery at the different operational levels, are heavily scaffolded by means of Activity Theory; while Institutional Theory informs our answer to the research question, “how do technical and institutional pressures, on the ground as well as at the policy level, shape performed extension activities and management strategies?”. The empirical contributions of this work include explanations of institutional decoupling effects; and understandings of decoupling as a district level strategy for maintaining legitimacy with external rural constituents and with internal organisational stakeholders. The theoretical contribution of this work involves the synthesis of Activity Theory and Institutional Theory, into an approach for the generation of meaningful insights. A further contribution is the use of a mixed-methods research strategy.