Diverse Property-rights Structure Impacts on Urban-Rural Public Open Space (POS) Governance: Sabah, Malaysia

Minusculediscussion of research on institutional property-rights structurehasrudimentarilydetermined the POS governance (usage and management) and its quality. Thus, two objectives are highlighted; (i) to examine Sabah's current practice in urban-rural POS governance and (ii) explore the POS’ social dilemma that tied in with such institution. Reviews of interdisciplinary analytic perspectives,case study, documentsand content analysis on semi-structured interviews (governmental opinions)were performed. The practicewith diverse rights structureis perceived as property-rights tragedy by virtue of numerous predicaments, which ensue in sub-optimal POS and quality of life issues. Therefore, re-engineering of urban-rural POS market via dynamic property rights re-assignment and contractual governance are postulated as the panaceato internalise the externalities for improved life quality.