Mechanisms Linking Consumer Household Skills to Institutional Resilience in Uganda: A Comparative Mixed-Methods Framework

Existing resilience research emphasises formal organisational capacities while neglecting the mundane competencies exercised within domestic economies, particularly in contexts where state service provision is uneven. The framework theorises four transmission mechanisms: fiscal stabilisation through household budgeting literacy, demand-side accountability via consumer vigilance, adaptive substitution when households improvise alternatives to failed services, and social capital formation through reciprocal household exchange. Methodologically, the article develops a sequential design that integrates qualitative life-history interviews with quantitative household surveys across three Ugandan districts selected for divergent institutional histories. The framework's comparative logic permits within-country variation to be exploited rather than controlled away, addressing a weakness in single-site studies. The principal contribution is conceptual and procedural: it offers testable propositions linking micro-level skills to meso-level institutional outcomes, and it specifies the measurement and sampling strategies required to evaluate those propositions without presupposing the mechanisms it seeks to establish.