Product Description: The second volume of The Quest to Understand Human Affairs presents thirty-six previously unpublished manuscripts written by Vincent Ostrom, cofounder of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. The essays are divided among three parts: Constitutional Choice, Epistemic Choice, and The Quest for Understanding and the Future of Democratic Self-Governance...read more

Product Description:   Over the past several years, much has been written about property rights in land and natural resources by scholars in many disciplines including economics, political science, history, and law. This book, based on a 2010 Lincoln Institute conference, addresses the tendency in social science literature to oversimplify the concept of property rights by assuming that only two or three forms of property rights are appropriate for the effective use and conservation of resources...read more

Product Description: 'A unique and significant longitudinal study of irrigation intervention in FMIS in Nepal that revives important debates on how irrigation management evolves and how this can be investigated. This concise and accessible book can inform and challenge agencies and donors to reflect on policies and researchers to argue further the study of collective action and political theory in irrigation management...read more

Product Description: With Governing the common, Ostrom makes an effort to criticize the foundations of political analysis in the way it is applied to many natural resources; introduce empirical examples of successful and unfortunate initiatives for the regularization and administration of these resources; and make an effort to develop better instruments so as to understand the capacities and limits of a self-government institution while controlling different resources...read more

Product Description: Knowledge in digital form offers unprecedented access to information through the Internet but at the same time is subject to ever-greater restrictions through intellectual property legislation, overpatenting, licensing, overpricing, and lack of preservation...read more

Product Description: Advances in the social sciences have emerged through a variety of research methods: field-based research, laboratory and field experiments, and agent-based models. However, which research method or approach is best suited to a particular inquiry is frequently debated and discussed...read more

Product Description: `As theoretical paradigms develop, there comes a time when they need careful synthesis, deep reflection and wise criticism. It is now that time for the arguments regarding social capital. Political scientists are fortunate that a scholar as pre-eminent as Elinor Ostrom, and her able student T...read more

Product Description: African Floodplains in semi-arid areas are important for local livelihoods as they harbor many common-pool resources such as fisheries, pasture, wildlife, veldt products, water and land for irrigation. However, in many of these areas resources are under pressure...read more

Product Description: This book analyzes the institutions--incentives and constraints--that guide the behavior of persons involved in the implementation of aid programs. While traditional performance studies tend to focus almost exclusively on policies and institutions in recipient countries, the authors look at incentives in the entire chain of organizations involved in the delivery of foreign aid, from donor governments and agencies to consultants, experts and other intermediaries...read more

Product Description: The concepts of formal and informal remain central to the theory and practice of development more than half a century after they were introduced into the debate. They help structure the way that statistical services collect data on the economies of developing countries, the development of theoretical and empirical analysis, and, most important, the formulation and implementation of policy...read more

Product Description: The authors argue that much of foreign aid's failure is related to the institutions that structure its delivery. They explore the workings of Sida and find that Sida's institutions lead to perverse incentives and poor outcomes in the field...read more

Product Description: The analysis of how institutions are formed, how they operate and change, and how they influence behavior in society has become a major subject of inquiry in politics, sociology, and economics. A leader in applying game theory to the understanding of institutional analysis, Elinor Ostrom provides in this book a coherent method for undertaking the analysis of diverse economic, political, and social institutions...read more

Product Description: Throughout much of human history, changes to forest ecosystems have come about through natural climatic changes occurring over long periods of time. But scientists now find changes in forest cover dramatically accelerated by such human activities as large-scale agriculture, the building of dams and roads, and the growth of cities with vast areas of asphalt...read more

Product Description: Globalization, population growth, and resource depletion are drawing increased attention to the importance of common resources such as forests, water resources, and fisheries. It is critical that these resources be governed in an equitable and sustainable way...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The "tragedy of the commons" is a central concept in human ecology and the study of the environment. It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interactions in special situations...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This volume draws together over 20 years of research by a team of international scholars into the most effective strategies that communities in developing countries can use to govern and manage their resources most effectively. Many of the findings and evidence will be of interest to American scholars interested in community development and resource management...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Commons-lands, waters, and resources that are not legally owned and controlled by a single private entity, such as ocean and coastal areas, the atmosphere, public lands, freshwater aquifers, and migratory species-are an increasingly contentious issue in resource management and international affairs...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

In the latter part of the 20th century, humans are doing a particularly poor job of managing natural resources in a sustainable way over the long term. Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability focuses on long-term, sustainable natural resource management practices at the local, national, and international levels. The authors suggest that a major cause of the "sustainability problem" - regulatory policies for large areas that often threaten the sustainability of both natural resources and previously effective governance problems - lie in "scale" problems. Large scale ecosystems are not simply larger versions of smaller systems, and micro-scale ecosystems are not merely microcosms of large scale systems. The driving forces and feedback mechanisms operate at different levels and exhibit distinct patterns of their own.Traditional management practices that do well at the local level cannot be expected to do equally well in handling activities organized at the continental or global scale. Even more importantly, when local systems are superseded by national or international management practices, local ecosystems frequently suffer.The challenge is to match ecosystems and governance systems in ways that maximize the compatibility of these systems. This book builds upon this fundamental principle. Particularly valuable is the use of simulation exercises to explore the consequences of social institutions and a discussion of the progress being made in developing a broad global data base to test hypothesis about the relationship between ecosystems and social institutions, and to investigate ways to repair the damage already caused by scale mismatches.Features

Product Description: Unplanned deforestation, which is occurring at unsustainable rates in many parts of the world, can cause significant hardships for rural communities by destroying critical stocks of fuel, fodder, food, and building materials. It can also have profound regional and global consequences by contributing to biodiversity loss, erosion, floods, lowered water tables, and climate change...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: Libro que rápidamente se ha colocado como un paradigma del pensamiento social, en especial para el campo de la conservación de los recursos naturales. Elinor Ostrom responde con argumentos de fondo a la opinión de los conservacionistas, politólogos y políticos, de que los recursos poseídos y administrados colectivamente están por definición condenados a la sobreexplotación y al deterioro...read more

Product Description: This volume offers a synthesis of what is known about very large and very small common-pool resources. Individuals using commons at the global or local level may find themselves in a similar situation. At an international level, states cannot appeal to authoritative hierarchies to enforce agreements they make to cooperate with one another...read more

Product Description: Explores ways that the tragedy of the commons can be avoided by people who use common-property resources