elinor ostrom: the latest nobel winner in econ...

ostrom’s scholarship over the past three decades has demonstrated that self-organized communities of “commoners” are quite capable of managing finite natural resources without destroying them. the problem with the “tragedy” narrative, ostrom realized, is that it does not describe the actualities of real commons. functioning commons have boundaries that limit access, social rules, and punishment for “free riders.” against the growing tide of pro-market fervor in the 1980s, ostrom realized that all institutions did not need to emulate the market and its imperatives for growth, centralization and efficiency. communities can self-organize themselves to develop their own rules and social norms to allocate resources. they can devise their own oversight methods and sanctions to protect the commons. there can be multiple centers of stewardship, an idea that she and her husband, political scientist vincent ostrom, dubbed “polycentricity”// david bollier, 10.13.09, on the commons