Ostrom, Elinor 1933–

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Ostrom, Elinor 1933–

PERSONAL:

Born August 7, 1933, in Los Angeles, CA. Education: University of California at Los Angeles, B.A. (with honors), 1954, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., 1965.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Indiana University, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 513 N. Park Ave., Bloomington, IN 47408. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Godfrey L. Cabot, Inc., Boston, MA, employment interview and assistant employee relations manager, 1955-57; University of California, Los Angeles, personnel assistant III, 1957-61; Indiana University, Bloomington, visiting assistant professor, 1965-66, assistant professor and graduate advisor, 1966-69, associate professor, 1969-74, professor, 1974-91, department chair, 1980-84, acting chair, 1989-90, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, 1991—, codirector of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, part-time professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, codirector of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC), 1996-2006; Arizona State University, Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, founding director.

MEMBER:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow), American Philosophical Society, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Political and Social Science (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Thomas R. Dye Service Award for outstanding service to the Policy Studies Organization, 1997; Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, 1997; Lifetime Achievement Award, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, 2003; John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences, 2004; James Madison Award, American Political Science Association, 2005; Sustainability Science Award, Ecological Society of America, 2005; Cozzarelli Prize, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006; William Riker Award for Understanding Institutional Diversity, American Political Science Association Political Economy Section, 2006; Beijer Fellowship, Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Stockholm, Sweden, 2007. D.H.L., University of Zurich, 1999, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, 2002, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, 2005, University of Michigan, 2006, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, 2007, and Uppsala University, Sweden, 2007.

WRITINGS:

(With others) Community Organization and the Provision of Police Services, Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1973.

(Editor) The Delivery of Urban Services: Outcomes of Change, Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1976.

(With Roger B. Parks and Gordon P. Whitaker) Policing Metropolitan America, National Science Foundation (Washington, DC), 1977.

(With Roger B. Parks and Gordon P. Whitaker) Patterns of Metropolitan Policing, Ballinger (Cambridge, MA), 1978.

Decision-Related Research on the Organization of Service Delivery in Metropolitan Areas: Police Protection, The Consortium (Ann Arbor, MI), 1978.

(With Paula C. Baker and Robert Goehlert) Metropolitan Reform: An Annotated Bibliography, Workshop in Political Theory & Policy Analysis (Bloomington, IN), 1979.

(Editor) Strategies of Political Inquiry, Sage Publications (Beverly Hills, CA), 1982.

(With Vincent Ostrom and Robert Bish) Local Government in the United States, ICS Press (San Francisco, CA), 1988.

Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

Crafting Institutions for Self-Governing Irrigation Systems, ICS Press (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

(With Larry Schroeder and Susan Wynne) Institutional Incentives and Sustainable Development: Infrastructure Policies in Perspective, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 1993.

(With others) Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1994.

(Editor, with Robert O. Keohane) Local Commons and Global Interdependence: Heterogeneity and Cooperation in Two Domains, Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA), 1995.

(Editor, with James E. Alt and Margaret Levi) Competition and Cooperation: Conversations with Nobelists about Economics and Political Science, Russell Sage Foundation (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Clark C. Gibson, Margaret A. McKean) People and Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

(Editor, with Robert Costanza, Bobbi Low, and James Wilson) Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability, CRC (Boca Raton, FL), 2000.

(Editor, with Ganesh P. Shivakoti) Improving Irrigation Governance and Management in Nepal, ICS Press (Oakland, CA), 2002.

(Editor, with others) The Drama of the Commons, National Academy Press (Washington, DC), 2002.

(Editor, with Nives Dolsak) The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptations, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

(Editor, with T.K. Ahn) Foundations of Social Capital, Edward Elgar (Northampton, MA), 2003.

(Editor, with James Walker) Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons from Experimental Research, Russell Sage Foundation (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor, with Emilio F. Moran) Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Understanding Institutional Diversity, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2005.

Governare i Beni Sollettivi: Saggi Introduttivi di Cristiano Andrea Rusticcia e Dei Curatoni Dell'edizione Italiana Giovanni Vetritto e Francesco Velo, Marsilio (Venice, Italy), 2006.

(Editor, with Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and Ravi Kanbur) Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with Charlotte Hess) Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

Contributor to journals, including Ecological Ergonomics, Science, PEGS: The Good Society, Annual Review of Political Science, and Rationality and Society.

SIDELIGHTS:

Political scientist Elinor Ostrom was born August 7, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. She was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles, earning her undergraduate degree with honors in 1954, and, after spending several years working in employee relations and personnel management, continuing on to earn a master's and a doctorate. She took a faculty position at the Indiana University Cognitive Science Program in Bloomington, starting out in the department of government and then moving on to the department of political science. There she continued to rise through the ranks steadily, until she became the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science. In addition, she has held various other positions simultaneously, including as codirector of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, part-time professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, and codirector of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC). Ostrom's primary areas of research and academic interest include the relationship between cognitive science and the ways in which human beings make choices in various sets of circumstances, such as bureaucracies, dilemmas within a social setting, public economies that include multiple levels, and decisions that require a collective agreement. In addition, she is interested in analysis pertaining to the effects of personal biases on collective decisions, and in the ways that various institutions provide the data that individuals require for their personal decision-making processes. Ostrom holds a number of honorary degrees from universities around the world, and she lectures frequently at academic conferences. Beyond the scope of her academic endeavors, she is a contributor to a number of journals, including Ecological Ergonomics, Science, PEGS: The Good Society, Annual Review of Political Science, and Rationality and Society. She has written and/or edited numerous books on the subject of decision-making and the various aspects of the process of building solid working relationships.

Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, which was published in 1990, addresses the issues that can develop when resources are shared among a group or community. Referring primarily to "common pool resources," which include any natural resources such as irrigation systems or local fisheries that serve a segment of the population, she looks at long-term issues that affect the maintenance of the resources themselves, such as overuse, suggesting alternative measures that might be considered to prevent such a drain in lieu of government regulation or other more common techniques. Scott London, in a review for his eponymous Web site, noted that the book has a somewhat scholarly tone, but nevertheless concluded that it is "one of the more far-sighted and genuinely significant works to emerge in recent years on environmental resource management."

The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptation, which Ostrom edited with Nives Dolsak, tackles the modern-day theory that it is no longer practical for resources to be controlled and protected by a collective in the absence of a clear and easy method of personal ownership. The essays in the book suggest that collective ownership and management of various types of resources is not only still viable, but in many cases it is the best option for maintaining fair access to all parties involved. It is, however, necessary that anyone involved in such a system remain abreast of the necessary changes in laws, as well as any social and/or economic shifts. The book goes on to address questions of how present-day developments continue to affect the commons property system, and in turn how any increase in community ownership and management might affect governing bodies in their handling of larger-scale institutions that have widespread usage. Eduard Niesten, in a review for the American Scientist, pointed out that "clearly, the effects of economic and cultural globalization on common-property institutions are unlikely to be uniformly detrimental or beneficial. These essays point out that further reflection and case-specific analysis are needed." Environment contributor Forest Reinhardt felt that "it is hard to imagine a person who would not learn something from examining this book."

Ostrom served as the editor, with Charlotte Hess, for Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice, which was released in 2007. The book discusses the evolution of the concept of the commons, which originally referred to the common ground areas of a community such as the village green, and gradually expanded its connotation to incorporate less corporal shared property, such as the realm of knowledge, focusing on the Internet and cyberspace in particular. Having begun to look at shared ground as an environmental responsibility during the latter years of the twentieth century, people began to consider how these issues might translate into the commons realm of intellectual property and knowledge. It was soon apparent that, while some issues were similar, such as traffic and pollution, the singular difference existed in the depletion of physical common ground through use versus the ever-expanding nature of knowledge, which makes intellectual common ground a resource that increases and gains speed the more that it is shared. The book addresses three distinct phases that relate to understanding knowledge as a commons-type property, including information pertaining to knowledge commons, protecting the knowledge as one would protect a more physical type of shared resource, and ultimately building upon the existing framework of knowledge available as common property. Current Science contributor Subbiah Arunachalam concluded that "on the whole this book provides an excellent introduction to the theory and practice of knowledge commons."

Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, edited by Ostrom and Emilio F. Moran, addresses the questions regarding the proper approach to global environmentalism. The title plays off of the old adage regarding an inability to see the forest because of the trees; when applied to environmentalism, it indicates a concern that too much effort and too many resources are often squandered by focusing on the separate issues that make up the current environmental crisis, rather than addressing the picture as a whole in an attempt to turn around the destruction of the planet and its atmosphere and to ensure a long, healthy state of cohabitation between mankind and the planet we rely on to sustain ourselves. The book looks at the actions and achievements of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) during its first five years of existence. Focusing on the treatment and sustainability of the planet's forests, they look for answers as to why some environments prosper while others are far less healthy, and examine in-depth the various interactions that each has with mankind. The authors also consider geographic factors, and how they might affect the long-term health and continued existence of the forests. Marla R. Emery, writing for the Geographical Review, believed that the book "has much to offer researchers and students interested in forests, whether from a social-justice or biological-conservation angle or permutations thereof." She went on: "Bringing the structure, experience, and results of CIPEC's first five years together under a single cover would be a sufficiently important accomplishment for the book. However, the self-reflective example of how to ‘sustain disciplinary rigor and develop interdisciplinary skills’ … also is an exceptional contribution." Emery also praised the book for its organization, including the glossary and bibliography that she predicted would prove useful for specialists in tangential fields.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, March 1, 1995, Jonathan Bendor, review of Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources, p. 188; March 1, 1997, Barry B. Hughes, review of Local Commons and Global Interdependence: Heterogeneity and Cooperation in Two Domains, p. 236.

American Scientist, May 1, 2004, Eduard Niesten, "This Land Is Our Land," review of The Commons in the New Millennium.

Comparative Economic Studies, September 1, 2007, Mieke Meurs, review of Understanding Institutional Diversity, p. 482.

Current Science, September 25, 2007, Subbiah Arunachalam, review of Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice.

Economic Journal, July, 1995, Alan Hamilin, review of Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources, pp. 1034-1035.

Ecosystem Health, September, 2001, Daniel E. Campbell, review of Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability, p. 178.

Environment, June 1, 2002, Sarah Michaels, review of Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability, p. 38; December 1, 2003, Eyal Benvenisti, review of The Drama of the Commons, p. 38; June 1, 2004, Forest Reinhardt, review of The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptations, p. 44.

Geographical Review, October 1, 2005, Marla R. Emery, review of Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, p. 618.

Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, August 1, 2004, Adrian Tanner, review of People and Forests: Communities, Institutions and Governance, p. 525.

Independent Review, September 22, 2006, Gary D. Libecap, review of Understanding Institutional Diversity, p. 307.

Journal of Economic Literature, September, 2002, review of The Drama of the Commons, p. 1073.

Political Science Quarterly, December 22, 1995, John Conybeare, review of Local Commons and Global Interdependence, p. 669; June 22, 2006, Jonathan Koppell, review of Understanding Institutional Diversity, p. 365.

Public Administration Review, May-June, 2001, review of People and Forests, p. 381.

Society and Natural Resources, September, 2005, Cynthia Caron, review of Improving Irrigation Governance and Management in Nepal, pp. 773-775.

Southern Economic Journal, July 1, 1993, Gordon L. Brady, review of Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, p. 249.

Whole Earth, September 22, 1998, review of Crafting Institutions for Self-Governing Irrigation Systems, p. 45; September 22, 1998, Peter Warshall, review of Governing the Commons, p. 36.

Whole Earth Review, June 22, 1992, Steve Barnett, review of Governing the Commons, p. 67.