Women You Should Know:
Elinor Ostrom
by Mark Walton
In the course of my formal education I’ve been taught
Garrett Hardin’s theory of ‘the tragedy of the commons’ twice, both times as
fact. In quite different contexts, the message was the same: unless public or
private institutions manage ‘common goods’ such as land, water, forests or
fisheries, they will be depleted and overexploited by greedy, uncooperative
individuals.
Whilst I was being taught that we could not be trusted to
manage our shared resources, one woman was studying the facts on the ground.
Elinor Ostrom was demonstrating
that, not only are groups of individuals quite capable of cooperating to manage
complex resources, but that they can do so more sustainably, and more
efficiently, than either governments or private companies.
From
the 1960s onwards, Ostrom studied many different examples of local, collective
systems of managing shared resources, ranging from ground water in California
to fisheries in Indonesia. She and her team were able to identify some key
principles of successful management. They found that neighbours came together
to set boundaries and assign shares and that common tasks were done together. Rules
were set, and monitors watched out for rule-breakers ,who could be fined or
excluded.
The
arrangements she studied were not put in place by governments or large
conservation organisations, they were built from the bottom up. They were based
in local cultures and discussed face to face. They were based on trust,
reciprocity and collective action.
Ostrom identified that some goods are neither ‘public’ nor
‘private,’ but instead are ‘common pool resources’ and capable of being sustainably
managed and fairly distributed by ordinary people, without recourse to either
the state or the market. In 2009, she was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in
recognition of a lifetime spent breaking new ground and challenging economic
orthodoxies.
Ostrom herself was always keen to point out there are ‘no
panaceas,’ but that where there is trust, cooperation and communication there
may be no end to the resourcefulness of people to manage the resources they
share, in ways that are fair and that enrich, rather than deplete, the resource
itself.
Elinor Ostrom died in June 2012, the month that I
established Shared Assets, a social enterprise that supports the development of
new ways of managing our woodlands, waterways, parks and green spaces. Ostrom’s
work is both a guide and an inspiration. But my admiration isn’t only academic
or based on a shared belief in practical, bottom-up solutions, her down-to-earth
humour, the humanitarianism that informs her work, and the twinkle in her eye, make
me think that Elinor Ostrom was someone I’d have enjoyed sitting up late with, and
sharing a whisky.
At a time when our world is convulsed by ongoing crises
within both the state and the market, you might think that we would all know
about a woman who won a Nobel Prize for describing an alternative way of
organising ourselves and our resources. As our old world order groans and
crumbles around us, we all need to know a lot more about Elinor Ostrom.
Mark Walton is the the founder and Director of Shared Assets, a London-based social enterprise that works with communities and landowners to develop new ways of managing woodlands, green spaces, parks and waterways. Shared Assets' vision is the creation of a 21st century commons. Mark is also a poet, spoken word performer and itinerant boat dweller.
Zesty has been running the Women You Should Know series every March since 2012 - to look at previous posts, use the blog archive on the right of this page.
