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Class Readings and Plans for Thursday, October 15
Tragedy(?) of the Commons
Class Plan
Today we draw the bottom-up (micro foundational) and top-down (systems) approaches together, considering the famous "tragedy of the commons" approach first set out by Garrett Hardin in 1968. First, we read Hardin's original article, which states that common-property regimes cannot work. Then we read part of Elinor Ostrom's demonstration that they can, a demonstration that won her the Nobel Prize in Economic Science (even though she was a political scientist, not an economist). Then we read a short interview with Ostrom where she explains the significance of her work. When you have read these three pieces, but at any rate before 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14, please post an answer to one of the following questions:
- After Ostrom, just where does Hardin's analysis still make sense?
- Why do you think "Tragedy of the Commons" is now such a commonplace expression?
Readings
- Hardin, Garrett (1968), The Tragedy of the Commons, Science 162 (3859): 1243-48.
- Ostrom, Elinor (1990), Analyzing long-enduring, self-organized, and self-governed CPRs, chapter 3 of Governing the Commons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). READ pp. 58-61, 88-102, and at least one case study in between.
- Alternet (2010) Interview with Elinor Ostrom
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