Working Together

by Poteete, Amy R.; Janssen, Marco A.; Ostrom, Elinor

• ISBN13: 9780691146041
• ISBN10: 0691146047
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-12
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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.Working Togetherexamines how different methods have promoted various theoretical developments related to collective action and the commons, and demonstrates the importance of cross-fertilization involving multiple-methods research across traditional boundaries. The authors look at why cross-fertilization is difficult to achieve, and they show ways to overcome these challenges through collaboration.The authors provide numerous examples of collaborative, multiple-methods research related to collective action and the commons. They examine the pros and cons of case studies, meta-analyses, large-N field research, experiments and modeling, and empirically grounded agent-based models, and they consider how these methods contribute to research on collective action for the management of natural resources. Using their findings, the authors outline a revised theory of collective action that includes three elements: individual decision making, microsituational conditions, and features of the broader social-ecological context.Acknowledging the academic incentives that influence and constrain how research is conducted,Working Togetherreworks the theory of collective action and offers practical solutions for researchers and students across a spectrum of disciplines.

Author Biography

Amy R. Poteete is assistant professor of political science at Concordia University in Montreal. Marco A. Janssen is assistant professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. Elinor Ostrom is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, and the cowinner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
List of Tables	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Prologue	p. xxi
Introduction
Overcoming Methodological Challenges	p. 3
Social Science Debates over the Superiority of Particular Methods	p. 7
Multiple Methods: Promises and Challenges	p. 11
Practical Challenges and Methodological Trade-Offs	p. 14
Technological Development and the Costs of Border Crossing	p. 15
Availability and Accessibility of Data	p. 17
Career Incentives as Methodological Constraints	p. 18
Training	p. 19
Career Incentives and Specialization	p. 20
Our Substantive Focus	p. 21
Interactions between Theory and Methods	p. 23
Multiple Methods and Collaborative Research	p. 23
Practical Constraints on Methodological Choices	p. 23
Career Incentives and Methodological Practice	p. 24
Outline of the Book	p. 24
Field Methods
Small-N Case Studies: Putting the Commons under a Magnifying Glass	p. 31
The Conventional Theory of the Commons	p. 31
The Case Study Method	p. 33
Cases, Case Studies, and Case Study Research	p. 33
Analytical Strengths and Weaknesses	p. 34
Practical Considerations	p. 37
Synthesizing Challenges and Coordinating New Research Efforts	p. 39
Contributions to the Study of the Commons	p. 45
Property Rights and Tenure Security	p. 45
Group Characteristics	p. 52
Resource Characteristics	p. 57
Case Studies as a Foundation	p. 60
Broadly Comparative Field-Based Research	p. 64
Methodological Practices over Fifteen Years of Research	p. 65
Defining the Units of Analysis	p. 66
Trading Geographic Scope for Numbers?	p. 68
Theoretical Aspirations and Methodological Practices	p. 74
Practical Challenges to Broadly Comparative Field-Based Research	p. 74
Costs of Data Collection	p. 75
Research Design and Sampling	p. 76
The Implications of Data Scarcity and Costliness	p. 78
Meta-Analysis: An Introduction	p. 78
Weighing the Benefits and Costs of Meta-Analysis	p. 81
Coding Strategies and Missing Data	p. 81
Potential Sources of Sample Bias	p. 83
The Choice of Methodological Strategy: Weighing Costs against Control	p. 86
Meta-Analysis: Getting the Big Picture through Synthesis	p. 89
Meta-Analysis: A Recapitulation	p. 89
The Common-Pool Resource (CPR) Research Program	p. 90
Defining Variables	p. 92
Compensating for Gaps in Case Materials	p. 93
Contributions	p. 94
Overall Assessment	p. 101
NIIS: A Hybrid Approach	p. 102
Adaptation of the CPR Protocols	p. 103
Measurement and Sampling	p. 104
Contributions	p. 105
Overall Assessment	p. 107
Other Synthetic Studies	p. 107
Additional Examples of Meta-Analysis	p. 108
An Example of Narrative Synthesis	p. 111
Progress and Continuing Challenges	p. 113
Collaborative Field Studies	p. 115
Collaboration in Field-Based Research, 1990–2004	p. 116
Two Research Partnerships	p. 118
Community-Based Management of Common-Pool Resources in Tanzania	p. 118
Traditional Management of Artisanal Fisheries in Nigeria	p. 120
Thoughts about Research Partnerships	p. 124
CGIAR: A Global Research Alliance	p. 124
IFRI: An International Research Network	p. 126
Strategies for Data Collection	p. 127
Strategies for Coordination	p. 128
Contributions and Challenges	p. 129
Comparing the Strategies and Drawing Implications	p. 132
Models and Experiments in the Laboratory -and the Field
Experiments in the Laboratory and the Field	p. 141
The Experimental Method	p. 142
Laboratory Experiments of Relevance to the Study of the Commons	p. 144
Public Goods Experiments	p. 146
Common-Pool Resource Experiments	p. 150
Insights from Public Goods and Common-Pool Resource Experiments in the Laboratory	p. 153
Face-to-Face Communication in the Laboratory	p. 153
Heterogeneity	p. 156
Sanctioning Experiments	p. 158
Field Experiments	p. 159
Toward a New Generation of Experiments of Commons Dilemmas	p. 163
New Developments in Laboratory Experiments	p. 164
Toward a New Generation of Field Experiments	p. 168
Conclusion	p. 169
Agent-Based Models of Collective Action	p. 171
A Brief Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling	p. 171
Cellular Automata	p. 172
Networks	p. 173
Agents	p. 174
Strengths and Weaknesses of Agent-Based Models	p. 175
Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma	p. 177
Cooperation among Egoists	p. 177
Evolving Strategies in Prisoner's Dilemma Tournaments	p. 178
Spatial Games 1814	p. 180
Spatial Public Goods Games	p. 181
Indirect Reciprocity	p. 182
Evolution of Costly Punishment	p. 185
Evolution of Social (Meta) Norms	p. 187
Future Challenges	p. 188
Conclusion	p. 191
Building Empirically Grounded Agent-Based Models	p. 194
Comparing Simulations with Data	p. 195
Different Approaches to Combine Empirical Data and Agent-Based Models	p. 196
Agent-Based Models of Laboratory and Field Experiments	p. 198
Role Games and Companion Modeling	p. 204
Models of Case Studies	p. 207
Methodological Challenges	p. 210
Conclusion	p. 212
Synthesis
Pushing the Frontiers of the Theory of Collective Action and the Commons	p. 215
Synopsis of Research Developments Reviewed in Parts II and III	p. 217
Toward a More General-Behavioral Theory of Human Action	p. 220
Assumptions of a Behavioral Theory	p. 222
The Centrality of Trust	p. 226
Unpacking the Concept of Context	p. 227
The Microsituational Context	p. 228
The Impact of Microsituational Variables on Cooperation	p. 228
The Challenge of Linking Contextual Scales	p. 231
The Broader Scale Affecting Collective Action	p. 232
Ontological Frameworks	p. 232
An Ontological Framework of Social-Ecological Systems	p. 234
Predicting Self-Organization Drawing on the SES Framework	p. 236
Diagnosing Institutional Change	p. 239
Challenges for Future Research	p. 243
Conclusion	p. 245
A Theoretical Puzzle: Why Do Some Resource Users Self-Organize and Others Do Not?	p. 246
Learning from Multiple Methods	p. 248
Interlocking Developments in Methods and Theory	p. 249
Methodological and Disciplinary Cross-Fertilization and Theoretical Innovation	p. 251
Sequential Movement between Methods and Disciplines	p. 252
Combining Multiple Methods and Disciplines in a Program of Research	p. 255
Spaces for Cross-Fertilization	p. 257
Practical Challenges	p. 258
Trade-Offs in Training and Research	p. 258
Professional Incentives	p. 260
Collaborative Research as a Collective-Action Problem	p. 262
Rewards to Individual and Collaborative Research	p. 263
Fragmentation of Academia	p. 265
Misunderstandings and Mistrust	p. 266
Long-Term Funding	p. 269
Responding to the Challenges	p. 270
Looking Forward	p. 271
Notes	p. 275
References	p. 289
Index	p. 339
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