The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom: Commons, contestation and craft

by Wall; Derek

• ISBN13: 9780415641746
• ISBN10: 0415641748
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-02-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize-winning work on common pool property rights has implications for some of the most pressing sustainability issues of the 21st century - from tackling climate change, to maintaining cyber space. In this book, Derek Wall critically examines Ostrom's work, while also exploring the following questions: is it possible to combine insights rooted in methodological individualism with a theory that stresses collectivist solutions? Is Ostrom's emphasis on largely local solutions to climate change relevant to a crisis propelled by global factors? Ostrom has written a body of work which demonstrates how people can construct rules that allow them to exploit the environment in an ecologically sustainable way, without the need for governmental regulation. This volume argues that in a world where ecological realities increasingly threaten material prosperity, such scholarship provides a way of thinking about how humanity can create truly sustainable development, balancing resource constraints with human needs. Given the interdisciplinary nature of Ostrom's work, this book will be relevant reading for economists, political scientists, ecologists and the interested public.