Question of the Commons

by McCay, Bonnie J.; Acheson, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780816512058
• ISBN10: 0816512051
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

This collection of eighteen original essays evaluates the use and misuse of common-property resources, taking as its starting point ecologist Garret Hardin's assertion in "The Tragedy of the Commons" that common property is doomed to overexploitation in any society. This book represents the first cross-cultural test of Hardin's argument and argues that, while tragedies of the commons do occur under some circumstances, local institutions have proven resilient and responsive to the problems of communal resource use.

Table of Contents

About the Authors	ix
Preface	xiii
Human Ecology of the Commons	1	(36)
Bonnie J. McCay
James M. Acheson
I. CONSERVATION AND THE COMMONS
The Lobster Fiefs Revisited: Economic and Ecological Effects of Territoriality in Maine Lobster Fishing	37	(29)
James M. Acheson
Common-Property Resource Management and Cree Indian Fisheries in Subarctic Canada	66	(26)
Fikret Berkes
Game Conservation or Efficient Hunting?	92	(16)
Raymond Hames
Resource Management in an Amazon Varzea Lake Ecosystem: The Cocamilla Case	108	(13)
Anthony Stocks
Conservation and Resource Depletion: The Case of the Boreal Forest Algonquians	121	(21)
Robert A. Brightman
Marine Tenure and Conservation in Papua New Guinea: Problems in Interpretation	142	(29)
James G. Carrier
II. SPECIFYING THE COMMONS
Embedded Systems and Rooted Models: The Grazing Lands of Botswana and the Commons Debate	171	(24)
Pauline E. Peters
The Culture of the Commoners: Historical Observations on Old and New World Fisheries	195	(22)
Bonnie J. McCay
The Dynamics of Communal and Hereditary Land Tenure Among the Tigray of Ethiopia	217	(14)
Dan Bauer
The Common Swamplands of Southeastern Borneo: Multiple Use, Management, and Conflict	231	(19)
Patricia J. Vondal
Institutional Arrangements for Resolving the Commons Dilemma: Some Contending Approaches	250	(16)
Elinor Ostrom
The Call to the Commons: Decline and Recommitment in Asturias, Spain	266	(24)
J. W. Fernandez
``The River Would Run Red with Blood'': Community and Common Property in an Irish Fishing Settlement	290	(21)
Lawrence Taylor
III. THE STATE AND THE COMMONS
An Economic View of the Tragedy of the Commons	311	(16)
Ralph Townsend
James A. Wilson
A Malaysian Tragedy of the Commons	327	(17)
E. N. Anderson, Jr.
Intercepting the State: Dramatic Processes in the Assertion of Local Comanagement Rights	344	(26)
Evelyn Pinkerton
The Grass Roots and the State: Resource Management in Icelandic Fishing	370	(23)
E. Paul Durrenberger
Gisli Palsson
Bibliography	393	(36)
Index	429