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1990Economics

Ostrom: shared resources a community governs itself

Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012)1 min read

The point, in one line

Shared things do not have to be destroyed. Ostrom found eight conditions under which a community keeps its own resources alive for centuries — with no privatisation and no boss.

How it works

Spanish irrigation systems and Swiss alpine pastures have worked for centuries with no owner and no state, and what separates them from the ones that fell apart is rules the group wrote itself.

Clear boundariesWho has the right to the room, the key and the name.

Rules that fit hereWhat you take and what you put in matches your club.

Collective choiceA rule the group did not adopt by vote is a request.

Somebody checksThe monitor answers to the users, or is one of them.

Graduated sanctionsA first time is not treated like a fifth.

Fast dispute resolutionA dispute is settled today, not by committee.

Six items for your one page of rules; the seventh — a recognised right to make your own — depends on the faculty, and the eighth is for large systems.

The same thing, in your club

The situation
The same five people run the event and sixty put it on their CV. The room is left messy by people who did not book it.
What the model says
Free-riding is the predictable state of any shared good until somebody agrees otherwise. A year later those five burn out.
What you do
Write one page of rules for the room and the budget and put it to a vote at a meeting — a rule adopted by presidential decree will not hold.

What it claims

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Who created it

An illustrated emblem, not a portrait.

Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012)

1990

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Why this is your problem

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Why gslk uses it

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Where it runs in the product

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Source

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Rights and licence

In copyright

The primary source is in copyright. This page retells it in our own words and cites it rather than reproducing it.

What this connects to

These works are related to the one you just read — and not by accident:

Xenophon's Oeconomicus — the text the word "economics" comes from

Xenophon (c. 430 – c. 354 BC) · c. 362 BC

shared competencies: Economics of the organisation, Span and structure

Finding sponsors: parama (charitable support), paid sponsorship, and reporting back afterwards

2026 rugpjūtis

shared competencies: Economics of the organisation, Impact and responsibility

Aristotle's Politics: community, the common good, and the limit money does not have

Aristotle (384–322 BC) · c. 335 BC

shared competencies: Economics of the organisation, Impact and responsibility

Carroll’s pyramid of responsibility

Archie B. Carroll · 1991

shared competencies: Economics of the organisation, Impact and responsibility

Grounds these competency domains

Of the ten gslk competency domains, this work grounds:

Economics of the organisation Impact and responsibility Span and structure

The student version

Ostrom: shared resources a community governs itself

The same work written for a member: what to do with it in the club.

Check it yourself

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