Resilience Research School
Course: An Introduction to Common Pool Resources (3 hp)
A deeper look into the Tragedy and Drama of the Commons (2hp)
Time period: 7-15 Feb and 21 Feb – 7 March
Course leader: Miriam Huitric
[email protected]
Course outline
Brief description of course content
Many of today’s environmental crises and conflicts relate to some extent to a “Tragedy of the
Commons”. What are the commons? Why is there a tragedy? How do we prevent or reverse a
tragedy? And what is meant by the “Drama of the Commons”?
This course introduces theoretical and applied approaches to understanding and analysing the
nature and use of common property/ common pool resources in the context of social-ecological
systems. This includes: game theory, institutions, institutional analysis and social networks. We
explore this field using exercises, lab work and case studies – both to illustrate and apply the
course’s theoretical content.
The course is divided into two parts. The first part (3 hp) is an introduction to common-pool
resources. This part is intended to provide an overview of the field of study of CPRs, the
objective being to guide students in the exploration of the field of CPRs and their management/
governance, and to relate this to their own area of research. This part is based on lectures,
experiments and seminars.
The second part of the course (2 hp) will go into more depth on a number of aspects, and is
seminar based. The objective is to deepen students’ understanding of this field. This will be done
by focusing on 4-5 aspects, to a certain degree determined by the students’ particular interests.
Aspects of relevance are: limitations of the design principles devised by E. Ostrom (e.g. scale,
historical perspective, power asymmetries); how to cope with uncertainties in the biophysical
and/ or social components of the system in which the CPR in question is set (e.g. thresholds,
number of factors needed to understand the CPR, what affects co-operation); and how are
learning and knowledge incorporated. Seminars will be run by a group (2-3) of students.
Students are expected to come to the seminars prepared, meaning having gone through all of the
assigned material. Seminar leaders (2-3) will receive a task to help them prepare their particular
seminar. The final assignment will be based on the analysis of a case study from a CPR
perspective. The focus of the analysis will be determined between the course leader and the
student.
IMPORTANT: It is possible only partake in Part I or Part II of the course. If a student opts to
only participate in Part II they must be familiar with the literature to Part I, feel free to contact
the Course Leader if you are in doubt. Regardless, all students must come to the Intro.
Theory, method and applications to be used in the course
Concepts
Methods
Applications
Tragedy of the Commons
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Common Pool Resources
Institutions – norms, rules and rights
Property rights
Social networks
Lab experiments
Field work
Institutional Analysis
Network Analysis
Understanding human behaviour
Case study
Roles of organisation of stakeholders
and institutions in managing the
commons
Course schedule:
During Part I, a number of the activities will overlap with the Master’s module: “Drama of the
Commons”. Asterisked (*) activities in the schedule denote activities for the PhD course alone.
All lectures are in room 251 unless otherwise noted
Day
Date
Duration
Part I. 3hp : February 7– 15.
th
1
Wed 6
11:00-12:00
th
2
Thurs 7
13:00-14:30
th
3
Fri 8
9:00-10:00
10:15-11:15
11:30-12:30
th
4
Mon 11
10:00-12:00
Library
th
5
Tues 12
10:00-12:00
th
6
Wed 13
10:00-12:00
7
8
th
Thurs 14
Library
th
Fri 15
13:00-15:00
10:00-12:00
Activity
Assignment
*Introduction to the course (Miriam Huitric)
Lecture: Tragedy of the Commons (Miriam Huitric)
Lecture: Experiments & CPR (Therese Lindahl)
Experiment: Lab experiment (Therese Lindahl)
Exercise
Written assignment 1
*Seminar 1: Discussion of Exercise (Miriam Huitric)
Discussion of Assignment 1 (Therese Lindahl)
Lecture: Drama of the Commons – role of and challenges
for institutions in managing the commons (Miriam Huitric)
*Seminar 2: Present Assignment 2 and discuss (Miriam
Huitric)
Lecture: Networks in local resource management (Beatrice
Crona)
Part II. 2 hp : February 21 and March 7th
st
1
Thurs 21
10:00-12:00 *Seminar 3: topic to be determined after Course Intro
Library
13:00-15:00 *Seminar 4: topic to be determined after Course Intro
th
2
Wed 6
10:00-12:00 *Seminar 5: topic to be determined after Course Intro
Library
13:00-15:00 *Seminar 6: topic to be determined after Course Intro
th
3
Thurs 7
10:00-12:00 *Seminar 7: Presentation and discussion of assignments
Library
13:00-15:00 *Seminar 7: Presentation and discussion of assignments
Written assignment 2
Hand-in Assignment
17:00 to Miriam
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course(s) students should:
Part I:
1. Know what defines a common-pool-resource (CPR).
2. Be familiar with the challenges behind sustainable CPR management and with solutions
(theory and in practice) to avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons.
3. Be able to see how the field of CPR study relates to own research or own field of study.
Part II:
4. Have a deeper understanding of the concepts of CPR study, and to explain in which
contexts different aspects of CPR are more or less useful/ applicable.
5. Be able to identify and understand the limitations of existing theory and approaches to
preventing the “Tragedy of the Commons”.
6. Be able to relate and contrast the CPR field of study with other disciplinary approaches,
with an aim to enrich CPR understanding and usefully formulating the limitations to the
literature used in this course.
Assessment and grading criteria
Part I
Relative
grading weight
50%
50%
Part II
Relative
grading weight
50%
50%
Type of assessment
Seminars
Written assignments
Type of assessment
Seminars
Written assignment
Learning outcome
1
2
x
x
x
x
Learning outcome
4
5
x
x
x
x
3
x
x
6
x
x
Participation in all components is compulsory. Participation does not only mean attendance, the
participant must take an active role in the seminar. Failure to attend a seminar will result in a
grade of Fail.
Criteria for assessment:
The following grades are issued, the lower limits for each grade is expressed as a percentage of
the maximum points available:
P Pass – student shows proficiency in stipulated goals, and has full attendance
F Fail - Below 50% Poor or insufficient conduct
Reading List – readings should be done prior to lectures/seminars
Course Book:
PART I & II:
Ostrom E. 1990. Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 280 pp.
PART II
You have a wide range of interest areas for Part II as I see it. Here are some books I think might
be interesting - this is only a possibility at this point, please let me know if this is a) if any of
these books are of interest – list in order of preference, b) how relevant are these – do you have
other suggestions – an email will do. I will confirm AT THE LATEST and the Intro if/what the
book will be:
•
•
•
•
•
Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, National Research Council,
Ostrom E, Dietz T, Dolsak N, Stern PC, Stonich S, Weber EU. The Drama of the
Commons
Buck, S. The Global Commons: An Introduction.
Hess C and Ostrom E: Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to
Practice
Ostrom E. Understanding Institutional Diversity.
Poteete AR, Janssen MA, Ostrom E. Working Together: Collective Action, the
Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice.
PART I:
Week 1: Tragedy of the Commons & Lab Experiments
Lecture: Tragedy of the Commons
Dietz et al. 2003. The Struggle to Govern the Commons. Science 302(5652): 1907 – 1912.
Hardin, G. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243-1248.
Case study of student’s choice (Homework Wed 6th)
Watch Elinor Ostrom’s Whiteboard Seminar “Going Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons”:
http://www.stockholmresilience.org/21/seminar-and-events/whiteboard-seminars/4-22-2009whiteboard-seminar-with-elinor-ostrom-going-beyond-the-tragedy-of-commons.html
Lecture: Experiments & CPR
Anderies et al, 2012. The challenge of understanding decisions in experimental studies of
common pool resources, Ecological Economics, 70(9): 1571-1579.
Ostrom, E., 2006. The value-added of laboratory experiments for the study of institutions and
common-pool resources, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 61: 149-163.
Shogren, J. and L.O. Taylor, 2008. On Behavioral-Environmental Economics, Review of
Environmental Economics and Policy, 2 (1): 26–44.
Week 2: Drama of the Commons & Institutions and Networks
Lecture: Drama of the Commons
Huitric, M. 2000: A literature study on the definition and structure of institutions and their
importance to natural resource management. Doktoranduppsats (doctoral literature review)
at Dept. of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Michael D. McGinnis, 2011. An Introduction to IAD and the Language of the Ostrom
Workshop: A Simple Guide to a Complex Framework. The Policy Studies Journal, Vol.
39(1): 169-183.
Ostrom, E. 1993: The evolution of norms, rules, and rights. Beijer Dicussion Paper Series No.
39.
Lecture: Networks in local resource management NOTE: This may change!!
Berkes, F. 2007. Community-based conservation in a globalized world. PNAS 104:15188-15193.
Bodin, Ö. and B. I. Crona. 2009. The role of social networks in natural resource governance:
What relational patterns make a difference? Global Environmental Change 19:366-374.
Berkes, F. 2009. Evolution of co-management: Role of knowledge generation, bridging
organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management 90:1692-1702.