Some thoughts on Elinor Ostrom

Just heard about the passing of Elinor Ostrom, one of the greatest minds of our day.  Only met her once.  I am happy to report that at least I wore my good suit that day!  I knew she was not well, but it never occurred to me that she wouldn't be around at some point.  I always assumed I would bump into her again at some point.

My meeting--I was introduced by my PhD advisor--was brief, but memorable.  It involved a fawning group of political scientists (most of them accomplished scholars in their own right, but who reminded me of eager elementary school kids trying to get their teacher's attention), an exploding LCD projector, and a purple sweatsuit.  She gave a talk which started out poorly, weighted down by powerpoint slides, that made a sudden and remarkable turn for the better when, in a flash of light and a puff of smoke, the projector bulb popped, forcing her to riff the rest of the talk.  Which went from terrible drudgery to deeply entertaining.

When Krister, my advisor, told her what I was working on, she said, "You're doing very important work."  I said, "I'm glad, but mostly I'm just having a lot of fun."  She smiled and said, "I've been doing this for forty (did she say forty?) years, and that's what's kept me going."

Ostrom is commonly described as the scholar who recognized that common property--what we call common pool resources--which are things which can be used up but which anyone can extract--could be effectively managed by small-scale, informal governance arrangements that do not require the heavy hand of the state, or the creation of property rights.  That is her most well recognized insight, but more important than that, perhaps, is that she spawned a large, well-organized research program that has succeeded in disentangling much that was mysterious about why people often fail to conserve their resources.

Ostrom's most famous work is her book, Governing the Commons.  But her CV would stretch to the moon and back seven times.

A sad day, but her students, friends, and colleagues continue her work through the institutions and norms she fostered.