Browsing by Author "Berge, Erling"

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Ancient Lands Cast Long Shadows: The Case for Reconnection with English Commons for Sustainable Management and Use
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Humphries, Andrew; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper attempts to bring into context historical and contemporary aspects of the institutional framework of English commons with particular reference to the upland grazing areas of the North and West which are of particular significance for sheep grazing. The context for a system based on ancient customary practice in the 21st century will be addressed together with proposals for modernising legislation based on statute. The contemporary response of commoners will be outlined with particular reference to Cumbria which embraces 30% of the English common land area. The principle characteristics discussed are relevant to England and Wales. Scotland has a different history and legal framework."
Common Property Rights Regimes in Norway and Sweden
(1997) Berge, Erling
"The present paper will use the categories developed in the English law of property to give a detailed and precise description of the property rights regimes governing the resource utilisation in the various cases of common property in timber land."
Commons and Landscape
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Olwig, Kenneth; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This essay will argue for the necessity of combining the historical/empirical and the theoretical/institutional oriented approaches to the commons, with an approach that takes cognizance of the commons enormous symbolic importance to society as an epitome of shared abstract values and democracy. The link between these approaches to the commons lies in the conception of the commons as landscape."
Commons for Whom? On New Coastal Commons on North Norwegian Coasts
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sandberg, Audun; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"There are dramatic events taking place on North-Norwegian Coasts during this period. On the surface this appears as a surprising shift in the opinion of the coastal population in crucial questions. One such fundamental question in coastal areas has been the issue of Norwegian membership in the European Union, where the opinion is tilting from opposition tied to fishing rights for wild fish towards support tied to marketing access for farmed fish. But underneath this there are other long term processes that might enable us to explain why the once crucial issue of local resource control now seems to be of less importance than it was in 1972 and even as late as 1994. This paper is an initial attempt to outline what is going on in a typical resource-dependent region when the fundamental institutional relations are changed. In doing so, it does not utilize contemporary concepts like privatisation, individualization, re-feudalisation, or other ideologically based constructs as explanatory factors. Rather it is using basic property rights as useful representations of an important analytical link between the biophysical world and the social world. By tracing the effects of different designs of property rights on both natural stocks of fish and on coastal ecosystems, and on social systems like coastal communities, firms, corporations and political parties, we might come nearer to possible explanations of seemingly surprising events. "The fundamental assumption here is that the attempts at a more 'rational' resource management for wild marine fish have had unintended consequences. Over the years this benevolent political gesture has become much like a Trojan horse for coastal communities. Hidden inside precious gift that modern resource management regimes were to the coastal population, there are three dangerous soldiers: one is the soldier of increased social rigidity that rises from increased ecological uncertainty, the second is the soldier of inefficiency and lack of innovation that results from the accumulation of inequality, and the third soldier is the danger of unsustainable use of coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services."
The Commons in Navarra: Urbasa-Andia-Limitaciones
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Oses, Nuria; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"As the common land in Navarra is so extended and diverse, in the following, I will put my attention in one of these common land: Urbasa and Andia, which have been till recently, state commons. I will analyse who are the actors entitled to appropriate, what are the goods the actors appropriate, how do the actors go about appropriating and what are the actors allowed to do with the good appropriated. I will also analyse the effect that the exploitation of Urbasa and Andia has had on the landscape of these territory."
Commons: Old and New
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Berge, Erling; Olwig, Kenneth; Carlsson, Lars; Jansson, Ulf; Sandell, Klas; Wedin, Maud; Pardo, Mercedes; Oses, Nuria; Sevatdal, Hans; Sandberg, Audun; Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Sellar, David; Humphries, David
"The document is a proceedings from a workshop 11-13 March 2003 in Oslo. It presents case studies on commons in Norway, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, and Wales (UK) along with 3 papers with more theoretical discussion of 1) characteristics of protected areas seen as a type of commons, 2) the symbolic value of commons, and 3) the problem of managing commons across levels of organization."
Commons: Old and New -- On Environmental Goods and Services in the Theory of Commons
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The modern and largely academic and urban initiated concern with environmental protection of landscapes, species, watersheds, biodiversity, ecosystem-services etc. are framed by a language suggesting that the main concern is the protection and preservation of precarious resources of common interests for mankind. "Thus the values deserving the attention of environmental protection seem to be very different from the concerns shaping the evolution of traditional commons: the control of access to and extraction of resources seen as limited but essential for the survival of local communities. "The paper will explore the theoretical differences and similarities of the two types of interests driving the concern for preserving values. It will be suggested that a basic difference lies in the distinction between values where there is rivalry in appropriation and values where there is non-rivalry. It will further be argued that in designing new institutions for managing protected areas, an understanding of traditional commons and how the new values to be protected are different from and interact with the old values will be important to achieve sustainability of resource use within the protected areas."
Community Rights and Access to Land in Scotland
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sellar, David; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The purpose of the paper was to give a flavour of the great land debate which has been raging in Scotland for some years, and of which the most tangible outcome so far has been the Land Reform Scotland Act. This Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in January 2003, contains provisions permitting general public access to land, and allowing for the community purchase of land. Before moving on to the land debate, the paper considered a number of preliminary points: the history of commons or 'commonties' in Scotland; whether anything approximating to an allemansrett might be said to exist in Scotland; the Trust concept; and two myths regarding ownership and access."
Comparing Forest Commons in Norway and Sweden Part I: What is to be Compared
(1996) Berge, Erling
"The paper will outline the history and legal foundation of a property rights regime to natural resources in Norway called 'Bygde Commons.' It will be contrasted with a different system of 'State Commons' and with the system in Sweden."
Comparing Legal Mechanisms for Managing Resources in Non-Arable Lands in Navarra, Spain, and Norway
(2002) Berge, Erling; Aizpurua, Josemari; Galilea, Pedro
"Institutions governing the usage of non-arable rural lands, including forest, grasslands and shrublands in Navarre will be compared to equivalent institutions in Norway. About 47% of the land areas of Navarre are lands held in common. About one third of the surface of mainland Norway can be classified as some type of commons. If nothing else, the size of the areas and their long history make the commons important for these two societies. "The Fueros of Navarre were first written down in 1155. Before that time they were customary law. The name, 'fueros', means codified local customs. Also other parts of Spain got their Fueros at that time. They are comparable to the landscape laws of northern Europe, which also were being codified at about the same time. When Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon annexed Navarre in 1512, the Navarre people were promised that the Fueros would be respected. They kept their powers of self-governance more or less intact until 1841. However, for the management of non-arable rural land used in common they survived in many parts of Navarre as customary law well into the 20th century. "The Norwegian landscape laws were in 1274 replaced by a common law code. During the union with Denmark (1380-1815) and Sweden (1319-1363, 1814-1905), the rules governing the utilization of the non-arable rural lands called commons (or Kings commons) were basically unchanged until 1857 even though important amendments were introduced and the area covered by the rules much diminished. In 1857 new legislation, later rewritten several times, lastly in 1992, defined 3 types of commons. "The preliminary investigations and comparisons of Navarre and Norway have raised two profound questions. The first puzzle is the large amount of commons in Navarre; or rather, the almost complete failure in Navarre of the 19th century Spanish privatisation policy, both relative to the rest of Spain and relative to 18th century Norway. Why is Navarre special? The second puzzle grows out of the comparison of allocation procedures for the resources of the commons. If both societies champion equality, why does it take so different forms? In Navarre the first priority of the legislation on the village commons is to secure a distribution of the access that can help achieve a more equitable income distribution. The rules of distribution give a strong preference to the poorest of the village families. In Norway there is nothing resembling efforts at compensatory distribution. On the contrary, those with the largest farms will also have the largest rights in the commons. Yet, Norway is known as a very egalitarian society. What does this difference in implementing a common value really mean? "We will not in the present paper be able to answer these questions. The questions are more in the line of conclusions to the paper. We start by outlining the major institutions governing one type of commons in each society, the village commons of Navarre, and the state commons of Norway. We will look for similarities and differences in types of legal procedures: the formal rules of the institution governing the commons. We end by discussing some of the collective action problems encountered and types of solutions enacted. And conclude that more work will be needed to answer the basic question of what kind of values the institutions embody."
Democracy and Human Rights as Conditions for Sustainable Resource Utilization
(1992) Berge, Erling
"The game of chicken is seen as a simplified model of the structure of decision making in an open access resource. The discussion starts at the point where its users realize that population pressure or some equivalent external shock has made the utilization obviously unsustainable. To escape this social trap, the appropriators have to "invent" a local state to govern the appropriation process. Rational decision makers then have to consider transaction costs, externalities, distributional consequences and the distribution of social power. Some sequences of decisions may turn the game of chicken into a prisoners dilemma. The discussion is aimed at identifying necessary conditions the local state must satisfy in order to ensure a sustainable resource utilization. Democracy and human rights appears to be necessary."
Dynamics of the Climate Dilemma
(2024) Berge, Erling
"Despite a growing focus on climate change from governments around the world, carbon emissions continue to rise. To understand why little progress has been made, we must first conceptualise the problem and its core elements. For example, what dynamics of trust and cooperation shape human attempts to combat climate change? How does climate change represent a social dilemma? And how have social dilemmas been resolved in other areas? Dr Erling Berge, professor emeritus at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, responds to these questions using policy examples from Norway’s rich history. He is shedding new light on past failures and future possibilities for tackling this pivotal threat to life on this planet."
Editorial: 'Governing the Commons' for Two Decades: A Complex Story
(2011) Berge, Erling; van Laerhoven, Frank
"In complex systems, the elements are interrelated in ways that ensure that one element cannot be studied without accounting for the others. We take as a fact that the world over time has become more and more complex. The story of Elinor Ostroms Governing the Commons is among other things a story with a protagonist role for complexity. It is also a tale of the emergence and development of a complex of diverse but interrelated disciplines, and subsequently, angles, perspectives, methods, themes, insights, and lessons-learned. In the fall of 2008, it was 40 years since Hardin (1968) created a new research field by expounding his ideas about the commons. At one of our editorial meetings (6-7 November 2008) we realized that in a short while it would be 20 years since Elinor Ostrom (1990) transformed this same research field. We felt it would behoove our journal to take a closer look at what had followed from this publication. As we finalized our list of invitations and a letter explaining our intent, the news broke that Lin had been awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2009, sharing it with Oliver E. Williamson. What better reason can we give for what follows."
Editorial: Technology-dependent Commons: The Radio Spectrum
(2011) Berge, Erling; Kranakis, Eda
"Things owned in common--or jointly--as the case may be, abound. They abound today as they did in earlier times, in urban as well as in rural settings, and in high tech artifacts like Wikipedia as well as in traditional symbols. Usually such commonly held goods do not create any noteworthy problems for those who share an interest in them. But in some cases they do represent an intrinsically difficult situation for stakeholders: their governance and the distribution of benefits begin to pose a social dilemma. Unless the stakeholders find ways of overcoming the problems, the resource will stop yielding benefits. Such dilemmas appear in cases where the resource is subtractable (one appropriator’s benefits diminish the benefits available for other appropriators), and where it is difficult or impossible to exclude any particular appropriator. Elinor Ostrom used traditional commons in irrigation water, pasture, and forestry to study how communities were able to overcome such dilemmas, in part through the creation of appropriate institutions for resource management. She suggested eight design principles that could assist in constructing such management institutions."
Editorial: The 20th Anniversary of Elinor Ostrom's Governing the Commons
(2011) van Laerhoven, Frank; Berge, Erling
"Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010. Since its appearance, the book has changed the agenda of commons research and practice. True to its title, it has sparked a search for ways to actually govern the commons--rather than simply declaring them anachronisms, for which there is no place in a world that looks to develop sustainably. Additionally, whereas since 1968 the commons debate was dominated by the ideas of one biologist, Governing the Commons opened up the quest for further understanding of commons questions to a great many other disciplines. In this special feature project we have sought to emphasize both aspects of the impact of the book."
The Environment as a Common Good in the Time of Globalization: Its Conceptualization and Social Perception
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Pardo, Mercedes; Echavarren, Jose M.; Aleman, Eliana; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"It is usual to consider the environment as a common good, but we are far from having a clear definition of either of them: the environment and the common. Both vary according the scope of the analysis (world, national, regional, provincial, local), the different societies, and the diverse elements included, and so vary the social perception and action on the environment. On the other hand, new and increasing demands from the environment as a common good, as it is the case of preserving biodiversity or landscape among others) might clash with traditional commons. Societies face now a challenge to compatibilize traditional commons and the new common: the environment. In order to study the idea of the environment as the new common is relevant to pay attention to legal conceptions and issues related with property rights. A conceptual and historical clarification of the sense and meaning of common is required. In this paper the conceptual problematic of the term common for the case of the environment is analyzed, and the change in its social perception within the process of industrialization and globalization. A case study of Navarre (Spain) show how people conceive Nature in terms of common good."
Environmental Protection in the Theory of Commons
(2003) Berge, Erling
"The modern and largely academic and urban initiated concern with environmental protection of landscapes, species, watersheds, biodiversity, ecosystem-services etc. are framed by a language suggesting that the main concern is the protection and preservation of precarious resources of common interests for mankind. "Thus the values deserving the attention of environmental protection seem to be very different from the concerns shaping the evolution of traditional commons: the control of access to and extraction of resources seen as limited but essential for the survival of local communities. "The paper will explore the theoretical differences and similarities of the two types of interests driving the concern for preserving values. It will be suggested that a basic difference lies in the distinction between values where there is rivalry in appropriation and values where there is non-rivalry. It will further be argued that in designing new institutions for managing protected areas, an understanding of traditional commons and how the new values to be protected are different from and interact with the old values will be important to achieve sustainability of resource use within the protected areas."
Forest Finns vs. Swedish Commons
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Wedin, Maud; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"The Savolax expansion 1400-1500; Svidden cultivation as a general; Svidden cultivation made by forest Finns; spruce forest, slash- and burn, forest rye; Svidden 'culture': Access to land more important than ownership, using large areas; Extended expansion to Scandinavia, first Sweden, later Norway and even the colony New Sweden. Also migration east and southwards (religion). Reasons for migration (push-): Civil war, war against Russia, deterioration of climate, overpopulation, taxation (noble people who were granted land as reward for instance Ruovesi and Rautalampi) (and pull) the search for new svidden areas. Two choices: change the way to support themselves or migrate. The state asked for new settlements, gave about six years of freedom from taxation."
History and Management Institutions for Forests and Pastures of Northern Fenno-Scandia with an Emphasis on Norway
(1996) Berge, Erling; Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen
"The paper presents some observations on the historical development of legal institutions for forest management in the Norwegian part of northern Fenno-Scandia, discussing the motivations shaping them and outlining the principles currently embedded in them. The emphasis is on forest commons and Norway. Some comparisons to Swedish institutions and other resource usage systems than forest commons are presented. The goals of the lawmaker is seen as equity in access, economic performance of the industries, and protection of the resource productivity. To implement these goals three design principles are used: 1) power sharing between state and appropriators, 2) resource specific regulations of technology and quantity harvested, 3) variable geographical boundaries for access and enjoyment of benefits."
The Importance for Indigenous Peoples of the Rights to 'the Lands Which They Traditionally Occupy': The Case of the Sámi
(2003) Berge, Erling
"The question of why it is important to the Sámi people to get property rights to 'the lands which they traditionally occupy' needs to be based on an understanding of what property rights to land, or land tenure, means in a modern capitalist society as well as in a traditional customary law society. The present discussion will not be exhaustive, but will emphasise those parts of the theme which may help us understand the situation in Finnmark. The answer offered is that for the Sámi people property rights to their traditional lands are important because it gives them, in a capitalist society, better control of the future uses of the resources in their lands."
Improving Biodiversity Policy: What Do We Need to Know?
(2003) Berge, Erling
"The paper considers the problems encountered in the political process of managing biodiversity. What does it take to change the current relations between humans and nature? Discussing this problem it is common to talk of nature and biodiversity as if human society were not part of nature. As a first cut at the problem this is permissible. But in this discussion we have to ask: what are the boundary assumptions we make about politics and society, and what are the boundary assumptions about nature and biodiversity? "By boundary assumptions I mean something like constitutive ideas. The ideas and conceptions we usually take for granted and help us delineate abstract phenomena from the background. Thus in talking about political systems and political processes our ideas are usually circumscribed by taking for granted that we talk about democratic polities and democratic political processes. Even if we know there are changing conceptions of what democracy means and even if we know there are different opinions of how best to achieve the ideal democracy, we do know it is different from tyranny or oligarchy or autocracy. In arguing about what policies need to be enacted to protect or use nature sustainable the boundary conditions of the political system excludes other systems of governance than democracy. Likewise the boundary around nature is taken to exclude humans and human activities. Thus nature is seen as threatened by human activities and in need of protection. "If nature and society are conceived in these ways, what do politicians need to know to protect nature? Do we know enough today to do so? If not, what is the lacking information? In a democratic polity there are limits to permissible actions. Given current understanding of the problem and available legitimate political actions, is it possible to protect nature? "Some say yes, it is just a lack of political will. Others say no, we need a new ecological morality among people before we can expect improvements. It will be argued that both answers underestimate the complexity of the interrelations of morality, political will and human activity."
The Institutional Geography of Early Modern Swedish Commons: The Case of Grimstens Hundred in Central Sweden
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Jansson, Ulf; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"In the debate on commons over the last 30 years the starting point has often been Hardin's seminal paper The Tragedy of the commons from 1968. This view has been challenged over the years, mainly within the discussion that can be labeled common-pool resources (CPR). This discussion has however focused very little on the geography of the commons. A growing and interesting discussion on institutional geography partly connected to actor-network theory engage both the geography and the social organisations. This paper is an attempt to bring the historical geography of the commons in Sweden into this discussion."
Joining the Northern Commons: Lessons for the World, Lessons from the World (Opening Address)
(2003) Berge, Erling
From the Introduction: "The invitation to this conference starts by asking 'Who owns the Arctic?' It is an important question, but how do we answer such a question. To me it seems rather difficult. I have occasionally asked the appropriate experts in Norway to answer the question 'Who owns Norway?' As yet there is no answer to the question for all of Norway, only for bits and pieces. Recently I was asked to answer the question: 'Who owns the mountains of the world?' As far as I have been able to determine it is impossible to give an answer in terms of types of owners and quantities of land owned: for example how many square kilometres are owned by governments, and how many are owned by individuals or groups of citizens. "So how come it is so difficult to answer meaningfully such a simple question? After all, in Britain they made a complete survey of all the owners of lands of England already in 1081-86, and again in 1874-76 (Cahill, Kevin 2001). Well, maybe the question is not simple at all? Ownership of lands is nothing like owning a car. The records of England from 1086 and Britain from 1876 showing owners and ownership are possible only because they employ a simplified and for most purposes inadequate concept of ownership. It is based on what lawyers would call the dominium plenum concept of land ownership. A modern capitalist society could not function if the dominium plenum conception of land ownership was the dominant way of organising land ownership. The ability of assigning, within the same land area, property rights to some specific resource to different persons is essential."
Legislation on Commons (Community Property/Bienes Comunales) in Navarra and Some Notes from Visits to Ultzama and Ituren
(2006) Berge, Erling
"Availability of legal texts exemplifying the successful governance of a complex resource system as a commons is important. Those who look for ideas about how scarce resources can be utilized for the common good can find some here. Those who wonder how it is possible to govern the commons for the benefit of the poorest villagers may also find some ideas here. But the culture, the ideas and beliefs about equity and social justice that the legislation builds on is not included for obvious reasons. This has to be added by the reader or found elsewhere. Without a certain foundation of informal institutions the formal rules will not produce results as intended. The report presents local and global rules governing commons in Ultzama in Navarre, Spain together with some field notes on two village commons, Ultzama and Ituren."
Legislation on Commons in Norway
(2011) Berge, Erling; Mitsumata, Gaku; Shimada, Daisaku
The report presents translations from Norwegian to English of three acts governing the exploitation of the two types of Norwegian commons called State Commons and Bygd Commons. A fourth act included here provides mandate for regulating the governance the almost extinct Private Commons if needed. The original text in Norwegian is found at http://www.lovdata.no/info/lawdata.html (read March 3, 2011). Translations were done by Julie Wille.
Local Ideas About Rights of Common in the Context of a Historical Transformation from Commons to Private Property
(2013) Berge, Erling; Haugset, Anne Sigrid
"More than 200 years after the King sold one of the 'Kings commons' (Follafoss, located in the current Verran municipality) to urban timber merchants, local people in some ways still behave as if the area is a kind of commons. The paper will outline the history of the transformation of the area from an 18th century Kings commons to a 21th century battleground for ideas about ancient access and use rights of community members facing rights of a commercial forest owner and the local consequences of national legislation. This battleground will be illuminated by the answers that current users provide to questions about what they believe their rights of access and use are. We shall in particular look for differences between what people believe and what the law seems to say about rights and duties in the Follafoss area."
Managing Commons Across Levels of Organization
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Carlsson, Lars; Berge, Erling
"Co-management has proven effective for sustainable management of natural resources. However, contemporary research indicates that in many cases local communities of resource users have develop sophisticated systems of collaboration, not only with the State but also with numerous other actors. These experiences also show that the State is no unity meaning that a community can establish different types of relations with different units of 'the State.' In this article the concept co-management network is launched as a way to label, and thereby to get a better understanding of these webs of collaborative agreements. It is conjectured that co-management networks normally are developed over significant periods of time, that they in essence nurture cross-scale institutional linkages, and that these characteristics enhance capacity building for better natural resources management. Finally, it is suggested that more research, which would explicitly employ the idea of co-management networks should be conducted."
Modeling the Human Impact on Resource Systems
(1998) Berge, Erling
"The paper argues that the biodiversity and sustainability measures characterizing an eco-system are determined by three sets of variable characteristics. One set is the geo-physical parameters circumscribing the local eco-systems and its development. The second set is the longterm trends in climate change and other external long distance impacts such as acid rain and other kinds of fallout. The third set is the human usage of the eco-system and its resources. "Data must be collected on units permitting meaningful policy conclusions. It is argued that to get unbiased estimates of the size and direction of human impact on ecosystem characteristics data on all three types of causal variables are necessary and the model must include the appropriate interaction terms. "The paper concludes with a plea for more long term projects, such as IFRI, collecting data on all factors affecting the status of an ecosystem."
Modeling the Human Impact on Resource Systems
(1997) Berge, Erling
"Loss of biodiversity, reduction of forests, and declining fish stocks in the oceans are examples of major problems facing the emerging global society. The scale and diversity of human activites cause large scale alterations in the various ecosystems. Many of the changes are unwanted and some are clearly viewed as detrimental to the future utility of various resource systems. The many efforts around the world to change and improve the management of renewable resources attests to that. "Yet, we do not have any theoretical foundation for conclusions about the size of the causal impact on ecosystem characteristics of proposed changes, only beliefs about the probable direction. The knowlegde we have about the behaviour of ecosystems in response to human activity is practical, gained through centuries of mutual adaptations between social system and ecosystem. Or it is presented in broad common sense terms such as the increased pressure on resources coused by an indreasing number of people. As a basis for recommendations of policy this is not sufficient. "Among the forces affecting the development of an ecosystem, we need to distinguish causal factors which can be manipulated by political decisions from other human impacts and from the various natural forces affecting the ecosystem. We need to know why and under which conditions a certain politically chosen course of action will work to improve the desireable qualities of an ecosystem."
New Challenges for Old Commons: The Implications of Rural Change for Crofting Common Grazings
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper concerns the way in which 'old' common property institutions cope with and respond to 'new' challenges posed by post-productivist rural change. Common property regimes were once widespread throughout much of the Western European landscape but the prevailing trend over the last few centuries has been towards their demise. The interrelated pressures of population growth, commercialisation, industrialisation, successive rounds of enclosure legislation, and an academic and cultural privileging of individual forms of property, have all conspired to effect the extinguishment and erosion of communal resource rights (North & Thomas, 1973; Dahlman, 1980; De Moor et al. 2002). Nevertheless, a number of these 'old commons' have survived to the present day in countries such as Norway, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland."
Non-Monetary Aspects of Values in Land: Some Observations on the Relevance of Cultural Processes for the Price of Land
(1987) Berge, Erling
"The paper takes a special interest in the theoretical status of non-monetary factors in the determination of the price of land. The paper presents some speculation as to the nature of 'real property' and the types of values people see in it. Three other studies, one Norwegian and one from Sweden, concerning the pricing of agricultural land and woodland, and one English study concerning the values of farmers, are commented on with a view to the theoretical speculations. Then some evidence concerning the relative importance of various types of values and justifications for wanting these values are presented. The quality of the land for farming (farming as a way of life) and the historical relation between family and land (land as symbol of community membership) were the two most important factors for judging a price offer."
Norwegian Commons: History, Status and Challenges
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sevatdal, Hans; Grimstad, Sidsel; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"This paper will look at the Norwegian Commons with the following focus: How these ancient institutions have evolved during the last 200 years; The interests of the different stakeholders and the ensuing conflicts up to the present; How the institutions managing the commons have adapted to the changes in the Norwegian society from agrarian towards an industrialised and more urbanised country. By investigating the history and the privatisation and formalisation processes the commons have undergone, we are able to see how the institution has been able to adapt to changing economic and political environments. It illustrates the tension that has been and still is between the central power and the local community concerning the state commons. These tensions are however only one aspect of conflicts relating to the commons; at times there were equally high tensions between different local communities and also between various stakeholders within local communities. But maybe the most important is that it shows that the institution of the commons has persisted for nearly a thousand years, and that it may exist side by side with 'ordinary' private and public ownership of land. It can also adapt and modernise into becoming an important voice of the local community in local and central politics. It has also been a goal of this research to provide documentation of one example (of many) of the thriving existence of common property ownership in modern western countries, showing that this ownership form is not an 'archaic' or outdated form that only exists in poorer developing countries. Furthermore the report shows that the commons have not been a stagnant form of ownership, but has changed and still changes according to the tendencies particularly in the rural/agricultural sector. It discusses some of the modern time challenges for the commons in society."
On the Constitution of Order in Norway. Equality and Leadership: Strength in a Weak State?
(1999) Berge, Erling
"By order in this headline is meant something opposite of chaos or anarchy. The Norwegian society is not in anarchy or chaos. A person can go about his or her business expecting other persons to follow the same rules. And if someone does break the rules there are established procedures for sanctioning. And moreover, the order in Norway is seen as a democratic rule-of-law. "For the discussion here I will by democracy understand a society where collective action problems ultimately are solved be the consent of the people, either directly or indirectly (through negotiations by representatives). This does not necessarily mean a parliamentary democracy, but it means that there is some orderly way of making the difficult collective decisions, implement them, monitor them and sanction their breach. In short it means there is some kind of central government. And further, it means there has to be some orderly way of replacing this government if 'the people' thinks some of the available alternatives for governor will take better care of their common interest."
On the Correlation of Factors in Factorial Ecology
(1987) Berge, Erling
"Most studies in factorial ecology use orthogonal factors. But the assumption is that this, at best can be considered a theoretically limiting case. In 'reality' factors are assumed to correlate. "Introducing a distinction between factors describing the structure of a social system and factors describing the environment of the social system, the present paper argues that factors describing the structure of a social system in most cases will be found to be orthogonal. They will, however, have to correlate with factors describing the environment of the social system. A reanalysis of a previous study of the Norwegian factorial ecology gives some support for the argument."
On the Limits of Social Ecological Explanations in Comparative Research
(1981) Berge, Erling
"The central problem of social ecological theory is to understand how a population organizes itself in adapting to a constantly changing yet restricting environment. The 'ecological complex' (Duncan 1959) of population, organization, technology and environment are the main variables used in the studies of growth and development of social systems. A social ecological population with a common culture. It is clearly a non-actor system. Only rarely will one find coincidence of the boundaries of responsibility for a state and the boundaries of a culture."
Our Association Is ...
(2007) Berge, Erling; Prakash, Sanjeev
"IASC is a remarkable association in many ways. Pioneering a new area of cross-disciplinary research, it has deliberated over and realigned its mandate better to serve its core interests and goals. It continues to organise some memorable international and regional conferences. It has consistently broadened and diversified its membership base. And, in the process, it has probably helped to nurture a new breed of young professionals. Speaking on a personal level, few other associational gatherings of between 500-1,000 participants so effectively reproduce the informal intimacy of small groups--which can be both refreshing and conducive to discussion and sharing between persons of diverse backgrounds, cultures and interests--as do the biannual meetings of the IASC."
Power Relations and Security of Tenure in Malawi's Land Law
(2006) Berge, Erling
"Security of tenure has been identified as a key variable for motivating investment in agriculture and improving food security. In discussions security of tenure is sometimes taken to mean individual freehold. This is a misunderstanding. Security of tenure can be achieved for all forms of tenure, including commons. Security of tenure is, however, closely tied to the organisation of legitimate power in a society. Security of tenure requires rule-of-law and transparency of public management decisions. The paper will outline the structure of legitimate power over land rights as defined by Malawian statutory law and customary law. Security of tenure is a basic part of both customary and statutory law. In 1995 Malawi started a process of land policy reform. Based on various investigations the government issued its policy document 'Malawi National Land Policy' in 2002. Increasing the security of tenure is a major goal. The proposal of the government will be studied and assessed in relation to how it will affect security of tenure."
Principles of Institutional Design and the Management of Norwegian Nature
(2000) Berge, Erling
"The paper reviews some of the legislation relevant for the management of Norwegian nature to see if design principles suggested by Goodin can be recognized. Goodin's suggestions for the design of a 'good' institution are: --revisability - institutions ought to be revised as experiences with their working accumulate; --robustness - institutions should be able to adapt easily to 'appropriate' social change while resisting 'inappropriate;' --sensitivity - institutions should respond to motivational complexity among the relevant actors; --publicity - all institutional 'actions' should in principle be publicly known without thereby frustrating their purpose; --variation - the institutions ought to allow or even encourage variation/adaptation to local conditions. "The findings are that Norwegian legislation is fairly easily revisable and it has a lot of variation. The publicity principle has a weak legal standing. Robustness is difficult to gauge, but the intertwining of different acts and the long complex process of any major change of the law may represent some safeguards. The sensitivity of an institution is not only a function of the formal rules but also of their application. More centralised decision-making will tend to make the sensitivity to local actors and local conditions more difficult. There seems to be a systematic difference in centralisation of decision-making between the urban industrial concerns with nature and the rural- agricultural concerns."
Prolegomena to 'Reinventing the Commons'
(1995) Berge, Erling
"The program committee has chosen the theme 'Reinventing the Commons.' Commons have existed throughout all recorded history as an integral part of the resource management of local communities. With the emergence of the modern state and the capitalist economies, the commons of local communities around the world found themselves in a loosing battle with advocates of state ownership or individual ownership. The traditional knowledge embodied in the well established institutional frameworks was not cast in a form understandable to the bureaucrats of the state even in the cases where the bureaucrats might be willing to consider them on their merits. And often enough they were not cast in a form which made them adaptable to a changing environment. To survive, the practical knowledge of the benefits of commons have to be recast in the analytical language of academic disciplines."
Rates of Change in Norwegian Households 1974 - 77
(1984) Berge, Erling; Bugge, Liv Susanne
"The rates of transition between pairs of 18 types of households during the period 1974-77 are investigated for the women of the Norwegian Fertility Survey 1977. More than 80% of the women live in the 7 types of households called the main sequence of households because of its relation to a typical life course. The 7 types are single, cohabitation and married without children, and married with 1, 2, 3 or 4+ children. For these households number of children affects the rates more than age. The 11 types outside the main sequence are single parent households, cohabitation households with children and households with more than 2 adult persons. Multi-adult households recruit only from cohabitation households and seems to be a type of household on the increase. But the main thrust of the process of household formation going on between 1974 and 1977 supports the traditional family and the reproduction of the population to such a degree one has to question the impact of non-response in the data."
Reflections on Property Rights and Commons in Economies of Western Europe
(2002) Berge, Erling
From page 1: "My basic message is that commons, both as a concept and as a reality, is alive and well also in developed capitalist economies. In fact, without a sophisticated use of the particulars of institutions developed to govern the commons of Western Europe, the ability to govern the development of modern capitalist economies would be seriously hampered. And the urban way of life creates a demand for new types of commons. To me it seems that the more sophisticated capitalism becomes, the more sophisticated do institutions governing various types of commons become."
The Right of Public Access in Sweden: A History of Modernization and a Landscape Perspective
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Sandell, Klas; Berge, Erling; Carlsson, Lars
"In summary, the right of public access in Sweden is in common law and can be seen as the 'free space' between various restrictions, mainly: (i) economic interests; (ii) people's privacy; (iii) preservation; and (iv) the utilisation of the landscape. For example, camping for not more than 24 hours is generally allowed, traversing any ground, lake or river, swimming, lighting a fire etc. are permitted wherever the restrictions mentioned above are not violated."
Rural Development and Social Change in Ukraine
(1993) Berge, Erling; Borgen, Svein Ole; Skarsem, Knut
"The Agricultural University of Norway has, during the past few years, been actively working with the problems of rural society as these are related to changes taking place in the Ukrainian society after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This interest is organized as a development programme called Agroventure Ukraine, which has established contacts with Vojkovsky state farm in Zgurovka Rayon in order to explore and demonstrate how work and living conditions can be improved. Vojkovsky State farm is also participating in a Ukrainian-Norwegian joint venture company, aiming at improving their agricultural production. The problems encountered in the development program necessitate an investigation into the foundations for alternative local policies both at community level and business level."
The Social Ecology of Human Fertility in Norway 1970
(1981) Berge, Erling
"Few social science variables have received the amount of research and discussion which fertility has. Both time series and differentials of fertility have proved remarkably resistant to widely accepted theoretical explanations. The present work presents a theoretical explanation of the regional differentials in fertility observed in Norway in 1970."
Some Notes on the Terminology of Norwegian Property Rights Law in Relation to Social Science Concepts about Property Rights Regimes
(1995) Berge, Erling; Sevatdal, Hans
"The paper finds that the concepts of property rights law seem to be independent of the social science concern about divisibility of benefit and excludability from consumption. However, in the borderlands to property rights law, in human rights law and public rights to joint use of natural resources, some interesting constructs exist, like 'bygde'-commons and some relations best described as quasi-ownership. These may be of interest to the design of new management systems. In social science recognition of a distinction between indivisibilities of the ecological production system and divisibility of benefit may help clarity the management problem. It will for example largely rule out the use of geographical boundaries as a means for shaping motivations of just distribution of benefit is a goal for the management system."
The Structure of Households in Scandinavia Since 1950
(1985) Berge, Erling; Bugge, Liv Susanne
"The paper investigates the changing structure of households according to number of persons, number of children and sex and age of head-person. Definitions and their changes are discussed. Mean number of persons per household has decreased from about 3 in 1950 to about 2.5 in 1980. The proportion of one-person households has increased from about 20% to about 30%. The proportion of households with children has decreased from about one half to about one third of the households. The proportion of households headed by a woman has increased from about 20% to about 30%."
Unintended Consequences of Purposive Action and the Provision of Welfare
(1994) Berge, Erling
"The paper argues that unintended consequence ought to be a central concept in planning theory. In particular unintended consequences for a target population of the provision of welfare goods, are considered interesting. It is argued that two insufficiently recognized sources of difficulties for the provision of welfare lie, on the one hand, in consumer-consumer interactions and, on the other hand, in citizen-citizen interactions inherent in the process of providing welfare. To improve the performance of public policy measures, the planning of the various welfare goods must take into account how the substance of the process involved shapes these interactions producing unintended consequences. "In order to bring both unintended consequences and substance into planning theory it is necessary to find a way of classifying the substance as well as the unintended consequences of welfare programs. This is done by classifying the substance of welfare programs, the welfare goods, into private-, public-, club-, and positional- goods. Then the various unintended consequences are shown to be related to different types of consumer-consumer or citizen-citizen interactions. "The conclusion is that before a welfare planner can say anything about which measures may be appropriate for a particular welfare program, the planner must analyze the substance of the program and the likely interactions among the relevant target populations."
The Way We Think
(2004) Berge, Erling
"IASCP has completed its first conference in Latin America. It is the tenth general conference of our association. Incidentally it is also 15 years since the association was founded. As associations go we are fairly young. But among the young anniversaries are important. One way of using them is to think a bit about where we came from, where we are, and where we want to go. We may even wonder if there is a discrepancy between where we want to go and where we are heading. You may want to think about that. Here I want to think about who we are or maybe rather who we think we are. The collective expression of what we think we should be doing is found in our mission statement."