Digital Library of the Commons

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Climate Change and Incentives to Cooperate in Local Commons
(2024) Halonen-Akatwijuka, Maija
"This paper analyzes incentives to cooperate in maintenance and improvement of local commons, such as irrigation systems. I show that climate change modelled as a reduction in agricultural productivity reduces the value of the relationship but also reduces the temptation to freeride in maintenance. The overall incentives to cooperate are improved because lower temptation to freeride is the dominant effect. Therefore, the negative effect of climate change is mitigated by higher degree of cooperation -- but only if agricultural productivity was initially so high that full cooperation was not possible. While climate change results in full reduction of surplus if agricultural productivity was initially relatively low and cooperation at the first best level was already sustainable."
Principles of Institutional Design in the Digital Commons: Evidence from the WeChat Social Platform
(Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop – WOW7 Conference, 2024) Yu, Shuyang; Wang, Yahua; Shu, Quanfeng
With the digital age coming, the governance of digital commons has become a new research hotspot. WeChat group chat is a frequent digital space in China, which can be regarded as an example of digital commons. Its characters may change the traditional commons theory. Elinor Ostrom once proposed eight principles of institutional design in common pool resources. In the digital commons, however, technological conditions replace natural conditions, and the rules are limited by the digital space itself, meanwhile the identities of collective actors have changed a lot. These changes may provide some opportunity to challenge Ostrom’s eight principles for traditional commons, and then build new theory of institutional design for digital commons. This paper explores the differences and connections between the digital commons and the traditional commons. By quantitative and qualitative analysis on WeChat group chats, we aim to develop new institutional design principles for digital space. The contribution of this study is to expand the theories of institutional design and to provide support for digital collective action.
Governance approaches to balance trade-off situations between Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. Insights from Chaco Culture National Historical Park, US
(2024) Kellner, Elke
While the UN and its member states place high hopes on the achievement of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Emissions Gap Report for 2022 concludes that the international community is significantly off track in achieving the Paris Agreement's goals, and there is currently no viable path to limit global warming to 1.5°C. In addition, the recently published Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023 shows that there is a global lack of progress. One of the barriers to achieving the goals are trade-off situations between the goals. This requires governance approaches to balance competing (resource) interests. This study gives insights into the governance approaches to balance a complex trade-off situation in the World Heritage site Chaco Culture National Historical Park, US, as a critical case in this regard. Data were collected through document analysis and 20 semi-structured interviews between 2022 and early 2023 and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The presentation concludes with reflections on how to improve governance processes to balance trade-off situations in WHS.
Formalizing the Theory of Planned Behavior in Agent-Based Models, Literature review
(2024) Taraghi , Mahdi; Yoder, Landon
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) offers a valuable framework for understanding humans decision-making. This paper explores how Agent-Based Models (ABMs) utilize TPB to investigate the interplay between social interactions, individual perceptions, and feedback from the environment in shaping behavior. We reviewed a collection of studies that utilize TPB within ABMs, focusing on how they formalize and operationalize this statistical model in a dynamic form. Our analysis reveals a diversity in approaches, which researchers implemented to handle this issue based on their research questions and available data. In most of the reviewed models, the dynamic nature emanates from evolution of SN or ATT. To account for social influence of agents and internal dynamics of the ATT or SN, researchers used Relative Agreement Model of opinion dynamics. Additionally, the review highlights various methods for translating intention into behavior within ABMs, ranging from threshold-based approaches to regression-based model. We conclude by proposing future directions for research, including incorporating dynamic updates for TPB constructs and exploring the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior. By addressing these considerations, researchers can develop more powerful ABMs for understanding complex social dynamics and decision-making processes.
Unraveling Reciprocal Dynamics: Examining Reciprocal Relationships in Governing Common Pool Resources through Collective Action
(2024) Wang, Yiran; Hasan, Hasibul
Collective action in the governance of Common Pool Resources (CPRs) is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Elinor Ostrom's design principles have advocated the role of social relationships, trust, and reciprocity among local level stakeholders as the foundation for voluntary governance. However, practical realities sometimes necessitate the involvement of higher-level authorities, primarily governments, in CPR governance to address social dilemmas. The coexistence of governance across multiple levels underscores the need for effective collective actions that bridge these entities. Yet, scholarly examination of the reciprocal relationship between governments and local-level stakeholders remains limited. This study aims to contribute to this research gap by conducting a structured review of empirical institutional research in water management cases. By exploring how collective action is facilitated in practice, this review paper seeks to answer two fundamental research questions: Is there a reciprocal relationship between government authorities and core resource users, and if so, what characterizes the nature of this reciprocity? This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricacies surrounding collective action within the realm of common pool resource governance. It sheds light on the nuanced interplay between resource users and higher-level governing bodies, offering valuable insights for sustainable resource management and governance practices.
Fostering African Data Commons: Embracing the Philosophy of Ubuntu
(2024) Sun, Simon; Muhadia Shabaya, Marie; Kalema, Nai Lee
The advancement of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) in Africa is gaining attraction, serving as a driver for economic expansion and industrial progress across sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and education. However, the A.I. development in Africa is still in its nascent phase due to several factors, including the high cost with building data infrastructure, limited internet accessibility and a shortage of powerful computing resources essential for training A.I. models. Central to these challenges is the scarcity of access to high-quality training data, predominantly controlled by companies located outside of Africa, a phenomenon some describe as “data colonialism.” The fundamental problem arises from the proliferation of privacy-centric regulations embedded within various regulatory regimes and contractual agreements. Consent serves as the mechanism through which individuals in Africa relinquish their personal information. At its essence, data governance centers on the rights of individuals regarding their personal information, reflecting a regulatory philosophy originating in the West.
Structures and Cultures: Computational self-regulation in a non-hierarchical coliving house
(2024) Kronovet, Daniel; Frey, Seth; DeSimone, Joseph
"We present a case study of Sage House, a 9-person coliving house run with the help of a novel computational toolkit called Chore Wheel. We introduce motivating themes of leadership, organizational resilience, and cybernetics, followed by design principles for what we call distributed digital institutions. This design philosophy frames the coliving house as a type of commons, and draws significant inspiration from the work of economist Elinor Ostrom. We then present specific mechanisms of the system, and an exploratory analysis of the data they produce. We conclude with some open questions concerning the risks and benefits of technologically-mediated social institutions."
Bridge Contracts in Ghana
(2024) Greenacre, Jonathan
Hundreds of millions of people in Africa and other developing regions lack access to basic services. For example, over 2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. One key reason is weak state-provided collective goods in many African countries which are needed to connect firms and governments located in urban areas with excluded communities, most of whom live in rural communities. These weak goods include poor roads, lack of wifi access, and low levels of public education. This paper argues innovative contracts can foster polycentric governance which can connect firms based in urban areas and rural communities in Africa. These 'bridge contracts' can produce substitute collective goods connecting these urban firms to rural communities, even when state-provided collective goods are weak. The paper uses the 'Vodafone Cash' mobile money payment system as a case study for this argument. The paper describes how contracts embedded within the system enable Vodafone to provide this service to 11 million, including those in rural areas. This argument is supported by two weeks of in-country interviews with members of the Vodafone Cash marketplace conducted in January and a survey of such members in September 2023.
Common-Pool Resources and Climate Change Adaptation in Nigeria: Bridging Local Actions and Global Goals
(2023) Innocent Onuche, Oche; Francis Ojonugwa, Onu
Despite the escalating challenges arising from climate change, the imperative of sustainably managing common-pool resources assumes a central role in bolstering local resilience and advancing global climate objectives. Nigeria, renowned for its abundance of communal resources, serves as an illuminating case study where the intersection of "Common resources and Climate Change Adaptation" takes precedence. This paper meticulously explores the intricate interplay between communal resources and strategies for adapting to climate change, shedding light on the pivotal role of these shared assets in harmonizing grassroots initiatives with international climate aspirations. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach that draws insights from environmental science, political ecology, economics, sociology, and governance studies, this study scrutinizes the dynamics of resource management, local adaptation practices, and the influence of policy frameworks. Methodologically, a comprehensive array of sources, including government reports, publications from national and international organizations, scholarly articles, books, research papers, and archival materials, informs the investigation. The theoretical foundations of this study encompass the Adaptive Capacity Framework, Social-Ecological System (SES) Framework, and Environmental Governance Theory. The paper underscores that Nigerian communities reliant on common-pool resources face heightened vulnerability to climate change impacts, encompassing intensified droughts, flooding, and extreme temperature. These adverse consequences jeopardize the availability and quality of common-pool resources, thereby affecting community well-being. In conclusion, this paper contends that communities reliant on common-pool resources have demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resourcefulness in addressing the challenges posed by climate change. However, persistent critical obstacles including resource degradation, deficient governance structures, and limited access to information and resources, demand attention. This paper emphasizes the imperative of fostering community-based resource management institutions and enhancing community access to climate information and early warning systems as viable measures to confront the multifaceted challenges of climate change in Nigeria.
Fairness in Energy Transitions: Confronting Ecologically Tragic Situations
(2024) Rodeiro, Manuel
Transitioning societies to spatially extensive renewable energy sources (e.g., manufacturing and erecting wind turbines, solar panels, building geothermal power plants, hydroelectric dams, harvesting biofuels, and extracting the rare earth minerals and other materials necessary to do all of this) engenders numerous questions of fairness. Despite aiming to make society greener, developing renewable energy infrastructure ensures the future degradation and destruction of wilderness and ecosystem services on a massive scale. But continuing usage of fossil fuels will result in a myriad of environmental disasters (flooding, shoreline erosion, forest fires, desertification, glacial melt, etc.) from climate change. How ought societies to fairly balance the litany of competing interests in cases where whatever decision is made, grave harms will occur? In hopes of gaining greater clarity for confronting these issues, this paper examines four reasonable approaches (cost-benefit, sufficientarian, democratic, and pluralist) for fairly adjudicating clashing demands in ecologically tragic situations, i.e., circumstances in which the preferred way of meeting some citizens’ vital interests is through acts of environmental destruction that undermine the vital interests of other citizens. This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the respective frameworks, ultimately recommending a liberal pluralist approach for securing fairness in energy transitions.

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