FYI... Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: Dolsak, Nives <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Conf. Ann.: Constituting the Commons Date: Tuesday, September 07, 1999 10:50 PM Please excuse cross-posting. CONSTITUTING THE COMMONS: Crafting Sustainable Commons in the New Millennium The Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP) Bloomington, Indiana, USA, May 31 - June 4, 2000 We are pleased to invite you to attend the eighth biennial IASCP conference. The conference will take place from May 31-June 4, 2000, at the Indiana Memorial Union, Bloomington, Indiana. We have planned an exciting program of panels, workshops, and fieldtrips. The panels will cover a wide range of topics from traditional common pool resources (such as forests, surface and groundwater, and fisheries), to global commons (oceans and atmosphere), new commons (Internet, genetic pool, and others), and theoretical issues that apply across various commons. The deadline for paper and panel proposals is October 31, 1999. We have organized a set of pre-conference workshops focused on traditional and new research and teaching approaches. You will have an opportunity to examine a collection of books and other publications on commons along with the latest edition of the CPR Bibliography. The IASCP is an interdisciplinary association with more than 800 individual members from over 108 countries. The conference will provide an opportunity for networking with colleagues from all over the world. Nives Dolsak and Elinor Ostrom Program Committee Co-chairs http://www.indiana.edu/~iascp/2000.html E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University 513 N. Park Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-3895 U.S.A. Phone: (812) 855-7704, Fax: (812) 855-3150 ------------------------------------------------------------------- CONFERENCE THEME: The conference will look at the long-standing and new commons. We propose to explore common-property institutions of the past centuries-many of which continue into current times-and examine how they adjust to technology development and changes in the structure of the users as well as how they respond to an ever-expanding global economy. The conference will examine the role of donors as their ideas and incentives may shape the performance of different institutional arrangements. Further, we will explore new commons as they are created with invention of new institutions and technology. The global commons will be examined as they continue to increase in importance. We will look at a multitude of institutional arrangements as they are likely to be used in complex, large-scale commons. Market institutions will be looked at as they may exist side-by-side with common property and governmental institutions, particularly when rights to place greenhouse gases are paired with obligations to create carbon sinks in forests that may be governed and managed by common property or governmental arrangements. Thus, the long-standing and the new commons will be important topics for serious research and continued policy analysis. A major challenge is to provide a coherent theoretical analysis and synthesis of prior and current empirical research so that scholars, citizens, and officials are prepared for the future. PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS DEADLINE: The panel, paper, and poster abstracts of less than 500 words should be submitted to the Program Co-Chairs, at [EMAIL PROTECTED], at the latest by October 30, 1999. The final papers should be submitted by March 31, 2000. Please send a Word or Word-Perfect file as an e-mail attachment. SESSIONS TOPICS: (1) New Commons Technology development creates new common pool resources (Internet) and enables codification and management of existing common pool resources (genetic pool). How do issues of access, social exclusion, intellectual property rights, and commercialization shape the governance of these common pool resources (CPRs)? Population settlement creates common property that has to be managed by all residents (condominiums). Budgets of private and government corporations as well as international organizations (for example, EU farm subsidies) and the allocation of their shares among competing activities can also be analyzed as a common pool resource. (2) Global Commons The use of global environment (atmosphere, oceans, forests) and allocation of resources in nobody's land exhibit high complexity, larger number, and high heterogeneity of resource users. How can we then apply lessons learned from selected international regimes to the design of governance of new international problems? (3) Natural Resources and Their Interlinkages Fisheries, surface and groundwater, grazing lands, and forestry have traditionally been the strongest topics in the work of IASCP members. How can we incorporate the economic and the political context in the analysis of these resources? When we analyze change over time, what is the time frame we should examine? In addition to exploring the issues that pertain to these resources, we propose to look at the interlinkages in the use of different resources. (4) Adaptation and Resilience to Change What challenges do CPR managers face when technologies allow for more efficient (and/or destructive) use of a resource and when demographics of the resource users change? How do changes in macro-economic and macro-political systems affect management of CPRs? Did the Asian financial crisis affect local CPRs? Do common property regimes change as countries exhibit drastic shifts from stable political systems to periods of flux and a lack of well-functioning domestic macro-political institutions? What aspects of these changes can be accommodated within common property regimes and what kinds have detrimental effects? (5) Theoretical Questions A number of important theoretical questions will be addressed that will enable a synthesis of the efforts in the empirical, case-study approach, statistical analyses, as well as experimental research. The major theoretical issues proposed to be addressed are: emergence and sustenance of self-organized cooperation; property rights, markets, and CPRs; linkages of higher-level organizations in CPR cooperation problems; heterogeneity and change among resource users; uncertainty, variability, and shocks; adaptive management of CPRs; experimental laboratories work. (6) Experimental Economics Given the initial experiments on common-pool resources that establish the willingness of subjects to agree upon a distribution of appropriation rights, sanction each other, and use communication for creating agreements and for verbal sanctions, what have recent experiments added to our knowledge about common pool resources? Has anyone explored multi-good commons? How does heterogeneity of assets or information affect behavior? We know that size of group tends to be positively related to contributions to public goods. Is the opposite effect found in common-pool resources? What else is going on in the study of experimental commons? (7) Failures and What We Can Learn from Failing Institutions What can we learn from the well-intended schemes to improve people's lives and resource management that failed to do either? Were the managers too optimistic about the capability of managing the system? Was the institutional arrangement imposed on the resource users who lacked the capability to resist a failing plan? Did the external shocks shake the CPR beyond its ability to adapt? (8) Privatization Under what conditions will markets work most effectively in managing and allocating the flow from CPRs? How we can apply lessons from selected successful marketable permit schemes to other CPRs? (9) Historical Communal Societies Indiana and the Midwest experienced a strong history of communal societies. New Harmony flourished in the mid-1800s and at its peak had nearly one thousand members. Shakers' communities were common in the Midwest and reached their peak by the mid-1800s. Both societies lost its importance with the onset of the industrial revolution and with the decline of popularity of their values. (10) External Influences on Local Commons How much autonomy can a common property regime have? What gives a common property regime the autonomy-low importance for the national economy, its superiority over other institutional arrangements, or others? (11) Role of Donors When outsiders donate financial and other resources to support common property regimes, their action sometimes significantly affects the outcomes both in positive and negative ways. Many of the problems come as a result of the set of ideas that are being implemented as well as the incentives the donors face. Academics share some of the responsibilities here since our ideas have been the ones that they have tried to implement. (12) Advocacy as a Means of Empowering Resource Managers Advocacy may improve the ways the external environment views a common property regime and empower the resource managers. However, if advocacy is pursued by an organization, this may fundamentally change the nature of the organization. PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOPS: On Wednesday, May 31, 2000, the day prior to the official opening of the conference, we will organize a set of half-day workshops focused on various research approaches and methodologies for the analysis of the commons. With the help of our colleagues at various specialized research centers, we have organized the following workshops: - Participatory Rural Appraisal: Bob Fisher (Regional Community Forestry Training Center, Kasetsart University, Thailand); - Experimental Economics: James Walker (Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, and Department of Economics, Indiana University, Bloomington); - Geographical Information systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing: Tom Evans and Glen Green (Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indiana University, Bloomington); - Review of the Common Property Literature over the last 15 years: James Thomson (Associates in Rural Development, Burlington, Vermont); Victoria Edwards (Faculty of the Environment, University of Portsmouth, UK); and Nathalie Steins (Produktschap Vis Afdeling Natuur & Milieu, Rijswijk, Netherlands) - Agent Based Modeling, Joshua Epstein (Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.) FIELD TRIPS: This region offers possibilities for some important and intriguing field trips. For Friday, June 2, 2000, we have planned four full-day field trips and one half-day field trip: - New Harmony B a 19th century town in Indiana of two early communal societies. (Full-day) - Angel Mounds B an archeological site of an ancient, well-preserved Native American town on the Ohio River, focuses on early indigenous social organization. (Full-day) - Indianapolis B strong inner-city neighborhoods and other urban commons. (Full-day) - Lothlorien and May Creek B two contemporary communities that own their own forests. (Full-day) - Heartwood - tour of variously managed Indiana forests led by members of a cooperative, regional environmental action group. (Full-day) - Carbon Tower and Morgan-Monroe State Forest B state-of-the-art technology in the middle of a state forest to study carbon sequestration processes--global commons--and a look at a state-managed public forest. (Half-day) VENUE: The conference will be held on the beautiful campus of Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. The woodland campus hosts a towering library with a collection of almost 6 million volumes; a Musical Arts Center with its stage along the lines of European opera houses; an Art Museum designed by I.M. Pei; a splendid art deco Auditorium; an outstanding rare books library; and many more noteworthy attractions. The town of Bloomington is situated in the lush, rolling hills of southern Indiana and is the home of many fine restaurants and coffee houses. ACCOMODATIONS: By holding the meetings on a university campus, we are able to offer a variety of housing arrangements, ranging from university dormitory rooms, rooms in nearby motels, and antique furnished rooms in the Indiana Memorial Union Building. The dormitories will offer housing at a much lower rate than is feasible in a large city. Further details will be forthcoming. REGISTRATION: We are planning online registration as well as mail registration. The online registration will be available on the conference web site (http://www.indiana.edu/~iascp/2000.html) by November 15, 1999. ------- End of forwarded message ------- ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker Division of Environmental Management & Design Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 ************************************
