Human
Ecology Review
Official Journal of SHE
Science devoting special issue to "Tragedy of the Commons"
Date: December 12, 2003
Contact: Paul Stern, 202.334.3598
On December 12, 2003, the journal
Science will devote a special issue to the 35th anniversary of its publication of "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin.The lead article for this special issue, "The Struggle to Govern the Commons," by Thomas Dietz, Elinor Ostrom, and Paul C. Stern, is the result of the work the three did on the National Academies report, the
Drama of the Commons, (National Academies Press, 2002).The "tragedy of the commons" is a central concept in human ecology and the study of the environment. It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interaction in special situations.
Research over the past thirty years has helped clarify how human motivations; rules governing access to resources; the structure of social organizations; and the resource systems themselves interact to determine whether or not people succeed in maintaining the natural resources that support human well-being. In the
Drama of the Commons, leaders in the field review the evidence from several disciplines and many lines of research and present a state-of-art assessment. They summarize lessons learned and identify the major challenges facing any system of governance for resource management.The book also highlights the major challenges for the next decade: making knowledge development more systematic; understanding institutions dynamically; considering a broader range of resources (such as global and technological commons); and taking into account the effects of social and historical context.
This report can be read in its entirety at
http://books.nap.edu. Paul C. Stern was the study director for the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, which wrote Drama of the Commons. Thomas Dietz and Elinor Ostrom were members of the committee. For more information on this committee go to http://www7.nationalacademies.org/hdgc/Completed_Projects.html."...the current review is both timely and welcome. The edited
volume puts these studies in historical and intellectual perspective,
summarizes what has been learned, and indicates promising directions for
further research. ... The introductory chapter by Dietz, Dolsak, Ostrom,
and Stern is a masterful summary of issues... Unlike many edited research
volumes, this book is truly more than just the sum of its separate
chapters. The editors have successfully integrated the chapters... The
book also is highly authoritative... Finally, the chapters uniformly are
clearly and succinctly written and are just plain interesting. In sum,
this volume is an excellent resource and should be on the bookshelf of
anyone concerned with environmental policy or natural resource
management."
-- Society and Natural Resources , 2003
Elinor Ostrom, Thomas Dietz, Nives
Dolsak, Paul C. Stern, Susan Stonich,
and Elke U. Weber, Editors,
National Research Council, 2002
Tom Dietz has offered SHE members at-cost copies of the book Drama
of the Commons, published by the National Research Council’s
Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change. The Society has been able
to purchase 80 copies, which we will sell on a first-come first-serve
basis to SHE members who add the purchase price of $15 to their SHE dues
of $60 (or $30) for the year 2005. The SHE purchase price includes
shipping (surface mail overseas).
2005 Membership Form
Copyright 2001, The Society for Human Ecology
The Society for Human Ecology (SHE) is an
international interdisciplinary professional society that promotes
the use of an ecological perspective in both research and
application. The Society holds regular conferences, conducts workshops and symposia, and
co-sponsors a variety of related activities to further integrate work among professionals in fields
pertaining to human ecology.
Membership fees are $60 for regular members, $150 for contributing members, $1000 for sustaining members, and a concessionary rate of $30 for student members, members from developing countries, and retired members.
For membership information contact:
Barbara Carter
College of the Atlantic
105 Eden Street
Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA.
or use the online contact form