When was Elinor Ostrom born and where did she grow up?
Elinor Claire Awan was born on the 7th of August 1933 in Los Angeles, California. She grew up across the street from Beverly Hills High School during the post-Depression era.
Elinor Claire Awan was born on the 7th of August 1933 in Los Angeles, California. She grew up across the street from Beverly Hills High School during the post-Depression era.
Ostrom studied groundwater basins in Southern California where locals pumped too much water causing saltwater to seep into the aquifer. Her dissertation focused on how individuals dependent on that source collaborated to manage the resource effectively without state intervention.
Her book Governing the Commons published in 1990 summarized eight design principles for sustainable common pool resources. These rules included clearly defined boundaries appropriation rules matching local conditions and graduated sanctions for violators.
Ostrom and her husband Vincent founded the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in 1973. The center attracted scientists from different disciplines around the world to collaborate on research projects under a workshop principle rather than university hierarchy.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Ostrom the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009. She became the first woman to win this prestigious award sharing it with Oliver E. Williamson.
At 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday the 12th of June 2012 she died at IU Health Bloomington Hospital at age 78. Her husband Vincent died seventeen days later from complications related to cancer at age 92.