Sarah Gilbert reports for Daily Finance online that on Monday, two Americans, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Prize in economics. Ostrom is the first woman to earn this honor.Ostrom says her inspiration for her research came from her mother and her victory garden she had during the war. In her National Institutes of Health profile Ostrom states, ‘“so I learned all about growing vegetables and preserving them by canning.”’
“Describing how others in her hometown of Los Angeles -- as well as other communities in the U.S. and Britain -- worked together during World War II to grow food, Ostrom used her research to demonstrate how government bodies, neighborhoods, even schools of fish can act together for the common good when they face a shortage of resources. . . . Ostrom’s research also challenges the conventional wisdom that finite resources, unregulated by government or private industry, will be used up.”
Essentially, Ostrom is talking about employing sustainable development practices to prevent finite resources from being depleted. Ostrom argues that collective decision making involving all the stakeholders is the way to reach a proper decision. In Nepal, Ostrom engaged diverse interests to make, what was ultimately, a sustainable fishing decision regarding the shared waters of the stakeholders. Robert Schiller, a professor at Yale University “said, ‘Economics has been too isolated, and these awards today are a sign of the greater enlightenment going around.”’
As a result of Ostrom’s methods to solving problems involving resources and economics, Gilbert writes, “. . . the Nobel committee has awarded an economist whose work applauds sustainable agriculture and urges fewer state regulations and incentives (like petroleum subsidies and encouragement of destructive monocultures).” To read Gilbert’s article click here.
As the Associated Press reports, Ostrom currently works as a researcher for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program managed by Virginia Tech University’s Office of International Research, Education and Development. The Virginia Tech program, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development is conducting research on methods that promote environmentally sustainable agriculture and natural resource use.
“The program also supports partnerships among scientists in the United States and in developing countries focused on increasing food security and managing natural resources, reducing poverty and empowering women and other underrepresented groups.”
Ostrom, who is also a political scientist at Indiana University, made this statement, ‘“What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved -- as opposed to just having somebody in Washington ... make a rule [.]”’
“The program also supports partnerships among scientists in the United States and in developing countries focused on increasing food security and managing natural resources, reducing poverty and empowering women and other underrepresented groups.”
Ostrom, who is also a political scientist at Indiana University, made this statement, ‘“What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved -- as opposed to just having somebody in Washington ... make a rule [.]”’
To read the AP article click here.
Posted: 10/13/09
