12.06.2012
In deep gratitude we commemorate Professor Elinor Ostrom, who died on the 12th of June 2012.
She was a great inspiration for the Growth in Transition initiative. On 28th June 2010 she contributed to the Growth in Transition conference in form of a video message. It was a great honour for our initiative to have her contribution as a Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences, which she was awarded in 2009 for her analysis of the commons (common ownership and use of resources).
In a short, friendly, insistent and illustrative input she left a great legacy for the Growth in Transition initiative.
Professor Elinor Ostrom warned of thinking about growth only in economic terms. She highlighted that the Economic Sciences often tend to simplify and thus ignore a lot of what really matters in our lives. In her view it’s essential to understand complexity and to deal with it properly. Effective problem-solving as well as reasonable and suitable structures are the topics we should focus on.
She suggested to understand growth as growth of knowledge and this knowledge as knowledge of diversity. She thinks of this as THE challenge of the coming century:
– knowledge of biological and ecological diversity,
– knowledge of institutional diversity,
– knowledge of human diversity.
For more information about her work please visit the following webpages:
http://elinorostrom.indiana.edu/
http://www.bollier.org/blog/elinor-ostrom-remembered-1933-2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/business/elinor-ostrom-winner-of-nobel-in-economics-dies-at-78.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1339589027-vpV84OS5x8tCjAnSA98zmQ
