Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Habiliation of Dr. Andreas Thiel

Developing Institutional Economics for the Analysis of Social-ecological Systems

Start: 2009

End: 2012

The scale at which resources are governed is socially constructed and contested. It defines spatial fit of resource governance and interplay with other resource governance regimes as well as it defines the role of actors in resource governance. The project aims at a better understanding of the drivers and implications of processes that define the socially constructed scale at which natural resources are governed. Concerning factors shaping the scale of governance the project evaluates a) the explanatory potential of theories of institutional change, b) the changing role of either the state or decentral actors; c) the role of characteristics of physical transactions, and their change, d) the role of specific key actors and their mental models. In regard to the implications of re-scaling it aims to capture changes in a) actor constellations and b) performance of the institutional regime regarding the physical outcome of resource governance. The project aims to evaluate these issues in regard to governance of two natural resources of distinct characteristics: coastal resources and inland water resources. In order to capture these issues it aims to apply novel methodologies in a comparative case study framework applied to Northern (FRG) and Southern Europe (Spain and Portugal).

Researcher: Andreas Thiel, PhD

Cooperation Partners: Dr. Tim Marshall (Oxford Brookes University), Prof. Juan Luis Suarez de Vivero, Professor Leandro del Moral (University of Seville), Dr. José Luis Garcia (University of Lisbon), Dr. Marta Varanda (Technical University of Lisbon), Professor Michael D. McGinnis (The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington)

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn

Funding: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Publications and Presentations: see personal website of Andreas Thiel