Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

PINE ( Transcoop )

Promoting of Institutions for Natural Resource and Environmental Management in Central and Eastern Europe

Start: 12/2002
End: 11/2005
 

The framing of project was based on a combination of two aspects, first, developing institutional analysis, and secondly, its application to natural resource management and agri-environmental protection. In addition, it focused on a special region, i.e., the Central and Eastern European countries in transition (CEEC’s). The main objectives of this cooperation project were:

  • To establish a fruitful partnership and communication between the two institutes
  • To investigate relevant sub-topics and case studies in small groups
  • To exchange ideas and information during mutual visits and workshops
  • To extend the network of researchers interested in institutions and sustainability
  • To prepare joint publications and to improve knowledge for teaching
  • To develop better theories and methodologies on resources and institutions

The participating research groups had major experience in combining the two aspects mentioned above, i.e. institutions and natural resources, although their approaches differ in some respect and are rather complementary in nature. The empirical case to which they decided to apply their research concepts can be considered as a phenomenon of “twofold institutional change”, because in includes both basic reform of the economic and political system affecting agriculture in the transition countries and transformation towards sustainability and multifunctionality of agriculture. The transition countries had to cope with these two challenges at the same time. By means of interaction and communication, joint problem identification and research work the group initiated processes of mutual learning, contributed to the improvement of their theoretical and methodological framework and made proposals how to facilitate the two processes of institutional change indicated above. The project led to a long-term cooperation between Humboldt-University and the Ostrom Workshop in Bloomington. In 2009, Professor Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Prize in Economics for her pioneering research on the ways in which communities throughout the world have creatively devised methods to sustainably manage resources critical for their survival. Her work in particular changed the way scholars and practitioners understand the commons. In 2014, after many years fruitful cooperation the Workshop in Institutional Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems (WINS) (www.wins.hu-berlin.de) was established at Humboldt University supported by the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Iniana University (www.indiana.edu/~workshop).



Researcher: Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn, Dr. Volker Beckmann, Dr. Markus Hanisch, Dr. Franz Gatzweiler, Dr. Thomas Sikor, Dr. Insa Theesfeld

Project Partners:

Professor Elinor Ostrom, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Government, Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and also Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) at Indiana University, Bloomington, U.S.A.

Funding:

Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, TransCoop-Programm zur Unterstützung von deutschen und US-amerikanische oder kanadischen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften, die gemeinsam an einer wissenschaftlichen Themenstellung arbeiten

 

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