The main topic of the conference "Design and Dynamics of Institutions for Collective Action", which is held in honour of Professor Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, will be institutions for collective action. These are understood as institutional arrangements created bottom-up in order to overcome problems over an extended period of time by setting certain rules regarding access to the group (membership), the use of the resources and services the group owns collectively, and the management of these resources and services.

A core question of the conference will be how the regulation and the design of these institutions responds to the environment they function in and what makes them into dynamic and resilient institutions. Furthermore, methodological aspects regarding how to analyze and compare institutions for collective action, and thus the methodology behind understanding the resilience of institutions for collective action (the so-called “grammar of institutions”) will also be covered in discussions.

Emphasizing interdisciplinary research, the organizers of the conference invite for papers in order to find inspiration in various domains within history, sociology, economics, anthropology and political and organization sciences.