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Chair: Professor James Walker, Workshop Co-Director and Professor of Economics, IUB
9-14-09: Heuristic Decision Making and Institutional Design
Dr. Peter Todd, Professor of Cognitive Science, Informatics, and Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington
9-16-09: Behavioral Types and Evolution of Institutions
Pontus Strimling, Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
9-21-09: One Illness Away: Tracing the Beginnings and Ends of Poverty among 35,000 Households of Five Countries
Dr. Anirudh Krishna, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC
9-28-09: Problems of the Commons: Group Behavior, Cooperation and Punishment in a Two-Harbor Experiment
Professor Roy Gardner, Chancellor’s Professor of Economics, Henry H. H. Remak Professor of West European Studies, and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington, and Academic Director of the Kyiv School of Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine; and Dr. Dmytro Zhosan, Assistant Professor of Business and Economics, Ripon College, Wisconsin
9-30-09: Cooperativeness and Impatience in the Tragedy of the Commons
Andreas Leibbrandt, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
10-5-09: Uncertainty and the Search for Truth at Trial: Defining Prosecutorial "Objectivity" in German Rape Cases
Professor Shawn Boyne, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis
10-7-09: Metaphors and Methods for Designing Commons: Improving Institutional Artisanship
Dr. Bryan Bruns, Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
10-12-09: Experimental Investigation of Majority Rule Voting in Common Pool Settings
Robert Holahan, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
10-14-09: Social Integration and Cooperation
Carina Cavalcanti, PhD Candidate, Professorship of Environmental Policy and Economics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Professor Colin Flint, Director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS), and Associate Professor, Department of Geography, and Richelle Bernazzoli, Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Susan Stewart, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Evanston, IL
10-26-09: Creating Common Grazing Rights on Private Parcels: How New Rules Produce Incentives for Cooperative Land Management
Dr. Carolyn Lesorogol, Associate Professor, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis
10-28-09: The Emergence and Outcomes of Marine Protected Area Institutions in the Pacific Islands
Christopher Bartlett, PhD, ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-2-09: Actor Heterogeneity and Spatial Interactions in Land Use Systems: Agent-Based Perspectives on Natural Resource Management
Dr. Tom Evans, Associate Professor, Department of Geography; Director, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC); and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-4-09: Exploring the Dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems: The Case of the Taos Valley Acequias
Michael Cox, PhD Candidate in Public Affairs, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington
11-6-09: What's Wrong With Tocqueville Studies, and What Can Be Done About It
Professor Matthew Mancini, Chair, Department of American Studies, Saint Louis University, Missouri
11-9-09: A Quantum Probability Model for Question Order Effects on Surveys
Professor Jerome Busemeyer, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-11-09: Ecological and Economical Valuation of Allspice (Pimenta Dioica) Production as a Restoration Strategy Proposed for the Recovering of "Los Tuxtlas" Livestock Pastures (Veracruz, México)
Luz Aliette Hernández, Political Science PhD Student, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-13-09: Group Choice When There Is No Agreement on Best Outcomes: Predicting Central Tendencies and Variation among Outcomes in Spatial Voting Games
Professor Scott Feld, Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
11-16-09: Re-thinking the Mechanisms of Enforcement in Property Right Institutions
Dr. Derek Kauneckis, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-18-09: The Emergence of Impersonal Exchange and Its Institutional Enforcement
Lauri Sääksvuori, PhD Candidate, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
11-30-09: Notion Building: Giving Form to "Social Enterprise"
Professor Robert Katz, Professor of Law; and Professor Antony Page, Professor of Law and Dean's Fellow, Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis
12-2-09: Using the IAD Framework to Analyze China's Climate Change Policy
Yahua Wang, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy & Management, and Deputy Director, Center for China Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
12-7-09: Strategies for Imitation and Innovation in a Social Network
Dr. Robert Goldstone, Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington
12-9-09: Mapping the Development of the Bloomington School
Jiang Nie, Associate Professor, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Guizhou, China, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
ROUNDTABLE
Chaired by Professor James Walker, Workshop Co-Director and Professor of Economics, IUB
Abstract: The Roundtable session will be an opportunity for our colleagues and students to become acquainted with this year's Workshop Visiting Scholars, including the research they will be conducting while in residence this year.
HEURISTIC DECISION MAKING AND INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
Presented by Dr. Peter Todd, Professor of Cognitive Science, Informatics, and Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: Traditional views of rational decision making assume that individuals use a few powerful mechanisms to solve most of the problems they face. But given that human (as other animal) minds have evolved to be quick and just “good enough” in environments where information is often costly and difficult to obtain, we should instead expect individuals often to draw on an “adaptive toolbox” of simple, fast and frugal heuristics that make good decisions with limited information processing. These heuristics typically ignore most of the available information and rely on only a few important cues. Yet they make choices that are accurate in their appropriate application domains, achieving ecological rationality through their fit to particular information structures. Many of these structures occur in natural environments, but others are specifically created by cultures or institutions to influence the behavior of the people in them. Sometimes this is felicitous, as when traffic laws for intersection right-of-way are designed hierarchically to match our simple decision mechanisms. In other cases, institutions create environment structures that do not fit well with people’s heuristics, and instead cloud minds and lead to poor choices, as in casinos. In this talk I will present such examples to show how the study of heuristics allows us to analyze institutions according to objectives, including simplicity and transparency, that are usually overlooked in standard economic theory.
BIO: Peter M. Todd studied mathematics and electronic music at Oberlin College and received a PhD in psychology from Stanford University. In 1995 he moved to Germany to help found the Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) with director Gerd Gigerenzer; the Center has been at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin since 1997. Todd's research interests while assistant director there focused on modeling the interactions between decision making and decision environments, including how the two co-evolve over time. The Center's work culminated in the book Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart (Gigerenzer, Todd, and the ABC Research Group; Oxford, 1999); the sequel, Ecological Rationality: Intelligence in the World, focusing on environment structures and their impact, is in press. Todd moved to IU Bloomington in 2005, where he established the ABC-West research lab. His work has been published in journals including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, Animal Behaviour, Appetite, Marketing Theory, and Artificial Life, and has been publicized on BBC News, CNN.com, New Scientist, and many other outlets. In addition, Todd has coedited three books on neural network and artificial life models in music and has written papers on topics ranging from social decision processes in rats to modeling patterns of age at first marriage.
The paper for this session is a chapter (“Designed to Fit Minds: Institutions and Ecological Rationality”) that will be published in P.M. Todd, G. Gigerenzer, and the ABC Research Group’s book Ecological Rationality: Intelligence in the World (Oxford Press), so it will not be placed on our website. Hard copies of the chapter will be available at the Workshop and upon request by email to ghiggins@indiana.edu.
Co-Sponsor: Political Economy of Democratic Sustainability (PEDS)
BEHAVIORAL TYPES AND EVOLUTION OF INSTITUTIONS
Presented by Pontus Strimling, Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: As documented by E. Ostrom, a human universal approach to solve social dilemmas is to develop institutions constraining free-riding behavior via monitoring, punishments, and rewards. Under an effective institution, it does not much matter whether people’s natural inclinations are altruistic or free-riding. However, we propose that the group’s composition of such behavioral types plays a role for which institutions evolve. In laboratory experiments where participants collectively develop an institution for a repeated public goods game, we found that low-contributors develop less efficient institutions than do high-contributors.
BIO: In his work, Pontus Strimling, has developed mathematical methods to further the understanding of how cultural phenomena change over time. While visiting the Workshop, his work will focus on how informal institutions change over time, specifically how corrupt institutions can be turned into non-corrupt institutions.
The paper for this session has been prepared for publication and should not be quoted or distributed without permission of the authors.
Monday, September 21, 2009
A ONE ILLNESS AWAY: TRACING THE BEGINNINGS AND ENDS OF POVERTY AMONG 35,000 HOUSEHOLDS OF FIVE COUNTRIES
Presented by Dr. Anirudh Krishna, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC
Abstract: For the past seven years, Professor Krishna has been conducting extensive field research that examines poverty dynamics at the household level, re-tracing the movements into and out of poverty of over 35,000 households in 400 communities of India, Kenya, Uganda, Peru and North Carolina. In each region, several formerly poor people have worked their ways out of poverty. However, many others fell into poverty concurrently. Everywhere, poverty has been created and removed in parallel. Understanding this essentially dynamic nature of poverty helps cast a new light upon what needs to be done. Not one but two sets of anti-poverty policies are required in tandem. Policies that help prevent descents into poverty are needed alongside others that can help poor people escape.
BIO: Anirudh Krishna is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University. His research investigates how poor communities and individuals in developing countries cope with the structural and personal constraints that result in poverty and powerlessness. His most recent books are Poverty, Participation and Democracy: A Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2008); and Active Social Capital: Tracing the Roots of Development and Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2002).
Professor Krishna has a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, and Masters degrees in International Development and Economics from Cornell University and the Delhi School of Economics, respectively. Current and previous research interests include social capital, comparative decentralization, political participation, poverty reduction, and local institutional development. He is a regular consultant with the World Bank, United Nations, and NGOs on rural development and poverty.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Co-Sponsor: The SPEA Governance and Management Faculty Group
PROBLEMS OF THE COMMONS: GROUP BEHAVIOR, COOPERATION AND PUNISHMENT IN A TWO-HARBOR EXPERIMENT
Presented by Professor Roy Gardner, Chancellor’s Professor of Economics, Henry H. H. Remak Professor of West European Studies, and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington, and Academic Director of the Kyiv School of Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine; and Dr. Dmytro Zhosan, Assistant Professor of Business and Economics, Ripon College, Wisconsin
Abstract: This paper analyzes individual and group behavior in an experimental commons. Different factors that can help avoid the Tragedy of the Commons are studied in four experimental treatments: separation of a larger commons into smaller commons (two harbors), knowledge/experience available to appropriators, communication within appropriator groups, and the possibility of formal and informal punishment of group members. Subject populations include undergraduate students, as well as professionals working in the Maine lobster and groundfisheries. This design enables a behavioral comparison between students and professionals, as well as a comparison between professionals in these two mutually exclusives fisheries. Results show that group size, communication, geographic separation, and subjects’ ability to solve the coordination game caused by this separation, all contribute to appropriation efficiency on the commons.
BIOS
Roy Gardner is Chancellor’s Professor of Economics and Henry H. H. Remak Professor of West European Studies at Indiana University, as well as Academic Director of the Kyiv School of Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine. He specializes in the theory of games and economic behavior, with applications to class struggle, spoils systems, draft resistance, alliance formation, monetary union, corruption, and especially the human dimension of global environmental change. His research has been funded by NSF (1987-2000; 2008-2011), USDA, CNRS, the German Science Foundation, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, among others. He is Associate Editor of the European Economic Review and a member of the editorial council of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.
Dmytro Zhosan is an Assistant Professor of Business and Economics at Ripon College, Ripon, WI. He focuses his teaching in the areas of theoretical and applied Microeconomics and Business Management. His primary research interests include Experimental Economics, Game Theory, and Industrial Organization. His current research focuses on factors that can aid in solving the problem of the commons. He has received several grants from Bates College to support his research.
Dmytro is scheduled to complete his Ph.D. Program in Economics at Indiana University in September 2009. Dmytro received his Master’s degree in Economics from Indiana University in 2001 and B.A. and M.A. in Economics from National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine) in 1997 and 1999 respectively.
Prior to coming to Ripon College Dmytro spent several years in Maine teaching at Bates College and at Colby College and working on his research involving Maine lobstermen and groundfishermen.
COOPERATIVENESS AND IMPATIENCE IN THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS
Presented by Andreas Leibbrandt, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Chicago, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: This paper examines the role of cooperativeness and impatience in the exploitation of common pool resources (CPRs) by combining laboratory experiments with field data. We study fishermen whose main, and often only, source of income stems from the use of fishing grounds with open access. The exploitation of a CPR involves a negative interpersonal and inter-temporal externality because individuals who exploit the CPR reduce the current and the future yield for both others and themselves. Accordingly, economic theory – which assumes the existence of general across-situational traits – predicts that fishermen who exhibit more cooperative and less impatient behavior in the laboratory should be less likely to exploit the CPR. This is what we find. Thus we corroborate economic theory and extend the scope of other-regarding preference theories to crucial economic decisions with lasting consequences for the people involved. In addition, we establish cooperativeness and impatience as two distinct traits related to resource conservation in the field and validate laboratory preference measures.
BIO: Andreas Leibbrandt is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Economics Department of the University of Chicago and a Visiting Scholar at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington. He is an experimentalist and has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Zurich under supervision of Professor Fehr.
UNCERTAINTY AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH AT TRIAL: DEFINING PROSECUTORIAL "OBJECTIVITY" IN GERMAN RAPE CASES
Presented by Professor Shawn Boyne, Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis
Abstract: Scholars as well as victims rights groups have criticized how America’s adversarial system dispenses “justice” in rape cases. The nature of the truth finding process in our criminal justice system has allowed some members of law enforcement and prosecutors to “revictimize” rape victims in the name of objectivity. In this paper, I inquire whether the institution of the prosecution function in an inquisitorial system, namely Germany, constructs prosecutorial objectivity any differently than the American system.
Unlike prosecutors in America’s adversarial system, whom critics claim are driven by a “conviction mentality” and focus on “winning” at trial, in Germany’s inquisitorial system, prosecutors are supposed to function as second judges dedicated to finding the objective truth. Using observational and interview data drawn from two years of field work in Germany, I ask whether German prosecutors investigate and prosecute rape cases in a manner that is more “just” than in our adversarial system.
BIO: Shawn Boyne is an associate professor at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis teaching evidence, criminal law, and comparative national security law. Prior to joining IU she was a DAAD Post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany, as well as a graduate fellow with the Institute for Legal Studies at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She has also been a visiting fellow with the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies. Shawn’s research interests span the intersection of the fields of criminal law, politics, and culture.
METAPHORS AND METHODS FOR DESIGNING COMMONS: IMPROVING INSTITUTIONAL ARTISANSHIP
Presented by Dr. Bryan Bruns, Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: If there is no "one best way" for governing commons, then how can communities and those working with them customize governance for diverse situations? Are there ways for deliberate institutional artisanship to apply ideas from institutional analysis and design (IAD) and related social science? This presentation reviews a range of metaphors and related methods that may be useful for institutional artisans, including building, crafting, bricolage, discourse, and adaptation. Used constructively, such ideas may help identify assumptions and opportunities for influencing changes in collective action. Relevant strategies may include expanding options, switching starting points, asking about design principles, appreciative inquiry, challenging assumptions, reframing, and reconnaissance of adaptive pathways.
BIO: As a consulting sociologist, Bryan Bruns has specialized in improving participation in irrigation and water resources management, mostly in Southeast Asia. He co-edited Negotiating Water Rights and Water Rights Reform: Lessons for Institutional Design, and has written a variety of other publications, listed at www.BryanBruns.com. He earned a Ph.D. at Cornell University in Development Sociology, with minors in Agricultural Economics and Southeast Asian Studies. This presentation is part of his current work on "Customizing Governance in Commons: Improving Institutional Design and Finding Better Ways to Share Water."
Paper
"Metaphors and Methods for Institutional Synthesis," 10/7/2009 Draft
Background Material: This presentation will further develop ideas from a paper presented in June at the Fourth Workshop on the Workshop, particularly Section 3 on Metaphors and Methods. This paper, along with several other relevant readings for those who may be interested, are listed below.
"Metaphors and Methods for Institutional Synthesis," WOW4 Paper, 5/18/09 Draft
Ostrom, Vincent: "Artisanship and Artifact," Public Administration Review 40(4) (1980): 309-17.
Ostrom, Elinor, Marco A. Janssen, and John M. Anderies: "Introduction: Going Beyond Panaceas," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(39) (2007): 15176-78.
Cleaver, Frances, and Tom Franks: "How Institutions Elude Design: River Basin Management and Sustainable Livelihoods," BCID Research Paper No. 12, Dec 2005, presented at The Alternative Water Forum (2003).
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF MAJORITY RULE VOTING IN COMMON POOL SETTINGS
Presented by Robert Holahan, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: This paper develops an experimental framework for investigating majority rule voting over aggregate resource appropriations by varying the individual capacities of subjects to appropriate from a generic common pool resource. In this way we mimic real world heterogeneity in the capability of resource users to appropriate from a resource system. How effective is majority rule voting at preventing resource collapse? How does the distribution of individual capacities to appropriate affect policy outcomes made through majority rule voting? Through the use of novel laboratory experiments, we bring the literature on vote theory together with a practical, and ubiquitous, resource distribution problem.
BIO: Rob Holahan is a PhD candidate in the department of Political Science at Indiana University. His research focuses on the tradeoffs among economic efficiency, democracy, and sustainability. His dissertation is examining the strengths and limitations of using majority rule voting as a means to divide a natural or manmade renewable resource, like an ocean fishery or a national budget, among a group of users. He uses a mixture of experimental economics, formal theory and empirical research to investigate these questions. Rob holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Political Economy and Public Policy from Washington University in St. Louis and expects to finish his PhD in May 2010.
SOCIAL INTEGRATION AND COOPERATION
Presented by Carina Cavalcanti, PhD Candidate, Professorship of Environmental Policy and Economics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington (coauthors: Andreas Leibbrandt and Stefanie Engel)
Abstract: This paper studies the determinants of cooperation during an environmental program that we implemented in several traditional fishing communities. We find that the individual level of social integration into the social network of a community is an important factor for field cooperation. Better integrated fishermen manufacture more fishing instruments that are less harmful for the fishing grounds, and give up more fishing instruments that are more exploitative for the fishing grounds. This finding prevails even after controlling for fishermen’s personal characteristics like their level of prosociality suggesting that the individual level of social network integration is a driving force for field cooperation. In addition, we also find that fishermen, who took part in the development of the environmental program, cooperate more during the environmental program.
BIO: Carina Cavalcanti is a PhD candidate in Environmental Policy and Economics from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. In her research, she investigates the determinants of cooperation among common-pool-resource users.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
POWER, POLITICS, AND PLACES OF SECURITISM: HOW PROCESSES OF SECURITIZATION IMPACT PROCESSES AND PRACTICES OF DEMOCRACY
Presented by Professor Colin Flint, Director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS), and Associate Professor, Department of Geography, and Richelle Bernazzoli, Doctoral Student, Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract: The pervasiveness of the related processes of securitization and militarization in the contemporary world has garnered considerable attention of late in the fields of political geography, feminist international relations, and anthropology. This paper continues the discussion by exploring how securitism and its constituent ideology of militarism are constructed within particular social-local contexts, and how these constructions impact perceptions of inside/outside and self/other by shaping particular national, gendered, and racial identities. Such perceptions and identities are inextricably bound up with politics, citizenship, and democratic processes at all scales. We draw upon empirical cases in U.S. society to provide examples of the mutual shaping of securitism and politics within places.
BIOS
Dr. Colin Flint is Director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) and associate professor of Geography and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He currently leads the ConflictSpace research project and is an expert on modeling political processes using spatial analysis and GIS. He is author, co-author or editor of Geography of War and Peace (2005) Introduction to Geopolitics (2006), Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality (2006), and Spaces of Hate (2004). His work has integrated spatial econometrics and GIS to analyze the diffusion of political behavior and he is pioneering the integration of spatial analysis and social network analysis with regard to the study of conflicts. He is past-President of the Political Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers and is currently Section Editor of the Political Geography volume of the new International Studies Association Compendium.
Richelle Bernazzoli is a doctoral student in political geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include the geopolitics of security and identity and European integration processes. She plans to pursue dissertation research on these topics in Croatia. Richelle holds a BA in International Politics from Penn State University and a MA in Political Geography from the University of Illinois.
The papers for this session have been prepared for publication, so they will not be placed on our website. Hard copies of the papers will be available at the Workshop and upon request by email to ghiggins@indiana.edu.
"From Militarization to Securitization: Finding a Concept That Works," Political Geography, article in press (2009).
"Embodying the Garrison State?: Everyday Geographies of Militarization in American Society," article under review.
Co-Sponsor: Political Economy of Democratic Sustainability (PEDS)
MAPPING THE WILDLAND URBAN INTERFACE: RESOURCES, PEOPLE, POLICY AND WILDLAND FIRE
Presented by Dr. Susan Stewart, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Evanston, IL
Abstract: The wildland urban interface (WUI) is where homes and wildland vegetation co-occur; where people live in the woods or the foothills, “close to nature.” It is also where people and homes face the greatest threat from wildland fire. Accordingly, the WUI has special significance in Federal fire policy in the U.S. Since releasing our map of the WUI in 2005, it has been a focus for debate over Federal versus state and local control of fire funds; front-country versus backcountry fuels management, and Eastern versus Western forest conditions and needs. Within the WUI, both homeowners and communities are the target of ongoing efforts by fire managers to change institutions and behaviors, efforts that could benefit from more social science input. This presentation will focus on the WUI as a policy context and a rich source of research opportunities.
BIO: Susan I. Stewart is a research social scientist with the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, in Evanston, IL. Her background is in multidisciplinary social sciences, recreation, and resource economics, with degrees from Michigan State University. Her current research interests include seasonal home ownership and use, housing growth, the wildland urban interface, and the ecological implications of housing.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Background Papers
Stewart, Susan I. et al.: "Wildland-Urban Interface Maps Vary with Purpose and Context," Journal of Forestry 107(2) (Mar 2009): 78-83.
Radeloff, V.C. et al.: "The Wildland-Urban Interface in the United States," Ecological Applications 15(3) (2005): 799-805.
Co-Sponsors: School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) Environmental Science Program and the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC)
CREATING COMMON GRAZING RIGHTS ON PRIVATE PARCELS: HOW NEW RULES PRODUCE INCENTIVES FOR COOPERATIVE LAND MANAGEMENT
Presented by Dr. Carolyn Lesorogol, Associate Professor, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract: Privatization of common lands shifts legal authority for land use decisions from communities to individual land owners. In so doing, privatization may undermine systems of rules regulating access to and use of common resources, such as grazing land among northern Kenya pastoralists. This study of privatization of pastoral land among the Samburu finds, however, that while individual land owners do claim a high level of autonomy over decision-making regarding their land, new social norms have emerged following privatization that promote the continued accessibility of private land for livestock grazing by neighbor’s herds. These new rules stipulate, for example, that land owners who refuse others’ access to grazing on their property will not be allowed to graze their livestock on any privately owned land in the community. In this way, communal sanctions are used to enforce cooperation in maintaining shared grazing rights, even on private parcels. Furthermore, these rules have differential effects on land owners depending on the number of livestock they own. Those with many livestock requiring greater access to pasture are encouraged to keep their land available to others, while those with few livestock may benefit by enclosing their land and leasing it for cultivation or grazing. Private ownership coupled with such norms regarding access creates varied incentives for land owners resulting in new patterns of land use. The emergence of new norms demonstrates the presence of institutional innovation at community level in the face of de jure shifts in ownership originating from national level policy. This case illustrates the important role of social sanctions in establishing and maintaining cooperation, and the dynamic interplay of public and private realms in Samburu land management.
BIO: Carolyn Lesorogol is currently assistant professor of social work and anthropology at the Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis. Her primary research interests include processes of institutional change, particularly changing social norms related to property among pastoralists in Kenya. She has lived and worked among Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya for over 20 years and her recent book, Contesting the Commons: Privatizing Pastoral Lands in Kenya (2008, University of Michigan Press), investigates the social, political, and economic processes that led to privatization of communal land among Samburu as well as the consequences of this shift for household well-being and social relations. Dr. Lesorogol has also used experimental economics games in her work to explore changes in human behavior related to institutional transformations. Her work has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and Fulbright-Hays, and has been published in Science, Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Development and Change, World Development among other journals.
The paper for this session is a chapter ("Creating Common Grazing Rights on Private Parcels: How New Rules Produce Incentives for Cooperative Land Management") that will be published in R. Marshall's (ed.) book Cooperation in Economic and Social Life (AltaMira Press 2009), so it will not be placed on our website. Hard copies of the chapter will be available at the Workshop and upon request by email to ghiggins@indiana.edu.
Co-Sponsor: Political Economy of Democratic Sustainability (PEDS)
THE EMERGENCE AND OUTCOMES OF MARINE PROTECTED AREA INSTITUTIONS IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
Presented by Christopher Bartlett, PhD, ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: Chris will outline results of research on community-based marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu. Utilizing a suite of cross-disciplinary methodologies, he and his ni-Vanuatu colleagues contrasted MPAs that are permanently closed to fishing (no-take) with those that are periodically harvested. Findings corroborate traditional ecological knowledge that fishing in MPAs can produce conservation outcomes while simultaneously satisfying local resource use requirements. Chris will also present research in progress that operationalizes theoretical ontologies of complex systems to investigate how village MPA rule selection may be enabled by combinations of social and ecological factors. Preliminary findings suggest that imported rules (i.e., Western-dominated, no-take marine reserve panaceas) may be incompatible with local MPA-enabling factors and potentially lead to management failure. He concludes with general policy suggestions to guide the locally and externally driven implementation of global MPAs.
BIO: Christopher Bartlett is a visiting scholar at the Workshop 2009-2010. Since 2002 he has been living and working full time alongside indigenous communities in the Pacific Islands, first as a US Peace Corps volunteer and then as a PhD researcher with the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia. Currently, Chris is collaborating with government officials, NGOs, academics and island communities in the Republic of Vanuatu to develop and evaluate coral reef management and networking institutions. He and his colleagues are comparing various institutional models that can simultaneously operate on ecosystem scales, be self-governed, and internalize the subsistence, conservation and socio-economic aspirations of small localized communities. See www.marineprotectedarea.com.vu.
ACTOR HETEROGENEITY AND SPATIAL INTERACTIONS IN LAND USE SYSTEMS: AGENT-BASED PERSPECTIVES ON NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Presented by Dr. Tom Evans, Associate Professor, Department of Geography; Director, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC); and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: Local-level dynamics play an important role in human-environment interactions but sometimes are discounted as insignificant or simply “noise” that is lost in aggregation in a desire to emphasize coarser spatial scales of analysis (e.g., regional, continental or global). This presentation will discuss three applications of agent-based models that leverage the benefits of ABMs in distinct contexts while at the same time exploring their shortcomings. Specifically, agent-based approaches are powerful when agent-heterogeneity or agent-interactions are critical dynamics within social-ecological systems, but significant challenges exist in trying to scale up these dynamics or generalizing results to other geographic domains. These issues are examined within the context of three case studies including: (1) the transition from swidden to rubber plantations in northern Laos, (2) reforestation in south-central Indiana, and (3) spatial resilience of agriculturalists in Zambia to climate variability.
BIO: Tom Evans is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change (CIPEC) at Indiana University. His research focuses on land use/land cover change and the social and spatial dynamics inherent within human-environment interactions. His projects are (nearly) always multi-disciplinary in design and he has past and present collaborations with economists, decision scientists, political scientists, hydrologists, sociologists, ecologists, conservation biologists and anthropologists, among other kinds of ists.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Background Papers
EXPLORING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF THE TAOS VALLEY ACEQUIAS
Presented by Michael Cox, PhD Candidate in Public Affairs, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: This presentation is a practice job-talk. In it, I will summarize several findings from my dissertation work on community-based acequia irrigation systems in northern New Mexico. This dissertation is part of a larger research program that has several primary goals that I will discuss: first, how can we understand complex social-ecological systems at various scales in ways that can improve their management? Second, how can we develop diagnostic approaches to environmental policy and management to foster this understanding across a diversity of settings? I conclude with a discussion of how I plan to pursue these goals in an academic career.
BIO: Michael Cox is a PhD candidate in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. His research uses institutional analysis, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and complex systems theory in order to explore the dynamics of social-ecological systems. His fieldwork is based in the Taos valley of northern New Mexico.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH TOCQUEVILLE STUDIES, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT
Presented by Professor Matthew Mancini, Chair, Department of American Studies, Saint Louis University, Missouri
Outline and Summary
This presentation contains four major points: (1) There is a conventional narrative about Tocqueville’s reputation in America that is riddled with elementary mistakes. (2)
This narrative and its constituent parts are the product of factual errors combined with basic errors of argument, and leads in turn to errors of interpretation. (3)
There are several reasons for the emergence and then the hegemony of this narrative, including an abdication of basic scholarly procedures. (4)
The Tocqueville Studies Center at IU is therefore in a position to move the discourse to a higher plane of accuracy, maturity, and quality. But to do so it has to chart an independent course.
First: There’s a universally agreed-upon narrative about Tocqueville’s fate or destiny in the United States. It runs as follows. Tocqueville’s famous study of Democracy in America was published to enormous acclaim in two volumes, first in 1835 (first American edition 1838), and then in 1840. At that time Tocqueville was a rock star. He was lionized in England, France (where he was inducted into the Académie Française at the age of thirty-six), and of course the United States.
But shortly after his death, around the time of the Civil War, he and his books fell into oblivion. He disappeared, in fact. The book was very seldom discussed, and his ideas were displaced by those of other commentators who wrote about the urgent problems America faced around the turn of the twentieth century. At that time, in fact, the Democracy went out of print. Tocqueville’s obscurity deepened in subsequent decades. But in 1938, of course, a Tocqueville revival began, with the publication of George Wilson Pierson’s Tocqueville and Beaumont in America. That, plus the publication of a new edition of the Democracy at the end of the war, led to a tremendous renaissance, boom, and explosion of work on Tocqueville. While not of immediate importance for this talk, one should also note that Tocqueville has served as our guide to specific problems since the war: in chronological order, these are despotism, cultural degradation, affluence, and the conflict between equality and liberty.
The first point I would emphasize is that the second paragraph of this narrative is completely erroneous, both in its overarching trajectory and in the individual statements that comprise it. It is also universally accepted, and is the product of successive and repeated declarations by eminent authorities.
Second: From the perspective of my own little corner of the field, I can say that the literature is full of major, egregious, and influential errors of fact and method. Here are three simple examples.These are not minor mistakes that can be corrected without having all that much of an impact on other areas of Tocqueville studies. No—to fix the factual mistakes is to change the interpretations, as well. To give just one example, most scholars, like Welch and Kloppenberg, claim that Tocqueville’s “relevance” was thought to have declined in the late nineteenth century because changes like industrialization had occurred in American society since the 1830s when Tocqueville’s work first appeared. But, besides being flat-out wring, to make this claim is also to embrace a concept of “relevance” that is so juvenile and so reductionist as to rob Tocqueville himself of any longstanding importance. So this is an example of how a false conventional wisdom as to the facts—the belief that Tocqueville was out of print and had disappeared—has led to distortions and mistakes of interpretation as well.
Third: What might be the reason or reasons for such a massive disconnect between fact and belief in a field of scholarship so replete with distinguished names? I would draw attention to three facts concerning the production and then the continual reproduction of these errors.Fourth: Well, I said I would also make some suggestions as to what can be done to rectify this grave situation! I believe some part, at least, of the solution to the problems enumerated above can be inferred from the diagnosis itself. Basic, and rather simple, changes in structure and process can improve the chances of serious, mature, interesting scholarship that meets the highest standards of professional writing and editing. Herein lies the enormous opportunity for IU’s Tocqueville Studies Center. It should map out an independent and exemplary (not necessarily adversarial) path—the one Emerson admonished all (not just American) scholars to follow in The American Scholar—rather than trying to attach itself to an antiquated and error-filled narrative in a fading and somewhat boring field of study.
BIO: Matthew Mancini is Professor and Chair, Department of American Studies, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. He received his A. B. in English from Fordham, and the PhD in American Studies from Emory. He went to SLU in 2000 from Missouri State University, where he was Professor of History and department chair. He has also taught at Rice, and at Mercer University in Atlanta. He held the Otto M. Salgo Chair in American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (the University of Budapest). He has also been a Fulbright lecturer in Hong Kong, and an external research fellow at Tulane. He is the author of Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours (2006), Alexis de Tocqueville (1994), and One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South (1996); and the coeditor of Understanding Maritain (1988).
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Co-Sponsors: Tocqueville Program and the Department of Political Science
A QUANTUM PROBABILITY MODEL FOR QUESTION ORDER EFFECTS ON SURVEYS
Presented by Professor Jerome Busemeyer, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Affiliated Faculty, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: The order that questions are asked on a survey can have substantial effects on the choice frequencies for answers. Four different patterns of effects have been identified by past researchers -- assimilation, contrast, additive and subtractive effects. These order effects are usually explained by changes in context caused by the first question. Here we develop this context explanation into a rigorous model using quantum probability theory. We show that a quantum probability model provides a natural and simple formal explanation for all four patterns of order effects.
Please see the link below for a paper that provides an overview of quantum probability theory.
BIO: Dr. Busemeyer is a professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He has served on several national grant review panels, he has been federally funded for the past 28 years, and he has published over 100 articles in various Psychological and Mathematical Social Science journals. Currently, Dr. Busemeyer is the chief editor of Journal of Mathematical Psychology, and previously he served as Manager of the Cognition and Decision Program at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for two years. His main areas of research include mathematical models of decision making and learning, and perhaps his most important work so far is a dynamic model of human decision making called decision field theory.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMICAL VALUATION OF ALLSPICE (PIMENTA DIOICA) PRODUCTION AS A RESTORATION STRATEGY PROPOSED FOR THE RECOVERING OF "LOS TUXTLAS" LIVESTOCK PASTURES (VERACRUZ, MÉXICO)
Presented by Luz Aliette Hernández, Political Science PhD Student, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: Laguna Escondida is an “ejido” that is part of the natural protected area “Reserva de Biosfera Los Tuxtlas.” Currently, 71% of the surface of Laguna Escondida is occupied by livestock, which strongly influences the loss of the “ejido” forest. The cultural acceptance of this productive activity is a result of several social factors related to the lack of alternative opportunities and the pressure for better incomes from the local population. Restoration initiatives for the region should incorporate these socio-economic demands and the stakeholders’ participation in the proposal’s design. As an alternative, in this study a restoration strategy was analyzed on the basis of the establishment of live fences with commercial use - using Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr.- in the cattle ranch area. The viability of the proposal was evaluated on the basis of the performance of P. dioica on: (1) the establishment of a demonstrative plot; (2) the growth and yield projection for the species; (3) the analysis of the individuals’ morphological variation according to their growing site; (4) the analysis of the environmental modifications as consequence of the presence of P. dioica in the cattle area; and (5) the analysis of the commercial value of the proposal. As a result, it was observed that: (1) survivorship of P. dioica was successful (58%) on pasture land conditions; (2) in the pasture area, trees grew three times faster than trees developing inside the forest; (3) P. dioica trees improve the environmental conditions of the pasture; and (4) its establishment in live fences around the cattle area is profitable and economically competitive with the current “ejido” livestock activity. These results allowed us to conclude that P. dioica has a high biological potential for the restoration initiatives; and its use as part of the live fences system is a commercial valuable alternative for the restoration of the pasture areas of Laguna Escondida.
BIO: Luz Aliette Hernández is currently a Political Science PhD student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She received her Master of Science in Biology, with specialization in Restoration Ecology from the Ecology Institute of UNAM. She did her undergraduate studies in Biology at the National University of Colombia. She has nine years of professional experience in the collective management of forest resources, through the planning, management, coordination, and implementation of projects in the areas of sustainable rural development, community organization, and civic participation. Her PhD research is focused on the evaluation of the impact of the Mexican governmental program for the development of the community forestry in the quality of life of beneficiaries. Her main objective at the Workshop will be to extend the analytical and methodological framework for her research proposal.
GROUP CHOICE WHEN THERE IS NO AGREEMENT ON BEST OUTCOMES: PREDICTING CENTRAL TENDENCIES AND VARIATION AMONG OUTCOMES IN SPATIAL VOTING GAMES
Presented by Professor Scott Feld, Department of Sociology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Based upon collaborative work with Professor Bernard Grofman, Department of Political Science, University of California, Irvine, and Professor Joseph Godfrey, Virginia Tech and Winset Inc.
Abstract: Majority rule games in a spatial context generally have no equilibria. Nevertheless, we suggest that majority choices in such games tend to move toward, and are more likely to end at, points that have a small winset (the set of other points that a majority prefers to that point). Reanalysis of experimental evidence from eight different 5-person spatial voting games (previously reanalyzed by Bianco et. al, 2006.) indicates that the mean outcome in each of these games was not statistically significantly different from the strong point (the point with the smallest winset). Furthermore, we anticipated and found that the larger the winset of the strong point, the greater the variation among the outcomes around the strong point. Further analyses suggest several reasons to expect that outcomes in these games would center near the strong point and vary with the size of its winset. We suggest a relatively simple algorithm to find the strong point in any spatial voting game, consider some implications and applications of these findings, and make suggestions for further research.
BIO: Scott L. Feld is Professor of Sociology at Purdue University. He is a mathematical sociologist whose primary sociological work has focused upon causes and consequences of patterns in social networks. Specifically, his work has described and analyzed patterns of intersecting social circles and systematic patterns of inequality in networks. His work on collective choice, mostly in collaboration with Bernard Grofman, has focused on systematic implications and outcomes of mechanisms of collective choice. In addition to his primary theoretical work on networks and collective choice, he continues applied research in various areas that have included such diverse topics as interpersonal violence, innovations in marriage laws, and hurricane evacuation. For the 29 years before coming to Purdue in 2004, he served as a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Louisiana State University.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Co-Sponsor: Political Economy of Democratic Sustainability (PEDS)
RE-THINKING THE MECHANISMS OF ENFORCEMENT IN PROPERTY RIGHT INSTITUTIONS
Presented by Dr. Derek Kauneckis, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: The importance of enforcement is central to understanding the creation, evolution and variety of property rights institutions. However, models of property rights enforcement often focus either on a bottoms-up process where right-holders are able to effectively organize to enforce against other appropriators, or a top-down external enforcement mechanism based on legal structures and government activity. This paper develops an analytic framework that examines how a system of nested formal and informal enforcement mechanisms can interact to produce a diversity of property rights regimes. Based on the idea of institutional production, it looks at the incentive structure underlying enforcement activities that are able to produce effective property right institutions. It begins with a conceptual distinction of the process of property rights formation against that of the institutional structure of a particular regime, then outlines a model of property right production involving multiple enforcement agents. The paper concludes by using comparative case studies as empirical examples to illustrate the utility of the model in explaining variation in property rights regimes and the outcome of reform efforts.
BIO: Derek Kauneckis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Reno. He holds a M.S. in International Development from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Indiana University at Bloomington. Professor Kauneckis specializes in property rights theory, policy analysis and environmental policy. His research examines the evolution of governance arrangements as they relate to policy outcomes. Current work focuses on property right institutions, collaborative environmental policy, policy instrument design, and state-level science & technology policy.
The paper for this session will not be placed on our website, but is available upon request by email to kauneck@unr.edu.
THE EMERGENCE OF IMPERSONAL EXCHANGE AND ITS INSTITUTIONAL ENFORCEMENT
Presented by Lauri Sääksvuori, PhD Candidate, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: Specialization and impersonal exchange in turn supported by institutional guarantees are not the effect of any human wisdom. To this day, little behavioral evidence exists how the constitutional order emerges from the freedom of choice. This study experimentally investigates the behavioral foundations behind the emergence of institutions that support impersonal exchange. Theoretical analysis introduces a novel game in which both zero sanctions and an endogenously formed incentive compatible institution construct an equilibrium. We observe the level of economic efficiency under a self-governed institutional regime vis-`a-vis solely trust-based economy. Our results emphasize the importance of heterogeneity. The most material message of this study demonstrates the potential counterproductivity of a seemingly universal predisposition to cooperate in the institution formation process.
BIO: Lauri Sääksvuori is a PhD candidate in economics at the Max Planck Institute of Economics, Germany. His broad areas of interest are experimental and institutional economics. The ongoing research projects examine the behavioral foundations behind the emergence of institutions, intra-group governance in intergroup conflict and the cognitive origins of human cooperation. His earlier professional experience includes foreign Service in India and information technology research at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology.
The paper for this session has been prepared for publication, so it will not be placed on our website. Hard copies of the paper will be available at the Workshop and upon request by email to ghiggins@indiana.edu.
NOTION BUILDING: GIVING FORM TO "SOCIAL ENTERPRISE"
Presented by Professor Robert Katz, Professor of Law, and Professor Antony Page, Professor of Law and Dean's Fellow, Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis
Abstract: The notion, or vision, of social enterprise and the growing number of entities embracing the social enterprise label have garnered considerable attention in recent years. The notion itself is somewhat vague, referring generally to a venture intended to simultaneously make a profit and to generate extra-ordinary social benefits, popularly stated as “doing well by doing good.” Although business schools and scholars have been quick to focus on social enterprise, legal scholars have lagged behind. This paper aims to bring some clarity to the concept or notion of social enterprise by examining the underlying organizational law. Organizational law’s most narrow and technical tasks are to constitute non-governmental organizations and set basic terms and procedures for their internal governance and their relations to organizational outsiders. Currently, social enterprises are set up as either non-profits, or for-profits, and based on this initial choice face different sets of challenges and legal constraints. We proceed by identifying the deficiencies in corporate and non-profit organization law for a typical social enterprise, and how law addresses legacy, control, and mission maintenance issues, thereby pointing the way for a distinct regulatory regime to govern and cultivate social enterprise. We also survey various proposals for facilitating the creation and sustainability of social enterprise.
BIOS
Robert Katz is a professor of law at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, and holds a joint appointment with the IU Center on Philanthropy. His teaching and research interests include the law of nonprofit organizations, charitable giving, and health care organizations and organizational ethics. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago and an A.B. from Harvard University, where he concentrated in government and political theory.
Antony Page is also a professor of law and Dean’s Fellow at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. His teaching and research interests include corporate law, corporate governance and mergers & acquisitions. His work has been cited by U.S. courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, an M.B.A. from Simon Fraser University, and a B. Comm. from McGill University. Both are current researching the legal aspects of social enterprise.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
USING THE IAD FRAMEWORK TO ANALYZE CHINA'S CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY
Presented by Yahua (Bert) Wang, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy & Management, and Deputy Director, Center for China Studies, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: China proposed an ambitious goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent during 2006 to 2010. This is considered a significant strategy for China to fight the challenges of climate change. This paper utilizes the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to study how provincial governments implement energy conservation targets assigned by the central government. Under this framework, we conduct an empirical analysis on the implementation of energy conservation policy during the period 2006 to 2008 based on statistical data. The analysis results show that the energy conservation policy introduced by the Chinese government is quite effective, and provincial governments respond positively to the policy instructions from the central government; in addition, certain characteristics such as GDP, GDP per capita and the initial energy intensity of the province have significant impact on the implementation of energy conservation targets. The analysis also reveals that there are strong motivations for the provincial governments to follow the instructions of the central government and compete with each other for better relative performance in the implementation of energy conservation policy.
BIO: Yahua (Bert) Wang is an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Management, and the deputy director of the Center for China Studies, Tsinghua University, China. His research area is Natural Resources Management and Environmental Policy. His research especially focuses on water management and water policy, and his dissertation was a study of institutional changes of China’s water property rights. At the Workshop, he will conduct a visiting study entitled “Institutional Analysis of Irrigation Systems in North China,” which aims to apply the IAD and SESs framework to the analysis of China’s participatory irrigation management.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
STRATEGIES FOR IMITATION AND INNOVATION IN A SOCIAL NETWORK
Presented by Dr. Robert Goldstone, Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: We have developed various internet-based experimental platforms that allow groups of 2-200 people to interact with each other in real time on networked computers. I will describe experiments using this platform that explore how people attempt to solve simple problems while taking advantage of the developing solutions of other people in their social network. In one series of experiments (with Winter Mason), participants received feedback over 15 rounds not only on the success of their own solutions to a simple search problem, but also on their neighbors’ solutions and outcomes. Neighbors were determined by one of four network topologies: locally connected lattice, random, fully connected, and small-world (e.g. a lattice plus a few long-range connections). The results suggest that complete information is not always beneficial for a group, and that problem spaces requiring substantial exploration may benefit from networks with mostly locally connected individuals. We model the dissemination of innovations in these experiments using agents that probabilistically select choices guided by their own and their neighbors’ explorations. In a second line of experiments (with Thomas Wisdom), we study the dissemination of innovations in a networked group for a multi-dimensional search problem with many local minima. We find evidence for several strategies that determine imitation and innovation decisions based on: similarity, choice popularity, timing, and success. We also describe the effect that these individual-level choices have on group-level outcomes such as choice diversity, problem space coverage, and overall group performance.
BIO: Since 1991 when he received a Ph.D. in psychology from University of Michigan, Robert Goldstone has been a professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department and Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University. His research interests include concept learning and representation, perceptual learning, collective behavior, and computational modeling of human cognition. He was awarded two American Psychological Association (APA) Young Investigator awards in 1995 for articles appearing in Journal of Experimental Psychology, the 1996 Chase Memorial Award for Outstanding Young Researcher in Cognitive Science, a 1997 James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award, the 2000 APA Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of Cognition and Human Learning, and a 2004 Troland research award from the National Academy of Sciences. He was the executive editor of Cognitive Science from 2001-2005, associate editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review from 1998-2000, and associate editor of Cognitive Psychology and Topics in Cognitive Science from 2007-2009. He was elected as a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists in 2004, and a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society in 2006. In 2006 he became a Chancellor’s professor and Director of the Indiana University Cognitive Science Program.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
Background Papers
Goldstone, R. L., Roberts, M. E., Mason, W., & Gureckis, T. 2008. "Collective Search in Concrete and Abstract Spaces." In T. Kugler, J. D. Smith, T. Connelly, and Y. Sun (Eds.) Decision Modeling and Behavior in Complex and Uncertain Environments, 277-308. New York: Springer Press. [available as #20 from http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/papers.html]
Wisdom, T. N., Song, X., & Goldstone, R. L. 2008. "The Effects of Peer Information on Problem-Solving in a Networked Group." Proceedings of the Thirtieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 583-588. Washington, DC: Cognitive Science Society. [available as #27 from http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/papers.html]
Co-Sponsor: Political Economy of Democratic Sustainability (PEDS)
MAPPING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BLOOMINGTON SCHOOL
Presented by Jiang Nie, Associate Professor, Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, Guizhou, China, and Visiting Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract: The Bloomington School bases its identity on the interdisciplinary approach and on its functioning trough an intonation network. These mechanisms challenge the intellectual vision of the issues related with the decision making processes, the managing of resources, and the self governance around the world. In this paper we used Social Network Analysis and Science Map to analyze the interdisciplinary and connections at the scholar and the institutional levels. To do these analyses we built two databases, one with 135 selected papers that represent the scope of the Bloomington School; and another with the 2359 papers where they were cited. Then we mapped co-occurrence and co-authorship of these papers and the institutional belonging of their authors. Preliminary results showed that the co-author network has two main tendencies, one where Elinor Ostrom is the only core of the network (scale free network), and another is composed by natural connections between researches, like professor-students relationships or colleague-colleague relationships (small world network). Results on the co-occurrence network show the existence of three different areas were the Bloomington School ideas have penetrated. These areas are linked between them by three key references of the Ostrom’s work. This is an important result related with the roll of the Bloomington School in the integration of knowledge between the areas of human behavior, collective action and human-ecology system. The institutions that originally welcomed the ideas coming from the Bloomington School have decreased their interest on using the Bloomington ideas on their works. In contrast, an increasing number of new non famous institutions are using them for their academic production. For a better spread of the Bloomington School in the future the establishment of a more decentralized and structural cohesion network is desired.
BIO: Jiang Nie is an associate professor in the School of Resources and Environment Management at Guizhou College of Finance and Economics, China. Her present research focuses on population and environmental service. Her earlier research includes labor force migration and human capital.
There will not be a formal paper for this session.
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