Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals: Cooperative Alternatives beyond Markets and States - Softcover

Wall, Derek

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745399355 ISBN 13: 9780745399355

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2017

Synopsis

Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics. Her theorising of the commons has been celebrated as groundbreaking and opening the way for non-capitalist economic alternatives, yet, many radicals know little about her. This book redresses this, revealing the indispensability of her work for green politics, left economics and radical democracy. Ostrom has often been viewed as a conservative or managerial thinker; but Derek Wall’s analysis of her work reveals a how it is invaluable for developing a left political programme in the twenty-first century. Central to Ostrom’s work was the move ‘beyond panaceas’; transforming institutions to widen participation, promote diversity and favour cooperation over competition. She regularly challenged academia as individualist, narrow and elitist and promoted a radical take on education, based on participation. Her investigations into how we share finite resources has radical implications for the Green movement and her rubric for a functioning collective ownership is highly relevant in order in achieving radical social change. As activists continue to reject traditional models of centralised power, Ostrom’s work will become even more vital, offering a guide to creating economics that exists beyond markets and states.

About this title

Review:

"Derek Wall's latest book is a fascinating insight into the only woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in alternatives to the neoliberal consensus, and for those who believe that democracy is more than just voting for a Government every few years."

--Caroline Lucas, Co-Leader of the Green Party

"Elinor Ostrom pioneered the radical proposition that human cooperation, self-governance, and sharing are economically and ecologically significant. Thanks to Derek Wall, we now have an astute interpretive overview of Ostrom's far-ranging scholarship on the commons: inspiration and guidance for a new generation of commons thinkers and activists."
--David Bollier, Schumacher Center for a New Economics

About the Author:

Derek Wall is the author of numerous books including Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals (Pluto, 2017), Economics After Capitalism (Pluto, 2015), The Rise of the Green Left (Pluto, 2010) and The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom (Routledge, 2014). He teaches Political Economy at Goldsmiths College, University of London and was International Co-ordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0745399355
• ISBN 13: 9780745399355
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 158