Elinor Ostrom honored in France, Norway

Elinor Ostrom, Distinguished Professor of political science at Indiana University Bloomington and co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, is being honored by the scientific community in France. In a tribute to her work, Ostrom will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpelier and deliver a keynote address at a UNESCO conference in Paris.

The conference for the United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization will take place June 22-24. This will be Ostrom's first official visit to France since receiving the Nobel Prize.

Ostrom, the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, focuses her research on the governance of common property, or common pool resources, especially through collective action and self-organization. She is a founding director of the IU's Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, a research center supported in part by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at IU Bloomington.

The theme of collective governance is the topic for Ostrom's lecture at an international symposium hosted by CIRAD, a French research center working with developing countries on international agricultural and development issues. The symposium is organized and coordinated by more than two dozen French scientific organizations and universities. After receiving her honorary doctorate from the University of Montpelier, Ostrom is meeting separately with researchers for an advanced workshop and will conduct a master class with doctoral students.