David Bollier, Putting People Back into Economics

"Elinor Ostrom was one of the first serious scholars to debunk the pernicious “tragedy” narrative. She did it the old-fashioned way – with empirical research. Based on her upbringing in Los Angeles, where she saw local authorities cooperate to preserve endangered groundwater supplies, Ostrom dared to think that the commons could actually be a stable, productive form of resource management...."