Prof. Dr. Erling Berge became professor of property rights institutions at NMBU in 2011. There he participated in the creation of the cross-disciplinary Centre for Land Tenure Studies. He has worked on problems in demography, urban and regional development, and economic sociology, but since 1985 he has increasingly focused on institutional theory of land tenure regimes. During 2002-2004 he served as president for the International Association for the Study of Commons, and in 2004 together with Tine de Moor he started the International Journal of the Commons.
Berge graduated from the University of Bergen in 1973 with a major in sociology and minors in mathematics and statistics. He received his Ph.D. (sociology) from Boston University in 1981, and was promoted to full professor of sociology (methods) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1995. Berge has previously held positions at the Institute of Applied Social Research, Oslo, the Agricultural University of Norway, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. During sabbaticals he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Essex, Colchester, the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Bloomington, the University of Washington, Seattle, and the Public University of Navarra, Pamplona. During the academic year 2002-2003 he was a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo.
I study environmental governance, particularly the governance of ecosystems. My research agenda includes an interest in common pool resources (CPRs), socio-ecological systems, decentralization reforms, local democracy and participation, and the solving of collective action dilemmas. I currently work on the following topics: the role of NGOs in stimulating collective action among CPR users in India (with Clare Barnes); the role of gender in developing and applying adaptation strategies in response to climate change in Ethiopia (with Azeb Assefa Mehra); the development of technological innovation systems (TIS) that regard water and sanitation issues in Bangladesh (within the UDW Delta-MAR project with a.o. Paul Schot and Jasper Griffioen), and; the governance of invasive species on the Dutch Antilles (with a.o. Jetske Vaas, Mendel Giezen, and Maarten Eppinga); the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) (with a.o. Hens Runhaar).
In 2008, I received my Ph.D. in Public Policy from Indiana University where I worked under the supervision of Elinor Ostrom. For my dissertation I studied local governance regimes concerning the environment and rural development in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Chile.
Since 2008, I serve as the co-editor in chief of The International Journal of the Commons (ISI impact factor: 1.538)
Since 2014, I am the coordinator of our Bachelor program (Envrionmental Studies)
Since 2014, I sit on the advisory board of the Nature & Environment Federation Utrecht (NMU)
Between 1996 and 2002, I have worked on environmental policy issues as an international civil servant and consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Senegal and Chile, respectively.
Prof. Dr. Erling Berge became professor of property rights institutions at NMBU in 2011. There he participated in the creation of the cross-disciplinary Centre for Land Tenure Studies. He has worked on problems in demography, urban and regional development, and economic sociology, but since 1985 he has increasingly focused on institutional theory of land tenure regimes. During 2002-2004 he served as president for the International Association for the Study of Commons, and in 2004 together with Tine de Moor he started the International Journal of the Commons.
Berge graduated from the University of Bergen in 1973 with a major in sociology and minors in mathematics and statistics. He received his Ph.D. (sociology) from Boston University in 1981, and was promoted to full professor of sociology (methods) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1995. Berge has previously held positions at the Institute of Applied Social Research, Oslo, the Agricultural University of Norway, and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. During sabbaticals he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Essex, Colchester, the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Bloomington, the University of Washington, Seattle, and the Public University of Navarra, Pamplona. During the academic year 2002-2003 he was a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo.
Fikret Berkes is Distinguished Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Canada. His studies on community-based resource management and the use of commons in a number of regions of the world have led to insights regarding the management of coastal and marine resources. He also works in the areas resilience of social-ecological systems, and traditional ecological knowledge (indigenous knowledge).
“Constructing a New Research Agenda for Cultural Commons.” 2012 (Forthcoming). In: Cultural Commons: A New Perspective on the Production and Evolution of Cultures. Edited by Walter Santagata and Enrico Bertacchini. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
“Institutional Design and Governance in the Microbial Research Commons.” 2011 Chapter 22 in: Designing the Microbial Research Commons: Proceedings of an International Symposium. Washington, DC: National Research Council of the National Academies.
«La notion de biens communs et ses applications dans le domaine de la connaissance.» 2011. InLibres Savoirs: Les biens communs de la connaissance. Edited by Hervé Le Crosnier. Caen, France: C&F Éditions.
“Private and Common Property Rights.” 2010. With Elinor Ostrom as first author. In Property Law and Economics, Edited by Boudewijn Bouckaert. Northampton, MA. (Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, 2nd ed.)
Korean Language edition, 2010. Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice. 2007 With Co-Editor Elinor Ostrom. Seoul: Time Books.
La conoscenza come bene commune: Dalla teoria alla pratica. 2009 a cura di Charlotte Hess e Elinor Ostrom. Italian Edition of Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice, a cura di Paolo Ferri. Bologna, Italy: Bruno Mondadori.
“Mapping New Commons.” 2008. Presented at The Twelfth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons, Cheltenham, UK, 14-18 July.
“An Overview of the Knowledge Commons.” 2007. With Elinor Ostrom. Pp. 3-26 in: Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice. 2007. Edited by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom. Cambridge: MIT Press. http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262083574intro1.pdf
“A Framework for Analyzing the Knowledge Commons.” 2007. With Elinor Ostrom as first author. In: Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice. Edited by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom. Cambridge: MIT Press.
“Knowledge as a Commons: Scholarly Communication, Resource, Sharing and the Potential of Digital Libraries.” 2005. In Universities: Taking a Leading Role in ICT Enabled Human Development. Eds., F.F. Tusubira and N.K. Mulira. Kampala, Uganda: Makerere University.
“A Resource Guide for Authors: Open Access, Copyright, and the Digital Commons.” 2005.
“A Framework for Analyzing Scholarly Communication as a Commons.” Written for the Workshop on Scholarly Communication as a Commons.” 2004. With Elinor Ostrom. Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, March 31-April 2, 2004.
“Report From the Field: The Information Commons.” 2004. Polycentric Circles 11:1 (December).
John Kerr is an associate professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He received his PhD in applied economics in 1990 at the Food Research Institute, Stanford University. Before joining the faculty at Michigan State University in 1999 he worked at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC.
His research interests are in international agricultural development and natural resource management. Focal areas of his research have been on adoption of agricultural technology and natural resource conservation practices, collective action and property rights related to natural resource management, and the interaction of these things with rural poverty in developing countries. His current research focuses on incentive-based conservation programs, including methods for promoting adoption of conservation practices and potential unanticipated drawbacks of the use of monetary incentives.
I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology focusing on Environment and Development. My interests are in natural resource commons governance in southern Africa with particular focus on the intersection of local people, the State, conservation and protected areas, and how power and knowledge intersect in commons management as well as the accompanying implications for policy and development.
Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Member graduate programs in Anthropology; Ecology; and Geography. Former president of the IASC. Fellow of Amer. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science; Soc. for Applied Anthropology; Amer. Anthropological Assoc.
Environmental sociologist, Southern African region specialist with over 20 years post doctoral experience combining university research and teaching, and regional programme management experience in NGO, international and regional bodies. Experience concentrated on conservation and development issues now including climate change mitigation and adaptation. Primary interests include governance, policy, institutional and livelihoods issues in conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
