On October 22, dr. Amineh Ghorbani presented as part of our SEICA Open Seminar Talks. Amineh Ghorbani is an Associate professor of Institutional Modelling and Analysis at the System’s Engineering group. She is also an affiliated researcher of our research group, of the Institutional Grammar Research Initiative, and the Ostrom Workshop.

In her talk, Dr. Ghorbani highlighted the urgent need to reconfigure institutions—both formal and informal—to address increasingly frequent and severe climate-related shocks, including floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Drawing on diverse examples, she discussed how resilience depends not only on technological innovation or behavioral change, but also on institutional flexibility and the ability to adapt rules over time. The talk emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for climate governance: institutional responses must be context-specific, collaborative, and able to evolve in complex, multi-level systems.

Dr. Ghorbani also reflected on how researchers can contribute to institutional adaptation by combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, including modeling, institutional grammar, and stakeholder engagement tools.