On February 23, Professor Tine De Moor from the Erasmus University Rotterdam gave a seminar at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), titled: ‘Spreading from below. on the diffusion and scaling of institutions for collective action in early modern Europe.’
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Members of energy cooperatives take on the role of prosumers: both consumer and producer by setting up and joining these cooperatives as investors, shareholders and clients. To work towards becoming a resilient institution, it is important that cooperatives preserve their support base by understanding the motives of their members.
The Energy, Sustainability and Society Journal published a study on this topic titled ‘Ecological, financial, social and societal motives for cooperative energy prosumerism: measuring preference heterogeneity in a Belgian energy cooperative‘. The authors, Fijnanda van Klingeren and Tine De Moor from Erasmus University, investigate the preference heterogeneity and motivations of members of a large energy cooperative in Belgium. It uses stated-choice data from a Discrete Choice Experiment in combination with self-reported membership motives.
It turns out that ecological motives seem to be most important for members of this energy cooperative. The article concludes by raising awareness with cooperatives that their legal form may not be the only factor that drives membership. Rather, keeping high levels of renewable energy, competitive pricing and being an interesting investment opportunity may be key to cooperatives’ resilience and further development on the energy market.’
The International Journal of the Commons will publish a special issue called: The Energy Commons: Fostering Collective Action in Energy Transitions. Guest editors are Thomas Bauwens (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University), Amineh Ghorbani (Delft University of Technology), and Javanshir Fouladvand (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University).
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The Oxford Centre for Economic and Social History organizes a workshop about public goods in history. It explores the evolution of public goods and how their provision is shaped by institutions and norms over time. You can find more information about the workshop here.
Professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management will give a lecture during this workshop, titled: “How common were/are the commons? On the semantics and conceptualization of collective resources in history and today”. Other contributors are Avner Offer, Sheila Pugh, David Gawkrdoger, Cesare Vagge, Joost Haddinga, Louis Henderson, and Victoria Gierok.
On 25 January, we brought together 130 initiators of citizen collectives, policymakers, scientists and financiers to look for concrete solutions to the financial bottlenecks of citizen collectives.
We organised the sold-out event ‘Financing collective value(s): from challenges to solutions’ together with Triodos Bank and Katalys. The day was opened by Tine De Moor, professor of Social Enterprises & Institutions for Collective Action. De Moor: ‘Citizen collectives regularly experience financial challenges, both due to a lack of policy for this form of governance and due to a lack of confidence in their operation. This is mainly because governments and financial institutions have little to no experience with citizen collectives.’
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Scaling local initiatives, such as energy communities, can have global impact. It can contribute to climate mitigation, for example. But there need to be some mechanisms in place for energy communities to flourish. This is addressed in the article ‘Scaling mechanisms of energy communities: A comparison of 28 initiatives’, which was published in the journal Global Environmental Change.
An analysis by postdoctoral researcher Daniel Petrovics (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University) and his co-authors Dave Huitema, Mendel Giezen and Barbara Vis, identifies eight necessary (combinations of) conditions to scaling energy communities.
Continue readingCan graduated sanctioning encourage sustainable cooperation in common-pool resources? To encourage long-term cooperation in social dilemmas such as common-pool resources – like oil fields, grasslands or fishing grounds – the importance of sanctioning is often stressed. Elinor Ostrom advocates graduated sanctioning: the severity of a defector’s punishment is dependent on the extent of their history of deviant behaviour.
Fijnanda van Klingeren and Vincent Buskens published a research article on this topic: ‘Graduated sanctioning, endogenous institutions and sustainable cooperation in common-pool resources: An experimental test‘. In this study, the authors compare the effect of graduated and strict mutual sanctioning on cooperation in common-pool resources at the micro and macro level. Results support the effectiveness of graduated sanctioning compared to strict sanctioning in the long term and partial support using endogenously chosen sanctioning mechanisms versus imposed sanctioning mechanisms.
We are happy to announce that dr. Florian Grisel, has aligned with the research group Social Enterprises and Institutions for Collective Action as an affiliate researcher.
Dr. Grisel is a Research Fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (University of Strasbourg, SAGE) and a Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (University of Oxford). In his book The Limits of Private Governance: Norms and Rules in a Mediterranean Fishery (Hart Publishing, 2021) he explores the history of a communal organisation and its role in the management of a Mediterranean fishery.
“I am delighted to join the research group on Institutions for Collective Action as Affiliate Researcher. I share the excitement and interest of the group members for the various institutionalised organisations that tackle collective action problems arising from the management of natural resources.”
Water is inherently circular. It cannot escape the hydrologic cycle and will re-emerge time and again as water. In the seventeenth century, city dwellers of Holland made use of this natural cycle. They withdrew water that had rained down or flowed into the city and put it to use for their own benefit. How did they ensure availability of water of the right quality, in the right amount and at the right place for the community? How was wastewater either deployed or disposed of?
In the article ‘Waste in Water. Water as Waste. Informal Collective Action in Seventeenth-Century Holland‘, dr. Marianne Groep-Foncke explores, amongst others, which parties within this polycentric governance system took the responsibility for the drainage of surplus water and the availability of water of sufficient quality for consumption or production purposes.
Continue readingCrowdsourcing, or harnessing the power of volunteers online, has become increasingly popular. Especially among public libraries, museums, archives and research institutions. However, attracting volunteers and keeping them engaged is often challenging for project managers.
The article “Behind the Crowdsourcing Platform: Assessing Volunteer Recruitment and Engagement Instruments” analyzes the effectiveness of recruiting and engagement instruments on volunteers’ activity. The article by Montserrat Prats López, Auke Rijpma, Tine De Moor, and Jolien Reijerink is published in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and can be found here.
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