The study of formal and informal institutions that govern natural resources and the environment more broadly has a long history at the Ostrom Workshop. Indeed, Lin Ostrom’s "Governing the Commons" explored the institutional arrangements facilitating the successful self-governance of shared natural resource systems in a wide range of environmental and socio-political contexts. The Program on Environment & Natural Resource Governance (ENRG) at Ostrom Workshop was created in 2016, formalizing this enduring component of the Workshop. The scholars affiliated with the ENRG Program study a wide range of topics, including property rights, conservation and biodiversity, climate change, urban environmental governance, energy justice, sustainability in fragile and developing states, and comparative regulatory and legal institutions of environmental and natural resource governance. We welcome all methodological approaches to the study of socio-ecological systems.
We support and disseminate the work of the ENRG network of scholars, which includes scholars from IU and around the world. At IU, the program draws on faculty from Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Law, Political Science, the School of Global & International Studies, and the School of Public & Environmental Affairs. Globally, our network of affiliates includes faculty from political science, geography, economics, law, anthropology, sociology, and the natural sciences.