Elinor Ostrom

Hello! My name is Elinor Ostrom, but my friends called me Lin. My story begins on August 7th, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. I grew up during a time called the Great Depression, when many families didn't have much money, so we learned to be resourceful. I loved helping my mother in our victory garden, where we grew our own vegetables to share. Tending that garden taught me my first lesson about sharing resources and making things last. I didn't know it then, but this idea of sharing and taking care of things together would become my life's work.

When I was a girl, I had a bit of a stutter, which made speaking in front of people feel scary. I was determined not to let it stop me, so I joined the debate team in high school. It was challenging, but practicing my speeches helped me find my confidence and my voice. I loved learning so much that I went to college at the University of California, Los Angeles, which you might know as UCLA. I decided to study political science to understand how people make rules and work together. I graduated in 1954, ready to ask some very big questions. It was also at UCLA that I met my wonderful husband, Vincent Ostrom, who was a professor and became my partner in work and in life.

After college, I kept studying and earned my Ph.D. in 1965. The question that fascinated me most was about things we all share—like forests, oceans, and clean air. Scientists called these 'the commons.' For a long time, many experts believed that people would always be selfish and use up these shared resources, leading to something they called the 'tragedy of the commons.' They thought the only solutions were for governments to make strict rules or for private companies to own everything. But I wondered, 'Is that really true? Can't people work it out for themselves?'.

To find the answer, I didn't just read books. My husband Vincent and I started a special research center called the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in 1973. Then, I traveled the world. I went to villages in Switzerland to see how farmers shared mountain pastures for their cows. I visited Japan and Nepal to learn how people managed forests and irrigation systems to water their crops. In all these places, I discovered something amazing: people were excellent at creating their own smart rules for sharing. They talked, they cooperated, and they successfully managed their 'commons' for generations without needing outside forces to control them.

I spent many years writing books and articles about what I had learned, sharing my idea that communities could solve their own problems. Then, one day in 2009, I received a very surprising phone call. I had been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. It was such a huge honor, and I was especially proud because I was the very first woman in history to receive that prize. It showed that the world was finally listening to the idea that cooperation is just as important as competition.

I lived a full and happy life of discovery and passed away on June 12th, 2012. I lived to be 78 years old. Today, people all over the world use my ideas to work together to protect our planet's precious resources, from local fishing grounds to our global climate. I hope my story reminds you that regular people, by cooperating and trusting each other, have the power to solve even the biggest problems.