Synopses & Reviews
This volume offers a synthesis of what is known about very large and very small common-pool resources. Individuals using commons at the global or local level may find themselves in a similar situation. At an international level, states cannot appeal to authoritative hierarchies to enforce agreements they make to cooperate with one another. In some small-scale settings, participants may be just as helpless in calling on distant public officials to monitor and enforce their agreements. Scholars have independently discovered self-organizing regimes which rely on implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and procedures rather than the command and control of a central authority.
The contributors discuss the possibilities and
Synopsis
Local Commons and Global Interdependence explores the conditions for and possibilities of reaching such agreements. It develops a theoretical understanding of cooperation and discord at local and global levels, focussing on two of the key variables that affect outcomes: the number of actors and the degree of heterogeneity between them. This volume provides a broad-ranging introduction to the theory and theoretical issues involved, combining this with a detailed review of research evidence on how agreements to cooperate are established and maintained.