The University Cooperative Workshop

Road to Open Science (R2OS)

Nearly thirty years ago, Elinor Ostrom published her groundbreaking book Governing the Commons, in which she showed that users of natural and agricultural resources can and do govern such resources themselves. They do not have to rely on hierarchical state or corporate regulation, nor on a pricing mechanism to overcome the collective action problems that may arise. By setting up rules together, and monitoring compliance with these rules, commoners are able to manage resources themselves. Ostrom also extended her work on commons governance to knowledge commons. Sharing resources, such as data, methods, publications, and the curriculum, is one of the foundations of university education and development. But today many academic resources such as subscriptions and the syllabus are managed in a rigid, bureaucratic way. Many users and producers of resources and knowledge lack the opportunity to express their wishes and highlight alternatives. In the first University Cooperative workshop on May 14th 2019, at Utrecht University, participants were introduced to the issues, the concepts, and successful examples of governing common resources. They also investigated two cases related to the university and knowledge dissemination. This podcast reports on this workshop. [more info](https://openscience-utrecht.com/workshop-the-university-cooperative/)