A little clarification
'Worstall @ the Weekend Something popped up in the comments from BobRocket a couple of weeks back, namely that the Tragedy of the Commons is a myth spread by the landgrabbers, and Elinor Ostrom proved this was wrong. Well, no, not really; not at all in fact.'
Well, no, not really; not at all in fact !
This was the post.
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2561737
I did say 'The Tragedy of the Commons is a myth spread by the land grabbers.' and underneath I did post a link to Elinor Ostrom but nowhere did I say that she had proved this wrong.
She did prove 'This inevitableness of destiny' was wrong and that there are instances of working commons.
It's my opinion that these 'working commons' actually fall into one of the two classic styles rather than representing a third way.
The Governmental type (quango) on commons usage with open access, restrictions are enforced through peer pressure / local byelaw changes.
The Private model where access is restricted to a select group (live within boundaries for example)
They are all 'Landgrabbers', they want some kind of hold over a naturally occurring resource to the exclusion of others and will use whatever excuse serves their purpose.
I don't have a problem with that per se but as natural resources are a 'Common Good' it is only fair that the holders pay the excluded a share for the use.
Finally, about social media,
'but I would need some serious convincing that this makes, say, organising the management of deep sea fishing stocks easier.'
Because of consumer pressure you get things like Dolphin friendly tuna and fairtrade chocolate. Corporates, large or small. will change their behaviour or suffer loss of business.
If you were worried about deep sea fish stocks 30 years ago it was very difficult to challenge the status quo, today you can start a campaign in the morning, take to twatter and form a likeminded community to do something about it and by the afternoon you can be affecting the share price.
Social media allows the formation of ad hoc single issue pressure groups that can and do affect the bottom line.
Demand and supply are put back into their correct order and the customer rightly regains his crown.
This
https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/ge/gepotatoban.php
lead to this
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/latestnews/entryid/1639/campaign-win-m-s-drop-grouse.aspx
On the whole it was a good article and provoked some interesting responses, that it also exposes Elinor Ostrom to a wider audience is definitely for the common good.