This project centers around interviews with professional and/or personal acquaintances of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. Every interview explores a unique relationship with the Ostroms and the continuing impact of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University. Elinor (Lin) and Vincent Ostrom founded the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in 1973.The Ostrom Workshop has been the catalyst for worldwide collaboration in the field of public policy and environmental issues. "Coming Together" is an interdisciplinary exploration of the legacy and impact of Elinor (Lin) and Vincent Ostrom. Major topics include; academia, "the commons", cross-disciplinary collaboration, Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize, the Ostrom Workshop, political science, political theory, and the Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop (WOW) conference. The project was created to assist in the dissertation research of Sara Catherine Clark, who was a doctoral candidate within the School of Education, pursing a Ph.D. in History, Philosophy, and Policy in Education, at Indiana University Bloomington. Sara Catherine Clark's dissertation was completed in 2019 and is cited as follows: Clark, S. C. (2019). Elinor ostrom: A biography of interdisciplinary life.
Daniel DeCaro is an Assistant Professor winthin the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville. He first met Elinor and Vincent Ostrom when he applied to the Ostrom Workshop for a visiting scholar position, which he started in August 2010. With a background in psychology, DeCaro has a unique perspective in the Ostrom Workshop and the classes he was enrolled in. DeCaro was a visiting scholar for three years which he reflects on by sharing his interactions with Elinor Ostrom and the project he has been working on which has been presented at the Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop. DeCaro closes the interview by discussing challenges to interdisciplinary research.
Martina (Tine) DeMoor is a Professor of Institutions for Collective Action in Historical Perspective and a research leader at the Economic and Social History research group, Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University. In this interview she discusses how she first knew of Elinor (Lin) Ostrom by reading her book Governing the Commons which resulted in her reaching out to Ostrom. The rest of the interview discusses the founding of the International Journal of the Commons, the 2014 Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop (WOW) Conference, and DeMoor's European tribute to Lin Ostrom.
Tom Evans is a professor at the University of Arizona in the School of Geography and Development. Evans was hired by Elinor Ostrom and Emilio Moran in 1998 as a post-doctoral scholar at the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC). During his post-doc he was a co-principle investigator with Elinor Ostrom, working on a biocomplexity Nation Science Foundation grant. Later, Evans became co-director of CIPEC and co-director of the Ostrom Workshop which he discusses at length. He also discusses some of the core research that was going on at the Ostrom Workshop such as the social-ecological system (SES) framework. Evans closes the interview by discussing the Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop Conference and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.