Towards a New Science of Governance

Yahua Bert Wang recounts his academic experiences with Elinor Ostrom, 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. He discusses the contribution of Elinor Ostrom to develop a common language of social science, beyond the contribution to economic governance, especially the commons, announced by the Economic Sciences Nobel Prize Committee. From the early 1980s, Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues developed an interdisciplinary framework of Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) which provides a common language for institutional analysis. Recently, she is developing a further framework for analyzing relationships within complex social-ecological systems. These works initiated by Elinor Ostrom represent an endeavor to build a new science of governance, which also combine eastern wisdom and western science together.