May 14th: Workshop The University Cooperative

Learning to manage academic resources
as common property

10.00 – 17.00, Belle van Zuylenzaal, Academiegebouw, Utrecht

Speakers

- - Tine de Moor, Department of Social and Economic History, Utrecht University
  - Bianca Kramer and Jeroen Bosman, FORCE11 Scholarly Commons Working Group and Utrecht University Library
  - Lars Tummers, School of Governance, Utrecht University
  - Anja van der Aa, City Cooperative SAMEN030
  - Socrates Schouten, Waag

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.
This workshop will introduce you to the issues, the concepts, and successful examples of governing common resources. You will be involved in applying the concept of commons to concrete cases relevant to academia and knowledge creation, not just by listening, but by doing, together.

Questions: If we want to become decision makers of our shared resources, what do we need to learn? Which tools do we need? What rights are we missing?
Take away: We develop a clearer understanding of how to increase resource control among the academic community. We understand better how that has been done by others. We know where we should start and what steps to follow.
Effort: To learn together how the lessons from the commons can help academics in their work. To share and discuss what we and others can do right now. To sketch a roadmap that show us the way forward.

This workshop is a joint effort by the Utrecht Young Academy, Open Science Community Utrecht, and Waag.

Programme

10 – 10:15: Opening and introduction

Format and aim of the workshop, Organizers

10:20 – 11:30: Theory

The fundamentals of commons applied to academia, Tine de Moor
Scholarly commons, Bianca Kramer and Jeroen Bosman
Towards accepted behaviour change (ABC) in academia, Lars Tummers

11:40 – 12:30: Solution space

Managing collectives, Anja van der Aa, Samen030
Digital decision making (TBA)

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch and group activity

13:30 – 16:00: workshop and discussion

Moderator: Socrates Schouten (Waag)

Introduction of cases a. Allocating the library budget of a department b. The tragedy of publish and perish
Discussion round 1, problem formulation and identifying the limits
Break out sessions for designing solutions
Discussion round 2, critical view on the practicality of solutions