Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) was a political scientist at Indiana University and a leader of the intellectual movement informally known as the Bloomington School. She won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 and was a MacArthur “genius” Fellow and president of the American Political Science Association. For me, she was a major inspiration, and I find that I have mentioned or discussed her in 142 blog posts over the years. I also summarize her work in chapter 3 of What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life (2022).

I have now recorded two videos to introduce all of her major ideas, as I see them. I discuss her basic principles in Part I (17 minutes) and how to apply her ideas in Part II (11 minutes). These are free for anyone to use and are embedded in this public website about what we should learn to be effective citizens.