Environmental Challenges: Hierarchy in Property Rights

Recognise the difference between the perspectives of the ‘giving spirit of nature’ and ‘controlling ancestor’ in our perceptions of nature

Understand the meaning of ‘reciprocity’ as a way of reducing risk in uncertain environments

Be introduced to Elinor Ostrom who developed a hierarchy of different types of property rights

Recognise different types of property rights and how they affect access to, and withdrawal of, natural resources

Appreciate the need for flexible property rights in areas with dynamic ecologies

Be introduced to the contrasting arguments of Thomas Malthus and Ester Boserup on population and agricultural production

Understand the concept of ‘more people, less erosion’ when higher population densities lead to better land management

Recognise the links between property rights and level of biodiversity in agriculture

Understand how ‘historical institutionalism’ of past laws affects current legal rights to natural resources

Appreciate the social asymmetries caused by the power to control access to natural resources

Recognise the importance of language for describing local systems of natural resource management