The River's Seat
The idea: a shared thing can be kept by the people who use it, if they make the rules together and take no more than it renews.
Read it
Who is in this book
- Ada Rules are incentives — design for how people actually behave, with the people who use the place from CommonsForge
- Casimir A fair share of a shared thing is what it grows back each year; take more and it shrinks from CommonsForge
- Danya a child of the Green Asks "how do we know?"
- Oriel People keep a rule when they know it will be noticed; a log beats a harsh fine nobody checks from CommonsForge
- Tara a child of the Green Listens longest, speaks last
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- With about 1,000 trout regrowing about a fifth a year (200), a catch of 260 takes 60 more than the river makes; at that rate there would be about 700 after five years.
- Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009 for showing how communities can manage shared resources, such as fisheries and pastures, without either privatising them or relying on central control. Source
- Ostrom described design principles found in long-lasting commons, including rules made by the people who use the resource, monitoring by users, and cheap local ways to settle disputes. Source
Stretched
- The case says the stock would fall by the same 60 every year. What we simplified: Real fish populations regrow faster or slower depending on how many fish are left, the weather and the river. A shrinking stock usually makes fewer new fish, so the fall can speed up.
Made up
- The town, the Seat, Councillor Dunmore, Mr. Pell, the fishing club and every number in the case are made up. Ostrom is real.
Tara’s sentence
The case stops where Tara speaks. Write the sentence you would have said. It stays on this device.
Kept.
Your sentence lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.