Researcher Deike Schulz presents at Ostrom conference in America

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WOW7, Deike Schulz

Deike Schulz of NHL Stenden was one of the presenters at the Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop (WOW7) in Bloomington, USA, last month. As professor Organisations and Social Media, she presented her case study on the (im)possibilities of a value-driven influencer economy at the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

‘Quite an honour,’ is how Deike Schulz described the invitation she received from the Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop (WOW7) to speak at their conference. The Ostrom Workshop was founded 50 years ago by Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. For her pioneering work on self-governance in small-scale communities, Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009.

The Ostrom Workshop focuses on the study of citizen self-governance in collaboration with (public) organisations in relation to various research fields. Also, scientists around the world and in diverse research fields are working with the framework and design principles developed by Ostrom to find solutions to the world's most pressing common problems: from clean water to secure cyberspace.

Schulz: ‘Based on her research, Ostrom has developed key design principles for building and govering communities worldwide in a very broad context: from water management and fisheries to data, cybersafety and even space. It was exciting for me to present our research at WOW7 and speak with scientists from all over the world on an interdisciplinary level.’

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WOW7 Deike Schulz

How special is it that you got to speak at this conference?

‘Very special. There were speakers from all over the world. From the Netherlands from the University of Amsterdam. For NHL Stenden, this was a first. I was welcomed with open arms. People at the conference were very interested in our University of Applied Science and how we do practice-oriented research with students and organisations.

It is also quite unique to meet academics who do research with the same framework, but in a completely different field. At a time when polarisation is an everyday occurrence, it felt like a breath of fresh air and gave a sense of hope.  Similar to NHL Stenden, the international and interdisciplinary nature of the conference- felt welcoming and gave many new insights.’

What (new) insights did you gain during the conference?

‘I think I learnt the most from the interdisciplinary setting. There is room at the conference for young researchers, experts from the field and experienced scientists from renowned knowledge institutions who share a common goal: how can we jointly govern the so-called ‘commons’ - everything that belongs to us humans together such as water, forests, the sea, space, but also online data?

In addition, for our professorship, I can draw inspiration from researchers in agriculture, fisheries, bitcoins and cyberspace. The essence is that communities often share the same mechanisms. For example, I can learn how a group of bitcoin administrators organise an online community. Or what a group doing water management in a small region in India or Spain is up against and how they can/can't solve problems as a community. That is the beauty of Ostrom's framework: it is not just theoretical, but also has very applied questions to support hands-on research.

And finally: the Ostroms were always looking for best practices to show how to develop or tackle solutions collectively. As a researcher in the field of online communities, this is also very appealing to me. For example: how do people organise themselves, what agreements and roles are there and what agreements are made when things don't go well?’

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WOW7, Deike Schulz

What kind of people were in the audience?

‘The conference lasted a total of three days and had around 300 participants. There were 108 sessions where the majority of participants spoke on topics related to the governance and polycentric approach within communities. The participants came from all over the world with diverse expertise: academics from universities and universities of applied sciences but also experts from the field or governments.’

What research by you and the professorship Organisations and Social Media did you talk about?

‘During the conference, I have chaired and presented during a specific session on the future of ‘commons research’ in the field of Web3. Here I presented a case study in which, for the first time, Ostrom's IAD framework was applied to organisations working with influencers, so-called Influencer Management Organisations.

The case study highlights how Influencer Management Organisations work value-driven in an offline context and in collaboration between influencers and followers online. The single case study concerns INSTINCT3 in Berlin, which I have been researching for the past 16 months to get more insights on how people in the influencer economy are setting up value-driven organisations, what they are up against, and whether and how they are sharing their values with members or followers of their online influencer communities. 

A very exciting study in line with our European Influencers Academy initiative, where we also work with influencers on themes around responsible leadership. This pilot case study therefore aims to show, on a best practice basis, how responsible leadership is put into practice in this emerging economy. The case study is also included as an article in the Digital Library of the Commons: an ‘open access’ database that includes all relevant studies working with the Ostrom approach.’

Finally, what did it bring you and NHL Stenden?

‘Besides many new contacts, I received valuable tips from researchers who are already very experienced in applying Ostrom's framework. Best advice is and remains that the framework is flexible and that we should never take it for granted, but use it more as a ‘guide’ to better understand specific topics, to seek solutions by asking good questions. This is very appealing to me personally because we are researching a field that is constantly evolving.

What I am also super proud of is that I have been asked to come back as a visiting scholar and to work with the scholars at the Ostrom Workshop. Moreover, they are also curious about NHL Stenden, so I can imagine us visiting each other more in the coming years.

We will also collaborate and help the Ostrom Workshop to bring all the beautiful work from the past 50 years to the attention of an (even) wider audience. For this, we are going to collaborate with colleagues and students from our Creative Business programme, among others.

Last but not least, I have also been asked to submit the presented paper for a book publication on the knowledge commons, to be published next year by Cambridge University Press. This was the second study for me where I applied Ostrom’s IAD framework. I now know for sure that we will work with this more often in our professorship and that it can also be an interesting approach for students supporting Design Based Education and Research. Not only at our academy, but for many more programmes at NHL Stenden.’