Aspiring Commons – (Re)discoveries and Learning Opportunities from the Global South

Join us for a thought-provoking symposium featuring Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Ruth is a renowned scholar whose research spans governance of natural resources, agricultural development, and gender issues, with a strong focus on the management of commons and innovative field methodologies.

This symposium, titled Aspiring Commons – (Re)discoveries and Learning Opportunities from the Global South, aims to explore how practices from the Global South can inspire and inform collective action initiatives in Europe. The event will also include presentations and a panel discussion about how transdisciplinary approaches, reciprocity between academics and practitioners, and innovative frameworks can address problems and support sustainable resource management.

About the keynote speaker

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, where she leads groundbreaking research into natural resource governance, agricultural development, and gender. She has extensive experience in transdisciplinary research using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. This has led her to study land and water policy, property rights, collective action and other governance arrangements, games for experiential learning, and the impact of development interventions drawing on fieldwork in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Ruth is a co-creator of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and recipient of the Elinor Ostrom Collective Governance of the Commons 2019 Senior Scholar Award. She holds a PhD in development sociology from Cornell University.