Using Polycentric Systems to Build More Inclusive Societies in Africa

The Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the Pardee School of Global Studies of Boston University will be hosting a panel discussion during the upcoming Workshop on the Ostrom Workshop Conference examining how scholars can use polycentric systems to build more inclusive societies in Africa.

The panel discussion will begin the process of better understanding bridge systems, which can later lead to insights about how to build such systems, through the following main steps:
1. Introduce the topic of bridge systems;
2. Explore how a combination of polycentric governance, contract theory, and other fields can help uncover insights into how bridge systems operate, focusing on the M-Pesa mobile money system in Africa (Jonathan Greenacre), the different ways by which governments and firms try to provide services through partnerships with co-operatives and credit unions in Kenya (Timothy Bisakaya),
the operation of polycentric systems and decentralized clean energy (Elizabeth Baldwin), and the interplay between legal and cultural contexts and polycentric systems in Kenya (Albert Mumma).
3. Explore how to develop a plan to build a pipeline of papers and other projects to study bridge systems, particularly by connecting with researchers from the African Economic Research Consortium and other scholars on the continent.

The panel discussion could be of interest to scholars from a range of different fields and lead to a range of interdisciplinary, and cross-country studies. This is because, as discussed above, bridge systems rely upon systems of rules emerging from many sources. These can include:
• Scholars who specialize in governing the commons, particularly the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, given the importance of many different informal rules in bridge systems and their polycentric nature;
• Scholars of polycentric governance;
• Network theorists, given bridge systems appear to try to tap into pre-existing networks in a community;
• Researchers of co-operatives and credit unions, which may serve as key participants in bridge systems
• Contract theorists because all firms use contracts in their bridge systems.

The panel discussion will be open to participants of the WoW Conference only.

For more information contact Jonathan Greenacre: jongre@bu.edu