Tragedy of the commons
| Garrett Hardin |
|---|
 ”The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.” [1] |
The Tragedy of the Commons is one of system archetypes. It is an economic theory describing a system with shared resource where the actors act independently according to their self-interest. Draining of the resource can cause their actions to behave contrary to the common good. The Tragedy of the Commons became well known after an article by ecologist Garrett Hardin was published in 1968.
Contents
Introduction
You live in a smaller city where you own some land. As a landowner, you have the rights to use the water pumped up from wells on your land. Whenever you are in a need of water, you go and get it. As your family grows, you naturally need more water. But it's just few more people and there is enough water in your well. There are many other landowners in your city and each one manages his own water consumption. As your city and its population is growing, water usage rises as well. What you may not realize is the fact, that all the water from different wells throughout the whole city is part of a regional groundwater aquifer, so each landowner is pulling water from the same pool. After continual long-term growth of the water consumption, the city’s water supply reached levels that left the aquifer vulnerable to saltwater intrusion from the nearby ocean. Now the city is facing potential water shortages and possible destruction of the renewable water resource the city depended on. [2]
Problem Definition
System Archetypes
System Archetypes describe common patterns of behavior that we can find in complex systems. They are part of a larger topic of System Dynamics.
There is a number of different System Archetypes. Yet there are two basic structures and all the other archetypes are different combinations of the two. The two basic structures are [The Balancing Loop] and [The Reinforcing Loop]. The Balancing Loop represents an objective not yet met, referred to as a gap between the current state and a desired state. It is common for balancing loops to have one or more delays. For example, there is usually a delay after a change is introduced and before it starts having a visible effect. The Reinforcing Loop promotes an effect or action. An example can be a savings account in which the interest earned is added to the principal, which itself earns more interest, which adds to the principal, and the cycle repeats. [3]
 The Balancing Loop [3] |
 The Reinforcing Loop [3] |
As it was already said, The Tragedy of the Commons is one of the System Archetypes. Here are some other System Archetypes examples:
- Limits to Growth
- Accidental Adversaries
- Drifting Goals
- Escalation
- Fixes That Fail
- Growth and Underinvestment
- Shifting the Burden
- Success to Successful
The Tragedy of the Commons
References
- ↑ Hardin, Garrett. The Tragedy of the Commons. In: Science, New Series, Vol. 162, No. 3859 (Dec. 13, 1968), pp. 1243-1248. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1724745
- ↑ Spooner, Alecia M. Ten Real-Life Examples of the Tragedy of the Commons [online]. [seen 14. 1. 2017]. Available at http://www.dummies.com/education/science/environmental-science/ten-real-life-examples-of-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Sherrer, J. Alex. A Project Manager's Guide to Systems Thinking: Part 2 [online]. Project Smart. 24. 7. 2010 [seen 14. 1. 2017]. Available at https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/project-managers-guide-to-systems-thinking-part-2.php
