Background on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework
Abstract
This article provides an overview of the structure and evolution of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework and a short introduction to its use by scholars to analyze a diversity of puzzles. It then addresses the relationship of IAD to a more complex framework for the analysis of social‐ecological systems and concludes with a short discussion of future challenges facing IAD scholars.
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The Institutional Analysis and Development framework decomposes any governance situation into an action arena conditioned by the biophysical attributes of the resource, the attributes of the community, and the rules-in-use, and resolves the rules into position, boundary, choice, aggregation, information, payoff, and scope rules.
“The analytic engine beneath these principles is the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, which decomposes any governance situation into an action arena conditioned by the biophysical attributes of the resource, the attributes of the community, and the rules-in-use, and which resolves the rules into position, boundary, choice, aggregation, information, payoff, and scope rules (Ostrom,”
From Commons-Governed Artificial Intelligence: A Taxonomy of Collective Governance (2026) · cites this paper as Ostrom, 2011
Cites
A diagnostic approach for going beyond panaceas
Ostrom, E. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0702288104 · Cited by 2,728 · see citing works
Self-citationCrawford, S. E. S., & Ostrom, E. (1995) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.2307/2082975 · Cited by 1,362 · see citing works
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Tengö, M., Brondizio, E. S., Elmqvist, T., Malmer, P., & Spierenburg, M. (2014) · AMBIO · doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0501-3 · Cited by 1,329 · see citing works
“Ostrom (2011) for instance suggests that conceptual frameworks facilitate the integration of different types of theories and models as they apply to different questions and parts of a research problem, but together contribute to the understanding of a whole.”
BackgroundFraming Sustainability in a Telecoupled World
Liu, J., Hull, V., Batistella, M., DeFries, R., Dietz, T., Fu, F., Hertel, T. W., Izaurralde, R. C., Lambin, E. F., Li, S., et al. (2013) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-05873-180226 · Cited by 1,099 · see citing works
Wicked evolution: Can we address the sociobiological dilemma of pesticide resistance?
Gould, F., Brown, Z. S., & Kuzma, J. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aar3780 · Cited by 566 · see citing works
How Are Political Institutions Gendered?
Lowndes, V. (2020) · Political Studies · doi:10.1177/0032321719867667 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Human-centered design of work systems in the transition to industry 4.0
Kadir, B. A., & Broberg, O. (2021) · Applied Ergonomics · doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2020.103334 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Land tenure security for women: A conceptual framework
Doss, C., & Meinzen-Dick, R. (2020) · Land Use Policy · doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105080 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Bringing political science back into public administration research
Peters, B. G., Pierre, J., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2022) · Governance · doi:10.1111/gove.12705 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Naiga, R., Penker, M., & Hogl, K. (2017) · Society & Natural Resources · doi:10.1080/08941920.2016.1274460 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Viana, L. B. F. (2025) · Technium Social Sciences Journal · doi:10.47577/tssj.v67i1.12358 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Commons-Governed Artificial Intelligence: A Taxonomy of Collective Governance
Garrido-Merchán, E. C. (2026) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2606.15466
“…any governance situation into an action arena conditioned by the biophysical attributes of the resource, the attributes of the community, and the rules-in-use, and which resolves the rules into position, boundary, choice, aggregation, information, payoff, and scope rules (Ostrom, 2005, 2011).”
- Authors
- Ostrom, E.
- Venue
- Policy Studies Journal
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-02
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-27
- ISSN
- 0190-292X (ISSN-L)
- 1541-0072
- OpenAlex
- W1957796155
- Cited by
- 1,719
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 120 · 2025: 135 · 2024: 124 · 2023: 146 · 2022: 144 · 2021: 165 · 2020: 136 · 2019: 139 · 2018: 145 · 2017: 98 · 2016: 97 · 2015: 88 · 2014: 87 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 147.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Policy Studies Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Theory and Institutions
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Keywords
- institutional analysis and development, social-ecological systems, institutional economics, institutional change
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