IGRI Mission and Research Program

The Institutional Grammar Research Initiative (IGRI) convenes scholars from around the world who are interested in the study and practice of institutional analysis. Core foci of the IGRI are theoretical and methodological advancements of the Institutional Grammar, proposed by Sue Crawford and Elinor Ostrom (1995).

The IGRI and its activities are designed to support principles of Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP), which encourage collaboration across sectors (public, private, non-profit) and emphasize the use of open, collaborative platforms and “Copyleft” licensing for engaging scholars with common intellectual interests in scientific problem-solving wherever they live, globally [for information on Copyleft licensing see here and here]. Consistent with these principles, the IGRI supports the development of open-source and open-access intellectual products, public accessibility to IGRI seminars, and broad dissemination of IGRI and related products.

IGRI affiliates are currently engaged in research that addresses one or more of the following themes.

Computational Text Analysis with the Institutional Grammar

• Development and application of computational text analysis and supervised machine learning approaches for evaluating institutions based on the Institutional Grammar

Evaluating Institutional Performance

• Utilization of the Institutional Grammar to develop theoretically informed criteria for assessing the quality of institutions

Using the Institutional Grammar to Study Simulated and Real Behavior

• Application of the Institutional Grammar to study the interaction between formal and informal institutions
• Exploration of how the Institutional Grammar can be used in conjunction with game-theoretic approaches and agent-based modeling to facilitate institutional modeling and analysis in silico

IGRI affiliates participate in and host research meetings, actively seek external funding to support their research activities that align with the themes listed above, and disseminate their research to academic and practitioner communities.