Mit grosser Trauer haben wir heute vernommen, dass die amerikanische Politikwissenschafterin Elinor Ostrom, Nobelpreisträgerin für Ökonomie 2009, gestorben ist. Elinor war in vieler Hinsicht ein Vorbild sowohl für Ökonominnen als auch für Politikwissenschaftler.

Hier ist die Begrüssungsrede, die ich bei ihrem Besuch an der Universität St. Gallen vor nur einem Jahr halten durfte:

Who would be a better person to stand for the mission of our newly founded School of Economics and Political Science? Who would be the perfect figurehead for a University which aims at excellence in research and teaching, but also at diversity, international visibility and interdisciplinary research? Elinor Ostrom epitomizes the successful combination of insights and methods from Political Science and Economics.

I vividly remember how my colleagues in economics, at least those who were familiar with Elinor’s work, did not mind a bit that a Political scientist was going to receive the highest honor in our own field. At the same time Elinor Ostrom is a cheerful likeable person who sticks out in many other ways, particularly among her generation.

„To an outside observer, my career may look rather successful at the current time. Has it always been this way?“ Elinor Ostrom asks in her article „A Long Polycentric Journey“ (an exciting reading I would recommend to all of you). „To be honest, the answer is no“ she goes on. It is very fascinating to read how Elinor Ostrom dealt with the many obstacles she faced as a young ambitious woman at that time. I also realized with a smile that she ignored the same two pieces of advice as I did many years later. The first was that the best major for a girl was in education – to become a teacher. The second was that one should not only diversify financial assets but also the professions in a marriage.

Probably I would not have dared to invite Elinor Ostrom to St. Gallen. My colleagues in Political science tried. And here she is. I am very proud to be the dean of such an active school and of course to have the privilege of welcoming Elinor Ostrom to our University.