Training in the use of the IFRI protocol for studying forest governance takes place each fall, alternating between Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The intensive 9-week training program combines field work (including community interviews and forest mensuration) with seminar sessions and database training. Seminar sessions introduce participants to IFRI's theoretical foundations, a larger body of work on local resource governance issues, the IFRI instruments and methods used in data collection, principles of research design, basic data analysis, and report writing. Field work in a southern Indiana forest community or in a Michigan forest community provides hands-on training in field methods. The computer laboratory component covers data entry and database management and is primarily for visiting scholars. Graduate students and visiting scholars participate in the seminar and fieldwork.
Graduate students at both universities as well as members of existing CRCs have priority in enrollment, although we welcome other interested individuals when slots are available. University of Michigan graduate students interested in the course should contact Arun Agrawal (arunagra@umich.edu). Indiana University graduate students interested in the course should contact Nicole Todd (stodd@indiana.edu). Links to recent syllabi for each university are provided below.
University of Michigan NRE 501
Indiana University (course name and number varies by semester)
In alternating years, Indiana University offers an “advanced IFRI” training, during which students complete an IFRI study in a southern Indiana community. In the fall of 2008, Burney Fischer and Elinor Ostrom worked with a small group of students to study intentional communities and their forests over time. The class conducted a second study in the fifth Indiana site, thus completing a full round of repeat studies of Indiana’s five IFRI sites. Using these data, the class can begin a cross-site comparison, looking at changes in all five sites over time.
