The IAD Framework and the SES Framework: An Introduction and Assessment of the Ostrom Workshop Frameworks

The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework is conceptually simple, but theoretically rich. More recently, Elinor Ostrom developed a second, related framework, the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework, that consists of the seven objects but that rests on a diagnostic logic. The role of institutional arrangements is not as prominent in the SES framework as it is in the IAD; the SES emphasizes the interactions between actors and ecological systems. This chapter describes the frameworks and how they support the development of theories and models through scientific inquiry. It compares the two frameworks, how they are similar, but different, and why that matters and examines how they have been used for social science research before concluding with assessments and future developments of the frameworks. The action situation is the focal unit of analysis. In most research projects using the IAD framework, multiple action situations are identified and compared. Action situations are structured by physical and material conditions, rules and community characteristics.