I seem to have an unstoppable logorrhea that this blog must satiate now that I’m off Twitter. Don’t get used to it, the posting frequency will certainly drop over time. But right now, I want to try a mixture of open science and personal note-taking. As indicated in yesterday’s post, I participated in a panel discussion on the governance of space debris. From the discussion, I have several thoughts stuck in my head that I want to write down here to get rid of them for the moment while preserving them in some fashion, so I can refer back to…
PD Dr. Daniel Lambach
Space debris is a growing impediment to the sustainable use of low-earth orbit. From a political economy perspective, it is a straightforward problem of managing a common-pool resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction. However, while the problem is well-known, the current system of outer space governance is badly equipped to come up with workable solutions. In a working paper, Luca Wesel and I apply insights from Elinor Ostrom’s work on the commons and polycentric governance to the space debris problem. Being political scientists, we couldn’t help but focus on the political obstacles rather than the technical, economic, and legal ones…
I am getting off Twitter after eight years. This is not some noble act of resistance but being part of Elon Musk’s magical mystery agora of free speech just makes my skin crawl. Personally, the choice was easy. Professionally, it was more difficult. Twitter is currently the most important channel for communication among scientists and for public-facing work. I have „met“ many colleagues there for the first time and several opportunities have arisen from being visible and active on Twitter. Hence, my first thought was: „Where do I go then?“ I am already on LinkedIn, ResearchGate and YouTube. Visual social…