Elinor Ostrom was an American political economist known for her work on the management of common-pool resources. She challenged the conventional wisdom that common resources are best managed through either privatization or government regulation. Instead, Ostrom demonstrated that local communities can effectively govern shared resources through collective action and self-organization. In 2009, Ostrom became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her groundbreaking research. Her influential book, Governing the Commons, outlined principles for sustainable resource management and emphasized the importance of local knowledge and institutions in addressing environmental challenges.