Amineh Ghorbani
Biographic Data
| ID | 4686019 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amineh Ghorbani |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amineh |
| FAMILY NAME | Ghorbani |
| SIGNATURE | GHORBANI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Delft University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9985-8239 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 80 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Strong plans, weak levers
Car dependence remains a persistent form of carbon lock-in, embedded in infrastructure, institutions, and everyday practices. While reducing private car use is recognized as essential for low-carbon transitions, less attention has been paid to how institutional design shapes the ability of different governance levels to pursue such goals. This study examines how institutional design enables or constrains efforts to reduce car dependence in Finlan…
A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Engineering Ethics in the Netherlands and the United States
This paper investigates the drivers behind the institutionalization of engineering ethics at the national level through a comparative study of the United States and the Netherlands. The study examines the historical evolution and current landscape of engineering ethics activities in both countries. By comparing emergence, process, and actor involvement dimensions, commonalities and differences between the two nations’ approaches to the institutio…
The Energy Commons and Commoning
Agentblocks
Examining the Interplay Between National Strategies and Value Change in the Battle Against Covid-19
Social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic challenged existing institutional arrangements that govern the society. During that time, nation-states had to prevent the collapse of society and rapidly establish new institutions and adapt existing ones to address public health, job security, and freedom-of-movement concerns. At the same time, institutional developments are explicitly or implicitly related to the cultural and moral values rele…
Network dynamics of solar PV adoption
Governments often use price-based policies such as tax-subsidies and rebates to encourage households to shift to renewable energy sources like rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV). These policies, however, have primarily benefited high-income homeowners, leaving others behind. This paper proposes leveraging social networks’ influence on attitudes and perceptions to design more equitable solar PV adoption programs. Using data from Albany county (New Y…
Infrastructure and governance
Energy security is one of the most important topics in energy-related literature. As such, various concepts and dimensions are introduced to contribute to energy security assessments. However, the literature lacks an approach to prioritise these dimensions, as they cannot always be addressed simultaneously. This study is the first step in investigating the importance and prioritisation of energy security dimensions by focusing on the context of c…
Understanding Institutional Compliance in Floor Risk Management
The International Journal of the Commons is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open-access journal, dedicated to furthering the understanding of institutions for use and management of resources that are (or could be) enjoyed collectively.These resources may be part of the natural world (e.g. forests, climate systems, or the oceans) or they may be created (e.g. infrastructures such as irrigation systems, the internet or (scientific) knowledge, for…
Understanding engineering ethics in countries
In recent decades, distinct national approaches to engineering ethics have evolved, each tailored to its unique contextual factors. These contextual disparities make it unfeasible to transfer one country's engineering ethics approach directly into another. This calls for a compelling need to enhance our comprehension of engineering ethics within specific national contexts. This paper introduces a novel conceptual framework for national engineerin…
Value dynamics in energy democracy
In the European Union, energy democracy (ED) is considered a socially desirable policy goal. One way to achieve ED is through empowering local communities to become agents of value change who can pursue more sustainable and equitable energy provision with community energy initiatives (CEI). However, such people-driven value change is complex in nature. CEIs are multifaceted sociotechnical systems that bring together sets of values and are compose…
How Culture Influences the Management of a Pandemic
Since its first appearance in Wuhan (China), countries have been employing, to varying degrees of success, a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions aimed at limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within their populations. In this article, we build on scientific work that demonstrates that culture is part of the explanation for the observed variability between countries in their ability to effectively control the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. We pres…
Analysing community-based initiatives for heating and cooling
Energy communities are decentralized socio-technical systems where energy is jointly generated and distributed among a community of households locally. As the energy that is shared among the community is commonly electricity, the energy community's literature is dominated by electricity-systems and mostly neglects collective thermal energy as an alternative energy carrier for heating and cooling. Our goal in this article is to organise the existi…
Together alone
The growing polarization of our societies and economies has been extensively studied in various disciplines and is subject to public controversy. Yet, measuring polarization is hampered by the discrepancy between how polarization is conceptualized and measured. For instance, the notion of group, especially groups that are identified based on similarities between individuals, is key to conceptualizing polarization but is usually neglected when mea…
Diversity and Challenges of the Urban Commons
This study is a comprehensive literature review about the field of the urban commons and its diversity, which we investigate through the lens of the new commons . Acknowledging a potential for adaptive capacity in the urban commons, we classify its traits into ecosystem, socio-economic and institutional factors. To make our work more practical, we further arrange them as benefits, challenges or supports. Our literature review highlights the need …
Long-Term Dynamics of Institutions
Historical data are valuable resources for providing insights into general sociological patterns in the past. However, these data o en inform us at the macro-level of analysis but not about the role of individuals' behaviours in the emergence of long-term patterns. Therefore, it is di icult to infer 'how' and 'why' certain patterns emerged in the past. Historians use various methods to draw hypotheses about the underlying reasons for emerging pat…
Sustaining Collective Action in Urban Community Gardens
This paper presents an agent-based model that explores the conditions for ongoing participation in community gardening projects. We test the e ects of Ostrom's well-known Design Principles for collective action and use an extensive database collected in cases in Germany and two case studies in the Netherlands to validate it. The model uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework and integrates decision mechanisms derived from t…
Institutional dependencies in climate adaptation of transport infrastructures
Climate adaptation measures are shaped and implemented through processes of governance, where the interactions and decision-making among actors lead to the creation and reinforcement of institutions. Institutions in this respect are the rules that shape the interactions of actors in different phases of climate adaptation. Currently there is no comprehensive method to systematically identify and map dependencies between institutions. This study pr…
Taking sanctioning seriously
In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstr…
Institutional form versus function in a common property context
A key debate in the study on land, housing and natural resources revolves around the notion that general institutional forms (such as private, common, public, and likewise formal property rights) lead to a certain institutional performance (as may be expressed in terms of prices, transaction costs or sustainability). However, a modest, yet, growing stream in institutional analysis aims to move away from ‘merely describing the characteristics’ of …
Hiding opinions by minimizing disclosed information
In the field of opinion dynamics, the hiding of opinions is routinely modeled as staying silent. However, staying silent is not always feasible. In situations where opinions are indirectly expressed by one's observable actions, people may however try to hide their opinions via a more complex and intelligent strategy called obfuscation, which minimizes the information disclosed to others. This study proposes a formal opinion dynamics model to stud…
Can industries be parties in collective action? Community energy in an Iranian industrial zone
The industrial sector plays a huge role in creating economic growth. While energy is vital for industries to thrive, various factors are undermining the availability of energy including phasing out of fossil fuels, CO2 emission caps and, the large gap between the fast developments of industrial clusters and the energy supply, especially in developing countries. Recently, enabled by renewable energy technologies, a transition process is taking pla…
Growing community energy initiatives from the bottom up
Local energy initiatives (LEIs) are communities of households who self-organize to meet their energy demand with locally produced green energy. They facilitate citizen participation by developing context-specific solutions, which calls for leadership and complex social dynamics. We present an agent-based simulation model to explore the formation of community energy initiatives from the bottom-up, accounting for social networks and evolution of op…
Shared Patterns in Long-Term Dynamics of Commons as Institutions for Collective Action
We present an analysis of regulatory activities in historical commons offering a unique picture of their long-term institutional dynamics. The analysis took into account almost 3,800 regulatory activities in eighteen European commons in two countries across seven centuries. Despite differences in time and space, we found a shared pattern where an initial, highly-dynamic institutional-definition phase was followed by a relatively long period of st…
Commoning toward urban resilience
In this paper, we investigate the potential of urban commons for building community resilience. We focus on the issue of adaptability to socio-ecological issues, which depends on the social capital built by the local community of practice. We measure this capital through the variables of volunteer involvement, perceived trust, and social cohesion in an agent-based model, which simulates the dynamics of participation in collective activities. We a…
Trust, awareness, and independence
In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments provide new opportunities for further technical and social innovation to smarter, flexible and integrated s…
Trust, awareness, and independence
In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments provide new opportunities for further technical and social innovation to smarter, flexible and integrated s…
Institutional dependencies in climate adaptation of transport infrastructures
Climate adaptation measures are shaped and implemented through processes of governance, where the interactions and decision-making among actors lead to the creation and reinforcement of institutions. Institutions in this respect are the rules that shape the interactions of actors in different phases of climate adaptation. Currently there is no comprehensive method to systematically identify and map dependencies between institutions. This study pr…
Managing the commons
In this paper we present an abstract replication of institutional emergence patterns observed in common pool resource (CPR) problems. We used the ADICO grammar of institutions as the basic structure to model both agents’ strategies and institutions. Through an evolutionary process, agents modify their behaviours and eventually establish a management institution for their CPR system, leading to significant benefits both for them and for the common…
Value dynamics in energy democracy
In the European Union, energy democracy (ED) is considered a socially desirable policy goal. One way to achieve ED is through empowering local communities to become agents of value change who can pursue more sustainable and equitable energy provision with community energy initiatives (CEI). However, such people-driven value change is complex in nature. CEIs are multifaceted sociotechnical systems that bring together sets of values and are compose…
Growing community energy initiatives from the bottom up
Local energy initiatives (LEIs) are communities of households who self-organize to meet their energy demand with locally produced green energy. They facilitate citizen participation by developing context-specific solutions, which calls for leadership and complex social dynamics. We present an agent-based simulation model to explore the formation of community energy initiatives from the bottom-up, accounting for social networks and evolution of op…
Institutional form versus function in a common property context
A key debate in the study on land, housing and natural resources revolves around the notion that general institutional forms (such as private, common, public, and likewise formal property rights) lead to a certain institutional performance (as may be expressed in terms of prices, transaction costs or sustainability). However, a modest, yet, growing stream in institutional analysis aims to move away from ‘merely describing the characteristics’ of …
Analysing community-based initiatives for heating and cooling
Energy communities are decentralized socio-technical systems where energy is jointly generated and distributed among a community of households locally. As the energy that is shared among the community is commonly electricity, the energy community's literature is dominated by electricity-systems and mostly neglects collective thermal energy as an alternative energy carrier for heating and cooling. Our goal in this article is to organise the existi…
Commoning toward urban resilience
In this paper, we investigate the potential of urban commons for building community resilience. We focus on the issue of adaptability to socio-ecological issues, which depends on the social capital built by the local community of practice. We measure this capital through the variables of volunteer involvement, perceived trust, and social cohesion in an agent-based model, which simulates the dynamics of participation in collective activities. We a…
Can industries be parties in collective action? Community energy in an Iranian industrial zone
The industrial sector plays a huge role in creating economic growth. While energy is vital for industries to thrive, various factors are undermining the availability of energy including phasing out of fossil fuels, CO2 emission caps and, the large gap between the fast developments of industrial clusters and the energy supply, especially in developing countries. Recently, enabled by renewable energy technologies, a transition process is taking pla…
Infrastructure and governance
Energy security is one of the most important topics in energy-related literature. As such, various concepts and dimensions are introduced to contribute to energy security assessments. However, the literature lacks an approach to prioritise these dimensions, as they cannot always be addressed simultaneously. This study is the first step in investigating the importance and prioritisation of energy security dimensions by focusing on the context of c…
Taking sanctioning seriously
In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstr…
Hiding opinions by minimizing disclosed information
In the field of opinion dynamics, the hiding of opinions is routinely modeled as staying silent. However, staying silent is not always feasible. In situations where opinions are indirectly expressed by one's observable actions, people may however try to hide their opinions via a more complex and intelligent strategy called obfuscation, which minimizes the information disclosed to others. This study proposes a formal opinion dynamics model to stud…
Shared Patterns in Long-Term Dynamics of Commons as Institutions for Collective Action
We present an analysis of regulatory activities in historical commons offering a unique picture of their long-term institutional dynamics. The analysis took into account almost 3,800 regulatory activities in eighteen European commons in two countries across seven centuries. Despite differences in time and space, we found a shared pattern where an initial, highly-dynamic institutional-definition phase was followed by a relatively long period of st…
Maia
In this paper we introduce and motivate a conceptualization framework for agent-based social simulation, MAIA: Modelling Agent systems based on Institutional Analysis. The MAIA framework is based on Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development framework, and provides an extensive set of modelling concepts that is rich enough to capture a large range of complex social phenomena. Developing advanced agent-based models requires substantial experi…
Introduction to the special issue on agent-based modelling for policy engineering
Structuring Qualitative Data for Agent-Based Modelling
Using ethnography to build agent-based models may result in more empirically grounded simulations. Our study on innovation practice and culture in the Westland horticulture sector served to explore what information and data from ethnographic analysis could be used in models and how. MAIA, a framework for agent-based model development of social systems, is our starting point for structuring and translating said knowledge into a model. The data tha…
Managing the commons
In this paper we present an abstract replication of institutional emergence patterns observed in common pool resource (CPR) problems. We used the ADICO grammar of institutions as the basic structure to model both agents’ strategies and institutions. Through an evolutionary process, agents modify their behaviours and eventually establish a management institution for their CPR system, leading to significant benefits both for them and for the common…
Trust, awareness, and independence
In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments provide new opportunities for further technical and social innovation to smarter, flexible and integrated s…
Can industries be parties in collective action? Community energy in an Iranian industrial zone
The industrial sector plays a huge role in creating economic growth. While energy is vital for industries to thrive, various factors are undermining the availability of energy including phasing out of fossil fuels, CO2 emission caps and, the large gap between the fast developments of industrial clusters and the energy supply, especially in developing countries. Recently, enabled by renewable energy technologies, a transition process is taking pla…
Growing community energy initiatives from the bottom up
Local energy initiatives (LEIs) are communities of households who self-organize to meet their energy demand with locally produced green energy. They facilitate citizen participation by developing context-specific solutions, which calls for leadership and complex social dynamics. We present an agent-based simulation model to explore the formation of community energy initiatives from the bottom-up, accounting for social networks and evolution of op…
Shared Patterns in Long-Term Dynamics of Commons as Institutions for Collective Action
We present an analysis of regulatory activities in historical commons offering a unique picture of their long-term institutional dynamics. The analysis took into account almost 3,800 regulatory activities in eighteen European commons in two countries across seven centuries. Despite differences in time and space, we found a shared pattern where an initial, highly-dynamic institutional-definition phase was followed by a relatively long period of st…
Commoning toward urban resilience
In this paper, we investigate the potential of urban commons for building community resilience. We focus on the issue of adaptability to socio-ecological issues, which depends on the social capital built by the local community of practice. We measure this capital through the variables of volunteer involvement, perceived trust, and social cohesion in an agent-based model, which simulates the dynamics of participation in collective activities. We a…
Together alone
The growing polarization of our societies and economies has been extensively studied in various disciplines and is subject to public controversy. Yet, measuring polarization is hampered by the discrepancy between how polarization is conceptualized and measured. For instance, the notion of group, especially groups that are identified based on similarities between individuals, is key to conceptualizing polarization but is usually neglected when mea…
Diversity and Challenges of the Urban Commons
This study is a comprehensive literature review about the field of the urban commons and its diversity, which we investigate through the lens of the new commons . Acknowledging a potential for adaptive capacity in the urban commons, we classify its traits into ecosystem, socio-economic and institutional factors. To make our work more practical, we further arrange them as benefits, challenges or supports. Our literature review highlights the need …
Long-Term Dynamics of Institutions
Historical data are valuable resources for providing insights into general sociological patterns in the past. However, these data o en inform us at the macro-level of analysis but not about the role of individuals' behaviours in the emergence of long-term patterns. Therefore, it is di icult to infer 'how' and 'why' certain patterns emerged in the past. Historians use various methods to draw hypotheses about the underlying reasons for emerging pat…
Sustaining Collective Action in Urban Community Gardens
This paper presents an agent-based model that explores the conditions for ongoing participation in community gardening projects. We test the e ects of Ostrom's well-known Design Principles for collective action and use an extensive database collected in cases in Germany and two case studies in the Netherlands to validate it. The model uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework and integrates decision mechanisms derived from t…
Institutional dependencies in climate adaptation of transport infrastructures
Climate adaptation measures are shaped and implemented through processes of governance, where the interactions and decision-making among actors lead to the creation and reinforcement of institutions. Institutions in this respect are the rules that shape the interactions of actors in different phases of climate adaptation. Currently there is no comprehensive method to systematically identify and map dependencies between institutions. This study pr…
Taking sanctioning seriously
In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstr…
Institutional form versus function in a common property context
A key debate in the study on land, housing and natural resources revolves around the notion that general institutional forms (such as private, common, public, and likewise formal property rights) lead to a certain institutional performance (as may be expressed in terms of prices, transaction costs or sustainability). However, a modest, yet, growing stream in institutional analysis aims to move away from ‘merely describing the characteristics’ of …
Hiding opinions by minimizing disclosed information
In the field of opinion dynamics, the hiding of opinions is routinely modeled as staying silent. However, staying silent is not always feasible. In situations where opinions are indirectly expressed by one's observable actions, people may however try to hide their opinions via a more complex and intelligent strategy called obfuscation, which minimizes the information disclosed to others. This study proposes a formal opinion dynamics model to stud…
How Culture Influences the Management of a Pandemic
Since its first appearance in Wuhan (China), countries have been employing, to varying degrees of success, a series of non-pharmaceutical interventions aimed at limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within their populations. In this article, we build on scientific work that demonstrates that culture is part of the explanation for the observed variability between countries in their ability to effectively control the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. We pres…
Analysing community-based initiatives for heating and cooling
Energy communities are decentralized socio-technical systems where energy is jointly generated and distributed among a community of households locally. As the energy that is shared among the community is commonly electricity, the energy community's literature is dominated by electricity-systems and mostly neglects collective thermal energy as an alternative energy carrier for heating and cooling. Our goal in this article is to organise the existi…
Value dynamics in energy democracy
In the European Union, energy democracy (ED) is considered a socially desirable policy goal. One way to achieve ED is through empowering local communities to become agents of value change who can pursue more sustainable and equitable energy provision with community energy initiatives (CEI). However, such people-driven value change is complex in nature. CEIs are multifaceted sociotechnical systems that bring together sets of values and are compose…
Examining the Interplay Between National Strategies and Value Change in the Battle Against Covid-19
Social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic challenged existing institutional arrangements that govern the society. During that time, nation-states had to prevent the collapse of society and rapidly establish new institutions and adapt existing ones to address public health, job security, and freedom-of-movement concerns. At the same time, institutional developments are explicitly or implicitly related to the cultural and moral values rele…
Network dynamics of solar PV adoption
Governments often use price-based policies such as tax-subsidies and rebates to encourage households to shift to renewable energy sources like rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV). These policies, however, have primarily benefited high-income homeowners, leaving others behind. This paper proposes leveraging social networks’ influence on attitudes and perceptions to design more equitable solar PV adoption programs. Using data from Albany county (New Y…
Infrastructure and governance
Energy security is one of the most important topics in energy-related literature. As such, various concepts and dimensions are introduced to contribute to energy security assessments. However, the literature lacks an approach to prioritise these dimensions, as they cannot always be addressed simultaneously. This study is the first step in investigating the importance and prioritisation of energy security dimensions by focusing on the context of c…
Understanding Institutional Compliance in Floor Risk Management
The International Journal of the Commons is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open-access journal, dedicated to furthering the understanding of institutions for use and management of resources that are (or could be) enjoyed collectively.These resources may be part of the natural world (e.g. forests, climate systems, or the oceans) or they may be created (e.g. infrastructures such as irrigation systems, the internet or (scientific) knowledge, for…
Understanding engineering ethics in countries
In recent decades, distinct national approaches to engineering ethics have evolved, each tailored to its unique contextual factors. These contextual disparities make it unfeasible to transfer one country's engineering ethics approach directly into another. This calls for a compelling need to enhance our comprehension of engineering ethics within specific national contexts. This paper introduces a novel conceptual framework for national engineerin…
Political science (17 works) · Economics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Engineering (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Action (physics (6 works) · Collective action (6 works)