The Focal Level of Analysis – An Action Arena
An "action arena" contains both a "model of an action situation" and a "model of the individuals" in that situation.
A model of the "action situation" can be characterized using seven clusters of variables – participants, positions, actions, control, outcomes, information, and the benefits and costs assigned to actions and outcomes.
A "model of the individual" includes assumptions about four clusters of variables: the way that individuals acquire, process, retain, and use Information, the way individuals assign values to actions and outcomes, the way individuals select particular courses of action, and the resources that individuals bring to a situation.
Using the set of assumptions made about the situation and about individuals, the Institutional Analyst derives inferences about the types of actions that will be selected by participants and how these are likely to cumulate into results.
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Elinor Ostrom, “Formulating the Elements of Institutional Analysis,” in Studies in Institutional Analysis and Development (Conference on Institutional Analysis and Development, Washington, DC, 1985), 24, https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/handle/10535/2145.