Elinor Ostrom refuted “the tragedy of the commons”

. . . and recognized that scale matters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom#Career

“It was long unanimously held among economists that natural resources that were collectively used would be over-exploited and destroyed in the long-term. Elinor Ostrom disproved this idea by conducting field studies on how people in small, local communities manage shared natural resources, such as pastures, fishing waters and forests. She showed that, in time, rules are established for how these are to be cared for and used in a way that is both economically and ecologically sustainable.”

when the context is small, local communities