One of the chapter case study's in Nordman's book on the work of Elinor Nostrom highlights a lobster fishing community in Maine that is predominantly self-organized. One thing that stuck out to me was the way he described "gossip, slander, and ostracism" as a means of enforcing adherence to the system. If a rogue lobsterer goes and takes from someone else's trap or encroaches on an area that isn't theirs, social shame is an effective form of punishment.

Shame is a really interesting concept. I think in a lot of ways, we've maybe overly sanitized our culture in our approach to it. Of course the question of who gets to define what constitutes as shameful behaviour in any given society is crucial to this conversation, but I don't think the use of shame should be entirely dismissed. When dealing with shared resources, like Ostrom was working with, shame plays an important role in preventing people from abusing the common system.

Not everything needs to be policed from the top down, in fact there are times when it can be better when its done by the community.