Prior to her appointment at MSU she lived and worked for 10 years in East Africa, including serving as an urban planner with the Small Towns Development Project whose settlement upgrading initiative is the subject of this paper. Her international research interests lie in the area of land tenure, informal settlement upgrading, and environmental management. Reference Style: The following is the suggested format for referencing this article: Ellen M. Bassett. "The Persistence of the Commons: Economic Theory and Community Decision-Making on Land Tenure in Voi, Kenya." African Studies Quarterly 9, no. 3: [online] URL: http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v9/v9i3a1.htm