Abstract: Different from the models of privatization and central-authority, Professor Ostrom has proposed self-governance as an alternative model to resolve collective action dilemmas, and developed the theory of polycentric governance. After briefly reviewing the research background of the problem of collective action, this paper translates the content of Professor Ostrom's speech and questions and answers at Beihang University on May 9, 2011. These elements not only covers the talks on Ostrom's road to Nobel Prize and academic research methods, but investigates self-governance and polycentric governance theories and their applications by interactive discussion on some concrete issues such as public transport, China-s reform, bureaucratic transaction costs, Inner Mongolia grassland management, the contradiction between polycentric governance and tradition of centralization, institutional diversity, the contradiction between improving living standards and protecting living environment, and the value of heterogeneity in a self-governance system.