Meet our new PhD candidate: Femke Meulman

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We are happy to welcome Femke Meulman to the group! Femke is an external PhD candidate affiliated with Wageningen Social & Economic Research (WSER), the Rural Sociology (RSO) chair group and the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) chair group.

Researching digital transitions in food systems

Femke’s PhD research takes a critical perspective on digital transitions in food systems, examining these developments through the lens of social justice. She will explore responsible innovation processes and their potential to contribute to just digital transitions in food systems.

From applied research to a PhD

While working on applied research projects at WSER, Femke discovered her enthusiasm for doing research and began exploring the possibility of developing a PhD project based on this work. This led to the start of her PhD trajectory in October 2026.

She is particularly excited about having the time and opportunity to bring together insights from different applied research projects in one overarching PhD project. This will allow her to identify common patterns as well as interesting differences across the projects.

Returning to Wageningen

Femke is returning to a familiar environment at the Leeuwenborch. In 2022, she completed her Master’s degree in International Development Studies, specialising in Rural Sociology, at Wageningen University.

We look forward to having Femke as part of the Wageningen research community. Welcome back!

Interview | ‘Nederland heeft landbouwbeleid, geen plattelandsbeleid’

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Waarom leven de zorgen over de stikstofmaatregelen niet alleen onder boeren, maar ook bij andere bewoners van het Nederlandse platteland?

In een interview met Resource duidt onze collega Bettina Bock, hoogleraar Inclusieve Plattelandsontwikkeling, de boerenprotesten en de groeiende zorgen over de toekomst van het platteland.

Ze pleit voor een toekomstbestendige aanpak die verder kijkt dan de landbouw alleen. Daarbij zijn perspectief voor jonge boeren, vertrouwen in de overheid en aandacht voor de bredere plattelandsgemeenschap essentieel.

‘We hebben landbouwbeleid, geen plattelandsbeleid.’

🔗 Lees het interview in Resource:
https://www.resource-online.nl/index.php/2026/10/17/doorpakken-of-afpakken-beide-zijn-waar/

Meet our visiting scholar: Luo Xi, Sichuan Normal University, China

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We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Luo Xi to the Rural Sociology Group (RSO) as a visiting scholar from Sichuan Normal University, China. Luo Xi is Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Management and a postdoctoral researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences. During her eight-month stay, she is developing comparative research on cooperative governance and institutional arrangements in China and the Netherlands.

Research focus

Luo Xi’s research focuses on farmers’ organizations, agricultural cooperatives, and the rural collective economy in China. She examines how institutional arrangements shape collective action, farmers’ participation, and smallholder livelihoods.

Her work combines extensive fieldwork with policy-oriented research, including a large-scale assessment of agricultural cooperatives in Sichuan Province. She aims to connect farmers’ experiences and local institutional practices with academic research and practical policy recommendations.

Her current research includes a project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China on rural collective economic organizations and stable income growth among smallholders in less-developed regions of western China. She is also working on a project funded by the Sichuan Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences programme, which examines the role of rural collective economic organizations in addressing farmland fragmentation. In addition, she participates in an international comparative case study project on agricultural cooperatives.

Current work at RSO

During her eight-month stay at the Rural Sociology Group, Luo Xi is developing comparative research on cooperatives in China and the Netherlands. She examines how governance arrangements influence members’ participation, communication, and decision-making.

Through case studies, fieldwork, and exchanges with RSO colleagues, she hopes to deepen her understanding of cooperative practices and explore their implications for rural development in China.

Why RSO and Wageningen?

Coming to Wageningen has been a long-standing aspiration for Luo Xi. She was drawn to the university’s reputation in agricultural research and the Netherlands’ long history of agricultural cooperatives.

She chose RSO because her research is fundamentally concerned with people: how farmers interact, make decisions, and organize collectively. This closely aligns with RSO’s sociological approach to rural development. During her stay, she also hopes to exchange research perspectives, share experiences from China, and learn from Wageningen’s teaching approaches.

Beyond research

Outside academia, Luo Xi enjoys travelling and exploring local history and cultures. She also has a passion for jade and gemstones and enjoys designing and making her own jewellery. During her stay in Europe, she looks forward to discovering new places and experiencing different ways of life.

New publication by Kees Jansen

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Just out: Knowledge Work as a Condition of Accumulation in the Pesticide Industry: Syngenta’s Defence of Paraquat

Kees Jansen’s study reveals how agrochemical firms rely on corporate ‘knowledge work’ as a fundamental driver of capital accumulation, rather than as mere peripheral public relations. This knowledge work ranges from internal scientific experiments to strategic doubt manufacturing. Analysing Syngenta’s decades-long defence of the highly controversial herbicide paraquat, the paper demonstrates how industry-backed research, regulatory standard-setting, and selective ignorance work in tandem to keep hazardous chemicals profitable on store shelves despite severe health and environmental critiques.

Open access, Journal of Agrarian Change: https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.70115

Anna Roodhof successfully defends her PhD on food forestry and economic viability

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We are proud to announce that on October 9, 2026 our colleague dr. Anna Roodhof successfully defended her dissertation titled: “Reclaiming economic viability through food forestry: Entanglements of discourse, governance and practice”, and supervised by Esther Veen, Lucie Sovová and Han Wiskerke.

In her dissertation Anna studies under which conditions food forests in the Netherlands are economically viable. Grounded in diverse economies thinking, Anna adopts a relational, multispecies and more-than-monetary conceptualization of economic viability – thereby challenging what economic viability even means.

Clearly enjoying pushing the boundaries of what is possible during a PhD defense, Anna surprised and inspired us all with a song of her own making during her ‘layman’s talk’ – as if the defense isn’t challenging enough! For those PhDs still a little nervous at the thought of doing the defense, Anna showed us how you can have a lot of fun with it.

During the defense Anna, supported by paranymphs Marit Meijer and Lieke Moereels, engaged meaningfully with questions from her opponents: WUR’s Arjen Buijs and Chizu Sato, Giuseppe Feola from Utrecht University and Eric Sarmiento from Texas State University. The discussion covered theoretical questions such as the limitations of the diverse economies approach and the representation of more-than-human actors, as well as more applied concerns related to the governance of food system transformation and the risk of food alternatives becoming a market niche for the well-off.

As a Participatory Action Research project, the dissertations reflects Anna’s commitment to always search for opportunities not just to submerge herself into food forestry, but to also invite the community of food foresters in the Netherlands into her research process. She even did so until the very end of this beautiful day. The bites and drinks at the reception and afterparty were, you guessed it, all sourced from beautiful produce from food forest de Fruitproeverij – carefully prepared by Paulien and Laurens. A warm thank you for the great care given to Anna, her family, friends and colleagues.

Congratulations Anna on your monumental achievement! Though we have to miss you here at RSO, we are happy you will not stray away too far from us when you pick a new, exciting position at Wageningen Environmental Research.

Love,
Your colleagues at the Rural Sociology Group

Pictures were taken by Sven Menschel (Menschel Applied Photographic Art – https://menschel-photo.com)