Earlier the Capita Selecta course ‘A global sense of place’ was announced here as optional course for master students in the 2nd period, starting Monday October 31, 2011. Seen the number of students attending the course, the earlier outlined weekly lectures and workshops are now replaced by a tutorial reading group that will meet once a week with the lecturers to discuss the literature of the week (as was listed in the earlier course outline). Those interested in joining the reading group can contact Joost Jongerden (joost.jongerden@wur.nl).
Author Archives: Dirk Roep
Capita Selecta ‘A global sense of place’
In the 2nd WU education period running, starting October 31, Rural Sociology will again offer the Capita Selecta course ‘A Global sense of place’ (course code RSO-50806). Course outline is available here.
The course offers a comparative perspective on place-based approaches in rural and spatial development. Next to lectures and readings on place-based development, five guest lecturers are invited to present a case and discuss the relevance of place-based development.
The interdisciplinary course is open to MSc-students from different Master programs that want to broaden their understanding of place-based approaches for sustainable development. The course aims to make students acquainted with different disciplinary approaches to study and understand the sustainable development of places, necessary for thoroughly understanding transformation processes, rural and territorial development.
From the course outline:
A global sense of place gives a critical overview of approaches and discourses on sustainable place-based development and is a constituent and contingent expression of three interrelated, interdependent and relational processes: economic, ecological and social-cultural. Places can then be seen as the constructs wherein the varied interactions between these three interconnected processes are expressed. We will focus on an action-perspectives based on ecological and cultural processes as a starting point, which can create autonomy and a repositioning of economic relations, a regrounding in ecological capital and self-efficacy in the cultural sphere.
We will focus on two main approaches: 1) places as arenas for negotiation, conflicting interests and power struggles, influenced by capital and global forces, where place-based struggles occur as multi-scale, network-oriented subaltern strategies of localization; 2) Spaces endowed with meaning and the constitution of identities, subjectivities and difference.
The themes for the six weeks and invited quest lecturers are:
Week 1 Analysis of place-based development (Dirk Roep)
This lecture introduces an analytical model for sustainable place-based development where place-shaping is a constituent and contingent expression of three interrelated, interdependent and relational processes: economic, ecological and social-cultural. Places can then be seen as the constructs wherein the varied interactions between these three interconnected processes are expressed. The lecture deals with the issue how place-based development based on an action-perspective takes practices based on ecological and cultural processes as a starting point, with the aim of creating autonomy and a repositioning of economic powers, a regrounding in ecological capita and self-efficacy in the cultural sphere. Continue reading
Nederland 2040 – Een land van regio’s
Het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving heeft in kader van Ruimtelijk Verkenning 2011 het rapport Nederland in 2040: een land van regio’s uitgebracht:
Nederland staat aan de vooravond van andere tijden: de jarenlange groei van bevolking, mobiliteit en werkgelegenheid gaat afvlakken. Dat betekent dat in de toekomst, met name na 2020, in een groot deel van ons land krimp even goed denkbaar is als groei. Het beleid zal hier op moeten inspelen met een kleinschaliger en flexibeler ruimtelijk beleid dat veel minder dan voorheen voorziet in grote investeringen en projecten voor de lange termijn.
Groei en krimp komen dus naast elkaar voor en met wisselende mate van zekerheid. In regio’s als het Rivierengebied, de Veluwe en delen van het Groene Hart zijn krimp en groei van bevolking, mobiliteit en werkgelegenheid beide goed denkbaar. In stedelijke regio’s als Almere, Groningen, Arnhem/Nijmegen en Utrecht zullen bevolking, werkgelegenheid en mobiliteit de komende tijd blijven groeien. Krimp treedt de komende periode vrij zeker op in regio’s aan de rand van Nederland, zoals Oost-Groningen en Midden-Limburg. Na 2020 is voor steeds meer regio’s zowel groei als krimp goed mogelijk. Na 2030 is dat zelfs in een groot deel van ons land het geval. Dat betekent mogelijk krimp in de huidige groeiregio’s maar op langere termijn zouden ook krimpregio’s van nu weer met stabilisatie of zelfs groei te maken kunnen krijgen.
Voor kennis rond krimp, zie ook Van meer naar beter: kennisplein krimp.
The diversity of rural areas as background for place-based policy and planning
Last week June 22 Dr. Sylvia Herrmann gave a presentation titled ‘The diversity of rural areas as background for place-based policy and planning’ (see the Presentation WASS-seminar by Dr Sylvia Herrmann).
Dr Sylvia Hermann is affiliated at the Institute for Environmental Planning, Leibniz Universität Hannover and was coordinator of the EU-funded FP7 research project RUFUS (www.rufus-eu.de). Based on the findings of RUFUS dr Hermann pleads for place-based policy and planning to cope with rural diversity in the EU.
In her lecture she presented findings of the RUFUS project and argued that the specific characteristics of places have to be included in planning and policy to reach a more successful implementation of sustainable and site related policy measures. Ergo: policies and planning need to be more place-based.
In the discussion about future rural development, the diversity of rural areas in Europe increasingly raises the interest of policy makers and stakeholders. The strategic paper Europe2020 states that the common EU targets for future development ‘must be … capable of reflecting the diversity of Member States situations and based on sufficiently reliable data for purposes of comparison’. Rural areas have to be recognised as places with diverse combinations of historical, social, cultural and environmental features and the installation of relations among local actors (Cisilino et al., 2010). This shows that the diversity of rural European areas is more and more recognized as a key potential for intelligent growth. Thus, society seeks for development approaches based on regional diversity to better understand the development opportunities and challenges of diverse types of rural areas in Europe. Consequently, research has to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches to deal with the diversity. It also has to support the improvement of endogenous potential and governance approaches reflecting the diversity of the specific regions.
The EU FP 7 project ‘RUFUS’ (Rural Future Networks) tried to meet these challenges with a research approach supporting politicians with knowledge about the diversity of rural regions. RUFUS combined a set of methods to provide a’ mosaic’ of answers to policy makers and stakeholders. It has created a new classification system to map the diverse combinations of economic, social, and ecological conditions of European rural regions in nine EU countries (the UK, Germany, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Poland, and Hungary). This could help target rural development policy and provide insight into the need for CAP’s interaction with other policy areas. Maps showing the diverse development potentials of rural areas have been created. By the help of case studies the linkage between the top-down approaches of mapping with the reality in the regions has been established. The findings have been translated to policy relevant recommendations.
Support of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (SOLINSA): new EU-funded project
In March we had the kick-off meeting of the EU-funded research project SOLINSA: Support of Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture. The website has been launched recently and provides information on the project and will publish reports of findings. At the front page of the website can find a link a flyer on the SOLINSA project.
Agriculture is in transition. Among others agriculture respond to market developments, policy reforms, consumers and societal concerns and more generally sustainability issues, but in various ways. From a rather one-sided production perspective , agriculture has become many-sided or even versatile. This has in turn has implication for Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS), i.e. the formal education, research and advice directed to agriculture and its development and is reflected in the different tasks and roles AKS can and is asked to fulfill in the support of learning and innovation practiced in often less formalised networks (i.e. the LINSA’s). AKS is in transition too, with regard to the need of building versatile expertise as well in how its is formally organised and funded (private, public or mixed funding). This is core of what will be studied in SOLINSA: how AKS can support more effectively and efficiently learning and innovation networks for sustainable agriculture. For this purpose two Learning and Innovation Networks for Sustainable Agriculture (i.e. LINSA) of various kinds in the eight participating countries will be studied in depth. In the Netherlands for example the network of sustainable dairy farmers (www.duurzaamboerblijven.nl).
The Rural Sociology Group (RSO) and Communication and Innovation Studies (CIS) of Wageningen University jointly participate as a partner in SOLINSA. For information you can contact either Laurens.Klerkx@wur.nl (CIS), Frans.Hermans@wur.nl (CIS) or Dirk.Roep@wur.nl (RSO).
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 