Category Archives: Education

Education

75th Anniversary: 9) De Toga: overleefde hiërarchie of dalend cultuurgoed

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Professor Kooij met toga, bef en baret

Parallel aan de democratisering van de universiteit in de jaren zestig en zeventig, met de voor die tijd kenmerkende opkomst van vakgroepsbestuur, in plaats van de almachtige hoogleraar, en inspraak door studenten, kwam ook universiteitssymboliek onder vuur te liggen. Een van die symbolen was de toga, het kenmerkende gewaad dat de hoogleraar draagt bij plechtigheden. De sociologen Gerrit Kooij en Rien Munters openden de discussie over het aan de wilgen hangen van de toga. Continue reading →

Zes inspirerende voorbeelden van duurzaam landgebruik – brochure @Toekomstboeren

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Vereniging Toekomstboeren maakt zich sterk voor duurzame landbouw en ijvert voor langdurig toegang tot land voor beginnende boeren tegen een redelijke vergoeding om een duurzaam bestaan op te kunnen opbouwen.

Een toenemend aantal beginnende boeren, of zij die graag willen beginnen met een eigen boeren bedrijf, zoeken toegang tot land. Ze kunnen niet beschikken over land in eigendom bij de familie of hebben te weinig eigen vermogen om land te kunnen kopen. Vereniging Toekomstboeren heeft de Wetenschapswinkel van Wageningen University and Research ingeschakeld om studenten uit te laten zoeken hoe beginnende boeren op andere wijze dan gebruikelijk, langdurig toegang kunnen krijgen tot land in eigendom bij derden.

Landbouwgrond is erg duur. De pachtprijs van landbouwgrond is navenant hoog. De prijs van landbouwgrond staat niet in verhouding tot wat de oogst aan inkomsten oplevert. De hoge prijs voor landbouwgrond staat een duurzaam gebruik van landbouwgrond in de weg. Voor boeren in het algemeen, en beginnende boeren zonder land bij uitstek, is het erg lastig om een bestaan op te bouwen.

Het door studenten als onderdeel van hun opleiding uitgevoerde onderzoek, richtte zich op een aantal aansprekende praktijkvoorbeelden van andere dan gangbare landgebuiksovereenkomsten, zijnde: a) gezamenlijk of co-eigendom van land door burgers en boeren (commoning) en b) alternatieve pachtconstructies. De vraag was hoe deze andere dan gangbare overeenkomsten in elkaar steken en wat ervan te leren valt voor de betrokken partijen.

De bevindingen zijn samengevat in de brochure ‘Zes inspirerende voorbeelden van duurzaam landgebruik: pachten bij gemeente en boeren in gemeenschap’. Zie ook de projectpagina van de Wetenschapswinkel: https://www.wur.nl/nl/show/Boeren-zonder-land-hoe-is-dat-mogelijk-1.htm

Neem voor meer informatie contact op met Vereniging Toekomstboeren info@toekomstboeren.nl of projectleider dirk.roep@wur.nl

75th Anniversary: 4) Some thoughts on the overhead projector

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This is a picture of Professor Hofstee. It is clearly an old picture: it is black and white (no filter!), and the clothing looks rather outdated and overly formal. But what also stands out is the phone. I wonder whether he was really making a phone call here, or whether this was staged for the picture. In any case, this bakelite phone (‘bakeliet’, have you ever used the word for something else than a phone?) made me wonder how technology has changed over the last 75 years. How differently we must be writing, teaching, researching, reading, searching for literature than the generations before us! Many of us will have cursed our computers or have been annoyed with having to use yet another digital tool, but for sure technology has made our lives easier in several ways. I can’t imagine having to do my work without email, or having had to type or even handwrite (!) my PhD thesis. Continue reading →

75th Anniversary: 1) an introduction to a year of celebration events and activities (updated)

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In September 1946 Evert Willem Hofstee, the founding father of Rural Sociology at Wageningen University, started as Professor and Chair of Social and Economic Geography and Social Statistics.

In the years that followed, the department was reorganized and renamed (e.g. Agrarian Sociology of Western Areas; Sociology) several times, with Rural Sociology being the official name since the late 1990s. Hofstee was also one of the founders and the first President of the European Society for Rural Sociology.

The Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University will celebrate its 75th Anniversary on the 13th of May 2022. On that day we will organize an international conference at which we will present, discuss and reflect upon the past, present and future of rural sociology in an interactive setting. And we will, of course, also have a party in the evening of the 13th of May 2022 to celebrate 75 years of rural sociology at Wageningen University with current and former staff members, PhD students and graduates, former and current students and colleagues with whom we collaborated in national and international research projects. So SAVE THE DATE if you want participate in our conference and join our party. More details about the conference program will be published on this website soon!

The conference and party will not be the only activity that we will organize to celebrate our 75th anniversary. Starting today, we will arrange a variety of events, activities and outputs leading up to our main festivity on May 13, 2022.

  • A weekly blog (on this website) about the past, present or future of Rural Sociology. This may be about a specific theory, a research project, an event, or something else;
  • A seminar series (online or blended) with agrarian, rural and food sociologists from other universities;
  • A series of rural field trips in the Netherlands, visiting, for example, rural sociology graduates that have become farmers;
  • A PhD Day with and for PhD graduates and PhD candidates and a PhD Magazine with an overview of all PhD graduates, their PhD thesis and career after completion of their PhD thesis;
  • An anniversary book about the past, present and future of Rural Sociology in Wageningen.

We are looking forward to a year of celebration activities and events and hope many of our (former) colleagues and students will do so too. And we hope to welcome you at our celebratory event on the 13th of May 2022. So stay tuned to this blog and get to know more about the past, present and future of Rural Sociology in Wageningen in the forthcoming 12 months.

Update (July 8, 2021): due to COVID-19, the celebratory event is postponed from October 24, 2021 to May 13, 2022

 

Register now for RSO55306 – A Global Sense of Place: Place-based approaches to development | Period 5

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In the face of urgent environmental and societal challenges, how do we move towards inclusive futures? What is the role of people in places? And what can be our role as (social) scientists?

In this course, we explore inclusive place-based approaches to development. We analyse how change happens from below and how people take matters in their own hands, shaping the places they live in according to their own needs and values. A relational perspective allows us to see the interdependence between the local and the global, the urban and the rural and the individual and the collective.

Besides engaging with key theories and analysing topical cases, we reflect upon our own role as (social) scientists and explore the tools and methodologies we need in place-based research, specifically focusing on participatory and creative methods.

This advanced MSc course is relevant for all students (including PhD candidates) with an interest in inclusive development, that seek theoretical as well as methodological guidance. The course can help students prepare an MSc thesis proposal and is supported by lecturers from all chair groups involved in the Centre for Space, Place and Society (RSO, SDC, HSO and GEO)

For more information, contact anke.devrieze@wur.nl.