Category Archives: Events

Events

Diverse Rural Identities and Politics of Belonging: Innovation, Intersections, and Entrepreneurship in Rural and Agricultural Territories

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Date: Thursday 15 October, 10.00–12.30
Location: Aurora B 9216, Wageningen University & Research

How can research and policy better recognise diverse rural and agricultural women’s identities, agency and perspectives on innovation and entrepreneurship?

On Thursday 15 October, Wageningen University & Research will host the interactive and interdisciplinary colloquium Diverse Rural Identities and Politics of Belonging: Innovation, Intersections, and Entrepreneurship in Rural and Agricultural Territories.

The session is organised in the context of the International Year of the Woman Farmer and Rural Women’s Day.

Women-led innovation and entrepreneurship

International research projects on women-led innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and rural areas that were recently finalised provide the starting point for the session.

These projects provide ample evidence of women’s own notions and agency around innovation and entrepreneurship. Covering diverse geographical contexts across the globe, they also show how research and policy can better do justice to these perspectives.

The EU projects Grass Ceiling: Gender Equality in Rural and Agricultural Innovation Systems and SWIFT: Supporting Women-led Innovation in Farming Territories, together with the INREF project FermFood, will form the basis for the discussion.

The projects were conducted at Wageningen University & Research, with Bettina Bock, Valentina Materia and Jessica Duncan in the lead.

An interactive session

Following brief presentations of the most striking takeaways from these international projects, the session will move into an interactive group-work set-up.

Participants joining in person will work in groups, while online participants will join through breakout rooms. Together, they will exchange insights and perspectives on new avenues for research and policy to better embed diverse rural and agricultural women’s identities.

Four main questions will kick off the discussions:

  • What from your research or practice resonates or dissonates with the presented takeaways?
  • What accordingly needs to be added or changed in mainstream concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship to better include women’s notions and agency?
  • What might be the underlying root causes to address, and what research or policy can help to leverage these?
  • What ways forward do you see to collaborate and tackle these issues in research and/or policymaking?

Practical information

Date: Thursday 15 October
Time: 10.00–12.30
Location: Aurora B 9216, Wageningen University & Research
Participation: Free and open to all interested

We prefer participation in person. An online link will mainly be available for participants joining from abroad.

Please register for updates, further details and a calendar invitation via this link.

Further details will be shared with those who register.
Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone who might be interested.

ESRS 2027: European Society for Rural Sociology returns to Wageningen

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In 2027, the European Society for Rural Sociology (ESRS) celebrates its 70th anniversary — returning to Wageningen, where the Society’s story began.

We are proud that the Rural Sociology Group will host the 31st ESRS Congress, taking place from 5–9 July 2027. The congress will bring together scholars and practitioners from across Europe and beyond to reflect on the theme “Knowledge for Sustainable Futures: Rural Communities, Social Action and Democracy.”

The congress will explore questions around the knowledge that shapes rural futures, whose knowledge counts, how rural futures are negotiated and contested, and how rural research and social action can contribute to more just, sustainable and democratic futures.

The Call for Working Group Proposals is now open. We invite researchers and practitioners to contribute sessions that bring different perspectives, disciplines and experiences into conversation.

>> 5–9 July 2027 | Wageningen
>> Read the full Call for Working Group Proposals
>> Visit the ESRS 2027 website

Upcoming launch | Library for Transformative Play

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We’re happy to share the upcoming launch of the Library for Transformative Play. On 24 February (16:00–17:00), the library will be launched at Impulse, Wageningen Campus, inviting participants to explore how playful and creative activities can support collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.

Location: Speaker’s Corner Impulse, Wageningen Campus
Date & time: 24 February, 16:00–17:00

The Library brings together games and materials designed to:
– surface worldviews
– facilitate collective imagination
– stay with the trouble
– unmake systems
– embrace ambiguity

👉 Register here

Playing with the Trouble is a 4-year project funded by the Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo). For questions, please reach out to Jessica Duncan.

Upcoming PhD defence: Thirza Andriessen

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We are proud to share that Thirza Andriessen of the Rural Sociology Group will be defending her PhD thesis entitled “Caring for Dignity in Food Assistance: Navigating Norms and Moralities”.

When: February 20, 13.00 hrs
Where: Omnia, Wageningen University

Abstract
This PhD research explores how food assistance in wealthy countries shapes the dignity of recipients. Food charities are criticised for being stigmatising and for framing food poverty as an individual problem rather than a social and political issue. This study focuses on newer forms of food assistance, such as social supermarkets and grocery budgets, which aim to offer support in more dignified ways. Based on three case studies in Belgium and the Netherlands, supplemented by a literature review, the research shows that dignity is shaped in everyday situations: how people are treated, how much choice they have, and how rules are applied. Shopping in a “normal” setting and having product choice can support dignity, but these models can also reinforce moral expectations about financial responsibility and create new forms of dependence, for example on digital systems. The research concludes that there is no single “dignified” model; dignity is enacted through daily practices, care relationships, and wider social norms and moralities.

Online streaming
The defence can also be followed online via a YuJa livestream. Note: the link will become available about 5 minutes before the start (click the 🔔 Event in the top-right corner and then select “Thirza Andriessen”)

The harm supply chain: food, agriculture and colonialism in Kurdistan[1]

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Joost Jongerden

Introduction
Food is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about politics. Yet the political does not always present itself explicitly as political (Day 2022). This is certainly the case for food. While food is essential for the reproduction of biological life and an important cultural and economic artefact, various authors have shown it is political too. Single food products, such as sugar (Mintz 1985), palm oil (Csevár and Rugarli 2025) and soy (Hiraga 2025), have been shown to be inseparable from the histories of capitalism and colonialism. Their examples illustrate how food is entangled with broader systems of power, exploitation, and domination. Similarly, in the development of a food supply chain in Kurdistan, we see that food can both foster life and community, and foil it, serving as a vehicle for the deliberate destruction of political and socio-economic existence.        

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