Category Archives: General

General issues.

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”)

New publication: Contesting an exclusive citizenship regime: the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its electoral mobilisation in Batman in the late 1970’s

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Joost Jongerden and Francis O’Connor have been working on spatial (rural) dimensions of political mobilisation and violence. In this article, they look into the politics of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) through its engagement in municipal politics in the late 1970s in Batman, then a rural town in the Kurdistan region in Turkey, which rapidly industrialised after the local discovery of oil. Using a citizenship analytical lens, this article makes two substantial contributions. The article challenges overly simplistic, linear narratives regarding the PKK’s origins and its eventual embrace of violence. By analysing the PKK’s electoral and representational politics in the late 1970s, it emphasises the political dynamics of that period rather than reinterpreting its emergence solely through the later insurgency. Empirically, the article illustrates how the Kurdish political movement’s pursuit of representation directly challenged the ethnically exclusionary citizenship regime of the Turkish state.

The article is published open access in Third World Quarterly.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2025.2518501?src=exp-la#abstract

Working for the Occupier

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In the Master thesis “Working for the occupier: Palestinian youths navigating the colonial settlement”, Davide Fabris investigates how young Palestinians make it through the daily challenges and precarity of working in a Israeli settlement. The main research question of his research is: ”How are young Palestinians experiencing and dealing with labour incorporation within the Israeli settlements’ economy?”.

Continue reading →

Wageningen and the Nitrogen Crisis

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Join us in a collective reflection on the role of Wageningen University and Research in the formation and solution of the current nitrogen crisis, and the larger agricultural crisis in general. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg (emeritus professor agricultural sociology) shares his vision on the past, and present of the nitrogen crisis. He is accompanied by Esther Turnhout (chair of Science, Technology & Society aan de University of Twente) and Henk Oostindie (researcher at Rural Sociology of Wageningen University), who will enrich his story. With questions and discussion with the audience, we will reflect on the situation and think of lessions and steps for the future.

24 January 2024, 19:00-21:00
Venue: Wageningen Campus, Impulse, Speakers Corner (Building115)

The Netherlands and the prosecution and trial of Islamic State suspects in Rojava

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After the liberation of Kobani from the Islamic State (IS) in January 2015, the Dutch government repeatedly informed Parliament about assistance to the Northern Syria region, which is also known as Rojava, subsequently renamed as the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). This agricultural region is Syria’s breadbasket, but it endured significant suffering and destruction during the war with IS.

After the defeat of IS, a democratic and decentralized governance system was developed, and agriculture diversified, in which the Kurdish movement played a prominent role. Ministers Ploumen (2016), Koenders (2016), and Blok (2019) made commitments to provide support to the region.  However, given Turkey’s hostility, delivering aid has been a matter of political sensitivity

The government of the Netherlands made references to various forms of aid – emergency aid, humanitarian aid, reconstruction aid, assistance in political processes –  yet what support has been given to whom remains unclear. In pursuit of this information, a Freedom of Information Act (WOB-WOO) request about this aid was submitted in January 2022. Recognizing that prosecution and justice were pivotal areas of focus during this period, a question regarding these matters was incorporated in this request.

In April 2022, documents were released, but disappointingly, they contained minimal information about assistance to the region. The documents primarily revolved around endeavors to prosecute and try IS suspects. Based on the data received, this  article  delves  into  the Netherlands’  efforts   to   explore   potential collaborations with the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria for prosecuting  and  trying IS suspects.

Read more here: https://journals.tplondon.com/com/article/view/3130