Dr. Bettina Bock from the Rural Sociology Group, also Professor of Population Decline and Quality of Life for the Northern Netherlands at Groningen University, is in the news asking questions about the future of the Dutch country side. Check out here interview here: Bock Interview
Apologies but it is only available in Dutch.
The course RSO-55306 A Global Sense of Place starts soon, so please register if you are interested to follow this. It is an optional interdisciplinary course on sustainable place-based development for students from various master programmes (e.g. MDR, MES, MID, MLP, MUE, MOA, MFN). The course builds on the BSc course RSO-56806 Sociology and Anthropology of Place-shaping providing an introduction to place-based approaches in development. Knowledge of this introductory course is an advantage, but is not assumed. The course aims to make students acquainted with an interdisciplinary and place-based approach to development.
A relational place-based approach is seen as key to the understanding of interrelated rural and urban transformation processes and ergo sustainable development. In a relational approach places are considered as contingent but in time and space differentiated outcomes of three interrelated interdependent and unbounded transformative processes: political-economic, ecological and social-cultural. Places are time and space specific constructs, like their boundaries and connections.
By means of this course students will achieve profound understanding in key-concepts and methods on place-based sustainable development. Work from key thinkers in sustainable place-making will be critically discussed and examined on the basis of various cases. Guest speakers are invited to reflect on place-based approaches to sustainable development and illustrate these through case studies. Ultimately students will acquire a place-based perspective on development.
Main themes of the course
Central to a place-based approach is the conceptions of place as: 1) Arenas for negotiation, conflicting interests and power struggles; 2) Endowed with meaning and the constitution of identities, subjectivities and difference.
Different interdisciplinary themes will be addressed such as:
For more information, you can contact lummina.horlings@wur.nl
Bettina Bock is appointed as Professor for Population Decline and Quality of Rural Life in North Netherlands at the University of Groningen. The appointment is for five years starting September 1st.
Dr.ir Bettina Bock (1960) is a rural sociologist working at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University since 1996, currently as associate professor. Her research deals with rural development and social innovation in Europe while focusing on rural marginalisation, civic participation, entrepreneurship, governance and social inequality.
The Interreg project Rural Alliances brought together 12 partners from North West Europe to tackle the challenges of demographic change in rural areas. These challenges included: young people leaving rural towns and villages; the elderly becoming increasingly isolated & in need of social and medical care; shops, post offices, pubs, public toilets and telephone boxes closing; and increasingly difficult environments for setting up and running sustainable businesses.
The project tackled these challenges by actively bringing rural communities and businesses together, capitalising on their two distinct attributes: rural businesses with their “make it happen” attitudes, with the values of rural communities of loyalty, pride and self-esteem to create over 76 Rural Alliances. Together they have reshaped their areas to make them friendly, buzzing and vibrant, creating a more stable future for all their residents.
Ina Horlings from the Rural Sociology Group was a member of the Policy and Advisory Panel of Rural Alliances. The project developed handbooks on rural governance and financial engineering, inspiring videos, a skils plotting exercise, and various fact sheets and policy papers, all available on the website. For communities who want to know how vibrant their community is, a new tool was developed to measure rural vibrancy.The final report can be downloaded here.
This book, edited by Joost Dessein, Elena Battaglini and Lummina Horlings, launches the concept of ‘territorialisation’ and explores how the natural environment and culture are constitutive of each other. The concept of territorialisation allows us to study the characterisation of the natural assets of a place; the means by which the natural environment and culture interact; and how communities assign meaning to local assets, add functions and ascribe rules of how to use space.
The book contributes to our understanding of sustainable regional development by highlighting the time-space dimension of development and the varied ways in which people use resources.
The cases represent different scales, a variety of locations and several continents (Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australasia). The authors analyse these cases as the outcome of interaction between human intentionality, place-based characteristics and cultural history. The book provides empirical and theoretical insights into how these cultural expressions can contribute to sustainable regional development.
The book is published by Routledge in the new Series Routledge studies in culture and development.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 