We’re delighted to share that the call for panels, roundtables, workshops, and tutorials is now open for the XXI IASC Biennial Conference, taking place 21–25 June 2027 in Makassar, Indonesia, with opportunities for online participation.
We’re especially proud that our colleague Oona Morrow is serving on the programme committee, reviewing submissions for the Food as a Commons theme.
This theme challenges the dominant view of food as a commodity and instead explores food as a shared resource that is governed collectively, valued beyond markets, and essential for social and ecological justice. It welcomes contributions on topics including: >> Governance and institutions for food commons >> Shifting narratives and values around food >> Decolonial, Global South, and more-than-human perspectives on food systems
Regional examples from Indonesia and neighbouring countries are particularly encouraged, alongside cross-thematic collaborations.
The theme aims to bring together evidence from food commons initiatives worldwide while co-developing policy proposals for Universal Food Access and strengthening North–South and South–South collaborations.
🗓️ Submission deadline:12 August 2026
Please note that this is not the call for individual papers, but for those wishing to organise panels, roundtables, workshops, or tutorials.
We encourage our network of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community partners to consider contributing to this important conversation on resilience, collective action, and the future of food systems.
Discussies over het landelijk gebied gaan vaak over cijfers, modellen en beleid. Maar achter deze discussies staan mensen: bewoners en professionals die zich dagelijks inzetten voor verbeteringen in hun gebied. Vanuit dit idee nam onze collega Marleen het initiatief voor een nieuwe verhalenbundel die juist de menselijke kant van gebiedsgericht werken laat zien.
Over de bundel
De bundel verzamelt de ervaringen van mensen die werken én wonen in verschillende gebieden in Zuid-Holland. Vanuit hun eigen rol dragen zij actief bij aan de ontwikkeling van hun omgeving.
In plaats van abstracte analyses laat de bundel zien wat er speelt in de praktijk: van samenwerking en idealen tot dilemma’s en spanningen. Tegelijk biedt de bundel waardevolle inzichten voor iedereen die werkt aan gebiedsgerichte opgaven. De bundel nodigt uit om met een open en nieuwsgierige blik te kijken naar de perspectieven van anderen — niet alleen als professional, maar juist ook als mens.
“Gebiedsgericht werken is geen wondermiddel. Het legt een zware druk op de schouders van de betrokkenen: boeren, ambtenaren en natuurorganisaties. Tegelijkertijd wemelt het landelijke gebied van initiatieven. Zoals een boer vertelt: ‘We moeten ons pad blijven volgen – laten zien dat wij ook natuurbeheer kunnen doen.’”
In gesprek met Marleen
Waarom heb je dit initiatief genomen? Ik werkte al een tijdje met narratieve interviews, ook met studenten, en zag hoe krachtig deze vorm van verhalen vertellen is in een wereld waarin cijfers en technische oplossingen vaak domineren. Vanuit dat idee wilde ik verhalen verzamelen, die de zachte, menselijke kant van gebiedsgericht werken laat zien. Het idee was om persoonlijke verhalen van bewoners, boeren, ambtenaren en andere betrokkenen samen te brengen, zodat praktijkervaringen zichtbaar en bespreekbaar worden.
Wat maakt deze verhalen belangrijk in het huidige debat? Het debat over het landelijk gebied is vaak polariserend. Daardoor raken constructieve worstelingen en positieve initiatieven van mensen onderbelicht. Deze bundel laat zien dat er bereidheid is om nieuwe, duurzamere manieren van samenwerken te zoeken. Het biedt een realistisch én hoopvol beeld van wat er daadwerkelijk gebeurt en hoe het anders kan.
Wat hoop je dat lezers meenemen? Ik hoop dat lezers een genuanceerd beeld krijgen van alle pogingen die via gebiedsgericht werken worden ondernomen om verandering te realiseren. Hopelijk inspireren de verhalen het landelijke beleid om de condities te scheppen die deze initiatieven ondersteunen, zodat natuur en landbouw beter kunnen samenwerken in stad en land.
Van cijfers naar verhalen
Volgens Marleen biedt de bundel een belangrijk tegenwicht in een tijd waarin discussies over het landelijk gebied vaak polariserend zijn. Door persoonlijke verhalen centraal te stellen, ontstaat meer begrip voor de mensen achter de opgaven én voor de complexiteit van gebiedsgericht werken.
De bundel is ontwikkeld binnen het actieleertraject Gebiedsgericht Werken van ACCEZ, dat gestart is bij het Zuid-Hollands Programma Landelijk Gebied. Hier staan samen leren en reflecteren centraal—essentieel voor effectieve samenwerking in gebiedsprocessen en voor de ontwikkeling van een vitaal landelijk gebied.
Verhalen spelen daarin een sleutelrol. Ze helpen ervaringen te delen, perspectieven zichtbaar te maken en verbinding te creëren tussen betrokkenen.
De bundel is mogelijk gemaakt vanuit ACCEZ, waarin onder andere Wageningen University & Research als partner betrokken is. Zo wordt wetenschappelijke kennis verbonden met praktijkervaringen in het landelijk gebied—zodat professionals leren van analyses én van elkaar.
Praktische informatie
De bundel wordt vandaag gelanceerd tijdens de Gebiedendag van de Provincie Zuid-Holland.
Since 2025 I have been working with the Rural Sociology department on a project about the labour and the wellbeing of workers in regenerative agriculture. My interest and passion around the topic of labour and rural development grew during my master’s in Cultural Anthropology at Leiden University in 2022. My topic was how Yazidis experience, practice, and construct motherhood and family while being displaced in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and the Netherlands. I spent time with Yazidi families in asylum centres and homes in the Netherlands, as well as time with mothers in refugee camps in KRI. I looked at the division of labour in the household, changes in the perception around the role of mothers in Yazidi families, and how displacement has impacted family life.
Artist and co-initiator Jorge Guerrero walks toward us enthusiastically. Eleonora has already conducted research here, in the way she prefers most: working with her hands as much as with her head. While helping out, she listens to stories and plans. Alongside her job, she has been immersed in her PhD research on urban place-making, and she feels slightly self-conscious about suddenly reappearing after a period of absence – together with her partner and supervisor from the Netherlands. That feeling quickly fades in the face of the warm welcome. We, in turn, are struck by how much has visibly been realised in this ecoparque. The park has just celebrated its five-year anniversary.
Pictures taken during our visit to the Ecoparque, December 8th, 2025.
As is typical of urban fringes, this corner of the neighborhood was once filled with trash. Residents recall it as a place that attracted unwanted activities. Apart from a decent football field used by the local club, there was little else – except a clear need for a park. The idea emerged to transform the more than three hectares into a space accessible to everyone: a place to walk, celebrate birthday parties, and do things for which there is no room elsewhere in the neighborhood. Residents plant trees, their species carefully marked on a large, dust-covered map in the small structure at the entrance. There are playgrounds, a recycling point, and a fitness area with serious equipment made from local materials.
All the structures – a workshop, a semi-circular building “like an eye,” as Jorge describes it, overlooking the entire site at the entrance, and a tipi with kitchen facilities – are built from what could be found nearby: glass doors from soft-drink refrigerators, tree trunks, clay, and car tires. Many car tires. In the future, space will be needed for infrastructure, meaning the municipality cannot guarantee permanent usage rights, however, neighbors perceive the potential end of the Ecoparque Primavera as a a scenario that will not happen anytime soon. Funding remains a challenge, yet through countless volunteer hours and the reuse of materials, the project has already come a long way. By the end of 2025, they succeeded in obtaining legal recognition, formally establishing the “Eco Parque Primavera Environmental Committee”. This committee coaches a group of volunteers, recruited via Instagram. They managed to bring together neighbors of all ages, including people from different crafts and professional backgrounds. Many of the trees have been growing here for about a year and a half and appear to be surviving the harsh weather conditions. Large water tanks, filled by the municipality, are used to irrigate the plants. And there are still many ambitions: to host more activities, to create guided tours with stories. Jorge sketches one out for us on the spot.
Places like this inspire admiration, but also raise questions. Will residents be able to sustain the care this park requires over time? This is not a wealthy neighborhood – shouldn’t the state be responsible for providing such amenities here? Is twenty years enough? This initiative emerged from the bottom up: people are quite literally claiming their right to the city. It is a right of use rather than ownership – a commons, or meent in Dutch, where shared use takes precedence. How communal is this space in practice? Formal structures failed here in the past – how far does governmental support extend today? And inevitably: what will this place look like in twenty years, when the trees are larger and use may be more intensive? And in the shorter term, now that the ultra-right-wing Antonio Kast – who emphasizes private property and advocates for a smaller state – was elected president in December 2025, will community initiatives like this one prove to be especially vulnerable?
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”)
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 