The course ‘Sociology of Food Provisioning and Place-based Development’ starts on Monday 17 March 2014. This course is primarily designed for the Rural Sociology track in the specialisation ‘Sociology of Development’ of the Master International Development Studies. It is, however, open for all students interested in the sociology of food and place, provided they have a basic sociological understanding (at BSc-3 level) of transformation processes in food provisioning, rural and regional development and urban-rural linkages. For more information about the course have a look at the course description in the online study handbook or at the Leaflet Sociology of Food Provisioning and Place-based Development.
Category Archives: Rural Development
SOLINSA project has come to an end – the results
January 31 the EU-funded research project SOLINSA has offically come to an end. A Special Issue of The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension is in preparation. Publication of the SOLINSA issue is foreseen for early 2015. For now the results of the project are available at the SOLINSA website under four subheading:
- The concept of LINSA
- The relation between AKS and LINSA
- Interacting with LINSA
- Policy recommendations
Here public reports of the different workpackages are published, six factsheets, posters and two video clips made for a SOLINSA webinar in which Gianluca Brunori and Talis Tisenkopf explain what LINSA are. These are also available at You Tube SOLINSA Project. To get an overview the SOLINSA home page offers a guided tour through the project and its results. The notion of transition partner captures well the various supporting roles towards LINSA.
Feminization of Agricultural Production in Rural China – PhD-thesis Xiangdan Meng
January 2014 Xiangdan Meng has successfully defended her PhD-thesis “Feminization of Agricultural Production in Rural China:
A Sociological Analysis“. It can still be viewed at wurtv.wur.nl.
Rural-urban migration of male labour force is an unstoppable process in China. Although some women also migrate to work in cities, most of these women return to the villages after marriage. They need to take care of the children and the family and to work on their smallholder farms. In general, women’s labour participation in agriculture has increased due to the migration of the male labourers and they have become the main labour force in smallholder agriculture. This thesis is a sociological analysis on the impact of this change on the situation of these women and on smallholder agriculture from the women’s perspective. Continue reading
Food Sovereignty: A critical dialogue – live streaming of conference
Following the Yale conference (see the post), the ISS-Agrarian, Food & Environmental Studies (AFES), Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS), Transnational Institute (TNI), Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First, Land Deal Politics Initiatives (LDPI) and The Journal of Peasant Studies organised a Food sovereignty Conference in The Hague, Friday 24.
Download the programme. There will be live streaming of the conference.
Well-working operational interfaces – PhD-thesis Wiebke Wellbrock
December 4 Wiebke Wellbrock succesfully defended her thesis (can be viewed at wurtv.wur.nl):
Well-working operational interfaces: A key to more collaborative modes of governance
This thesis comprises five chapters that are independent scientific publications. In the first chapter, I show how the ‘learning region concept’ and ‘triple helix thesis’ can be reframed to address support for collaboration in rural areas. In the second chapter, I reflect on the experiences of using the conceptual lens as a research tool for studying the operational features of arrangements supporting joint learning and innovation in the case study area of Westerkwartier, the Netherlands. In the third and fourth chapters, I deal with the question of how to best arrange support for collaboration by comparing the operational features of arrangements across the German and European case study areas. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the lessons learnt concerning: 1) wellworking operational features of arrangements supporting collaborative modes of governance, 2) the development and refinement of the conceptual lens, based on experiences of using it as a heuristic research tool, and 3) the potential of the refined framework to effectuate more collaborative modes of governance.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 