Category Archives: Thesis and internship possibilities

Developing a food strategy: insights from Ede

Posted on by

by Lara Sibbing

20140103_184529Today, food is no longer just a rural issue. With more than half of the world population living in cities, food is a relatively new topic for cities and especially for municipalities to deal with. This is also the case for the municipality of Ede, which is close to Wageningen. This municipality expressed its ambitions for 2025 in a vision document entitled ‘Ede chooses food’. Frankly, the ambition of the municipality of Ede was to ‘go for food’. But what does that actually mean?

The municipality of Ede is one of the largest in size in the Netherlands – funnily enough though, Ede is officially not even a city, as it never got city rights, as opposed to Wageningen – and besides the actual city (or, village) of Ede, the municipality also encompasses a large rural area with several small villages. It is therefore an interesting place: it includes a city with a rural background that is still vivid, and is colored by a splash of knowledge of agricultural research coming in from Wageningen’s agricultural university; and all of that in one municipality. Continue reading →

Ex-change offers challenging internships & theses

Posted on by

ex-changeLooking for a challenging and adventurous internship or thesis for your Master studies in Africa? Take a look at the website of the organisation Ex-change and if inspired, contact Henk Haring (info@ex-change.nl) for more information. Currently, there are various concrete vacancies for students, available at the Rural Sociology Group. Contact our education coordinator Els Hegger (els.hegger@wur.nl) for more info.

Internship possibility

Posted on by

STA73745Earlier this year Clara Celestino Siurana completed her internship at the PeeRGroup in Donderen. She developed a design and building of a vegetable garden (see here for original description of the intership). Their terrain, a former ammunition depot has now the status of an ‘estate’ and ecologically rare species have been discovered because nature on that terrain has not been fertilized by convential agriculture for the past 50 years. They have a long way to go in making the terrain a multifunctional space open for public and connected to the care farm with which they collaborate. The small kitchen garden by Clara is only one of the things they want to develop.

Therefore, the PeeRGroup Donderen is still looking for students that want to play a role in further developing this unique project. Contact Marin de Boer (marin@peergroup.nl) or Sjoerd Wagenaar (sjoerd@peergroup.nl) if you are interested. Look at their website (http://www.peergroup.nl/donderboerkamp/) for more information.

Request for a master student: Action Research on Organic Advocacy in the Netherlands

Posted on by

There are many organisations within the Netherlands active in the field of organic advocacy; some are specifically covering one branch in a certain region, others are more general and nationwide. A partner of Otherwise has asked for an action research – as topic for a master thesis- on organic advocacy in the Netherlands. The goal is to map Organic Advocacy in the Netherlands and indicatethe  extent of say and significance to members of the three main players (Biohuis, Bionext, Eko Keurmerk) and discuss the link between Biohuis and LTO Nederland. More information is available, please send a mail to lummina.horlings@wur.nl

Master information evening

Posted on by

Yesterday evening, Dirk Roep and I informed various Master students of Wageningen University about the possibilities for doing a thesis or internship with the Rural Sociology Group. As always, it was an evening full of enthusiasm, questions and confusion. The Wageningen education system is not always easy to understand and thus difficult to make choices. The best advice we give students: think about something that makes you want to jump in the air, then you have a topic of interest (that could be something on certain themes, but also on approaches). Starting from that, look for someone that would fit that interest. Of course, you can always get some inspiration from past thesis stories or thesis possibilities in the special section of this blog. Furthermore, the various EU research projects that run at our group offer wide possibilities for doing an internship or thesis with our partners in these projects (within and outside of Europe). If you have difficulties coming up with a topic or want to get some input on your ideas, make an appointment with our education coordinator. Don’t feel lost!