Category Archives: Thesis and internship possibilities

3 Thesis topics offered

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The Rural Sociology Group offers three interesting thesis topics for Master students of Wageningen University.

  • Gender and multifunctional farming
  • Increase in succession by farm daughters
  • Intra-European rural mobility

Interested? For all topics contact Bettina Bock: bettina.bock@wur.nl


Gender and multifunctional farming

The Rural Sociology Group is looking for a Master student who is interested in doing research among multifunctional farm women in the Netherlands. Research into the position of women in family farming started in the late seventies, early eighties. It demonstrated women’s unequal position in terms of professional recognition, payment and political representation but also stressed their importance in Continue reading →

Stageplek – monitoren van interactieve groenontwerpbijeenkomsten in Zuid-Holland

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De provincie Zuid-Holland zoekt een stagiair voor het monitoren van groenontwerpbijeenkomsten. Hieronder meer informatie van de contactpersoon Kees Verdouw.

De provincie Zuid-Holland werkt in het project Mijn groen – Ons groen (zie www.mijngroenonsgroen.nl) aan een nieuwe manier van groenontwikkeling. Het project is onderdeel van het INTERREG-project GIFT-T! (www.gift-t.eu) en wordt dus mede door Europa betaald. Wat is er nieuw aan de aanpak van het project? Allereerst het uitgangspunt, namelijk dat we voor de ontwikkeling van natuur, groen en landschap echt willen starten bij de wensen van de gebruiker. Dat is bijv. een recreant, maar ook een boer, een grote multinational of een school. Al deze partijen maken gebruik van de natuur en welke mogelijkheden zien zij om dat te verbeteren? Die vraag hebben we beantwoord via droombijeenkomsten met deze gebruikers. Nu is de volgende stap om samen met de gebruikers wensen te vertalen in een samenhangend groen netwerk. Het streven is om per stukje groen zoveel mogelijk wensen (ecosysteemdiensten) van gebruikers te kunnen honoreren. Continue reading →

Voedseltuinen: local food for the low income in the Netherlands?

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The Rural Sociology Group is looking for a Master student.

Local and organic food is hip in the Netherlands nowadays though it is often seen as being quite exclusive and not accessible for people with low income. Are there examples in the Netherlands of local, healthy food for low income people?

The voedseltuin (food garden) is a recent phenomenon (since 2011) that seems to be doing just that. In general, the voedseltuin can be described as a place where mostly low income volunteers collectively grow food for themselves and for the food bank. Hence, the voedseltuin is different from an allotment garden.

Why are these gardens popping up in different cities in the Netherlands? The aim of this research will be to explore the voedseltuinen: What are their aims, who are behind it? What are their ideas about food? Is it about having enough food, cheap food or healthy food or is it about something else? And how do these initiatives work out in practice? Are they able to merge their aims with their actual activities?

The student is expected to interview initiators and participants of voedseltuinen in the Netherlands which can become part of a Master thesis research.

Interested students can contact Femke Hoekstra, Rural Sociology Group
femke.hoekstra@wur.nl

Fruits of internship labor

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IMG_0168Last week I visited Clara, a Master of Organic Agriculture student at her internship with the PeerGroup in Donderen near Groningen. This theatre group located at an old ammunition depot advertised a while ago that they were looking for a student who could set up their farming activity (see earlier blog). Over the past few months she worked hard to design and construct the first step, a vegetable garden near the communal and office spaces. At the same time of building a greenhouse and raised beds she kept a nursery going and when the weather (finally!) got better, planted the seedlings. Now the water pump is working, it will go fast.

This is just step one of a long-term plan to integrate more farming in the area, in collaboration with the community in the village and the care farm nearby. The PeerGroup is open to future students with skills to develop other parts of their unique location which inhabits rare species and special biotope, and is at the same time military heritage, creative work space and publicly open and connected to nearby recreation forests.

Sense of place in a neighbourhood in Groningen: request for a master student

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The Rural Sociology Group is looking for a master student who is willing to do his or her master student in the city of Groningen. In Groningen an urban working group of citizens aims to establish an ecological walking route in their neighbourhood Helpman/Wijert. This working group needs support in their process. A group of students from Larenstein has already helped them with a plan and communication.

The aim is to involve the neighbourhood in an action-based explorative research approach, gain insight in the sense of place, values and motivations of the citizens and analyse if this can lead to agency and participation in the green development of this urban area.

This project is part of the wider programme of KIGO, ‘Green education in the city’, aimed at cooperation between educational institutions to enhance green knowledge and green education in the city. This means that the plan is to combine the work of the student with complementary research and implementation activities by other students from for example AOC Terra in Groningen. For this research one or more master students in social sciences are requested. The implementation and starting date of the project is flexible and can be further discussed with the local commissioner, chairman of the Working Group and with Frans Traa, coordinator of the KIGO programme.

Interested students can contact L.G. (Ina) Horlings, Rural Sociology Group, lummina.horlings@wur.nl.