Student Exchange with Kyoto University

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Joost Jongerden

The Kyoto University (KU), Japan and Wageningen University (WU) have agreed to a BSc and MSC Student Mobility Agreement. Under the agreement, it is possible for students of both universities to follow courses at the partner university. For students at WU any academic credit earned at the KU will be transferred back to WU, and vice versa. For students in Wageningen, the agreement gives the great opportunity to follow courses in comparative development studies, Asian studies, and transcultural studies in one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in Japan. Founded in 1897, Kyoto University belongs to the world’s top universities. Students at Kyoto University have the opportunity to follow courses at Wageningen University, a top university in the life sciences and development studies.

Students who are interested in studying at KU can contact Joost Jongerden for more info (joost.jongerden@wur.nl, Leeuwenborch room 3027).

Open for applications: graduate workshop in Kyoto, Japan in May 2016

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Joost Jongerden

From May 24 to May 27 Kyoto University, represented by the Graduate School of Economics and the Graduate School of Agriculture, together with the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University, organize a Second Graduate Workshop. The workshop is intended for graduate students (both master and PhD) and takes place within the context of a collaboration between both institutes. The objective of the workshop is to become acquainted and discuss ongoing social sciences research within Kyoto University and Wageningen University, with an emphasis on the political economy and the sociology of agriculture and food.

Students who are interested can request an application form or more info at: joost.jongerden@wur.nl

Interreg project Rural Alliances: final report

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Ina Horlings

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.

New book on the role of culture in regional development

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Ina Horlings

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.