The course Sustainability Leadership starts soon!

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The course sustainability leadership: new concepts and practices PAP-52806 will start in Period 1. If you are interested, please register soon.

Profile of the course
The governance of sustainability issues in their environmental, social and economic dimensions requires leadership that goes beyond many of the leadership models and practices. Potentially relevant forms of leadership include collaborative, visionary, complexity, adaptive, value-based or eco-leadership. Yet these emerging leadership concepts are elusive just as the concept of sustainability. This course approaches this challenging field by asking some key questions: How does sustainability leadership differ from other types of leadership? How can the contribution of actors (individual and collective) as sustainability leaders be analysed and evaluated? Who are the most successful sustainability leaders and what makes them effective?

Course themes
1) Traditional (hierarchical, positional) versus new (emergent) forms of leadership
2) Leadership to achieve what? Sustainability and sustainability related goals
3) Different types of leaders (individual v.s collective, private vs. public etc)
4) Leadership at different scales and governance levels: from local networks to global negotiations
5) The means of leadership: knowledge, values, power and legitimacy
6) Evaluating successful leadership: functional and ethical dimensions

Activities
The course consists of a mixture of lectures, tutorials and individual feedback sessions with students. The students grade will be based on tutorial assignments, an exam paper and the presentation of this paper.

For who?
This is a master course, open for students in different disciplines. Courses in social science are a helpful background but not obligatory. Students with no social science background can receive extra support in the form of individual feedback on their exam paper.
If you need more information, please contact the lecturers: S.Karlsson-Vinkhuysen or L.G.Horlings.

Virtual Issue Sociologia Ruralis – a tribute to the Year of the Family Farm

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Being editor of Sociologia Ruralis I’m pleased to announce the publication of a Virtual Issue on Family Farming (= free accessible at Wiley Online Library) to celebrate the UN International Year on Family Farming, which reflects the development of thinking on family farming during the years. The virtual issue gathers a selection of publications on family farming in Sociologia Ruralis between 1969 and 2013. Taken together they reflect the development of thought through continuously returning questions (survival, succession, gender) as well as shifting points of attention.

Articles included:

  1. Social implications of farm mechanization, a final report on cross national research by Anton J. Jansen
  2. Patriarchy and Property by Harriet Friedman
  3. Family Goals and Survival Strategies by David Symes and John Appleton
  4. The Persistence of Family Farms in United States Agriculture by  Nola Reinhardt and Peggy Bartlett
  5. Farm Families Between Tradition and Modernity by Karl Friedrich Bohler and Bruno Hildenbrand
  6. Ageing and Succession of Family Fams: The Impact on Decision-making and Land Use by  Clive Potter and Matt Lobley
  7. Power Analysis and Farm Wives by Sally Shortall
  8. Defining and Operationalizing Family Farming from a Sociological Perspective by Göran Djurfeldt
  9. Family Farming and Capitalist Development in Greek Agriculture: A Critical Review of the Literature by Charalambos Kasimis and Apostolos G. Papadopoulos
  10. Pluriactivity as a Livelihood Strategy in Irish Farm Households and its Role in Rural Development by Jim Kinsella, Susan Wilson, Floor De Jong and Henk Renting
  11. Gender Identity in European Family Farming: A Literature Review by Berit Brandth
  12. ‘Good Farmers’ as Reflexive Producers: an Examination of Family Organic Farmers in the US Midwest by Paul Stock
  13. Subsistence and Sustainability in Post-industrial Europe: The Politics of Small-scale Farming in Europeanising Lithuania by Diana Mincyte
  14. Peasantry and Entrepreneurship As Frames for Farming: Reflections on Farmers’ Values and Agricultural Policy Discourses by Miira Niska, Hannu T. Vesala and Kari Mikko Vesala
  15. Resourcing Children in a Changing Rural Context: Fathering and Farm Succession in Two Generations of Farmers by Berit Brandth and Grete Overrein

The last issue of Sociologia Ruralis later this year will also include a section with several articles on family farming, followed by a discussion between some of the authors about the advancements made early 2015.

Quality characteristic of TSG Farmhouse Gouda cheese is farm specific – Msc-thesis tested micro and meso terroir models

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By Marcell Kustos, Master Food Technology Wageningen University (marcell.kustos@wur.nl)

MSC-thesis: The authority of novel terroir models: Case study on quality characteristics of Traditional Speciality Guaranteed Gouda Farmhouse cheese

Boerenkaas-met-kievitIn my MSc-thesis research I tested novel terroir models on Farmhouse cheese (Boerenkaas) originating from the Green Heart area in the Netherlands, also known as the traditional farmhouse cheese area surrounding cities like Gouda and Leiden historically linked to the traditional Gouda type and Leiden type of Famhouse cheese. The latter or Boeren Leidsekaas has been certified a product with a protected designation of origin or PDO by the EU-Quality regulations in geographical indications and traditional specialities in 1997. It has a strict demarcation of the production area or terroir and a strict code of practice. In 2007 the Boeren Goudsekaas was certified as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed or TSG, that is less strict then a PDO: it guarantees only some traditional product methods. Basically that is made of raw milk and that while processing it should not be heated above 40°C or pasteurized. Unlike PDO the TSG has no regulations with regard to cattle breed, cattle feed or cheese manufacturing, as e.g. the Comte has to some extend. And a TSG  has no geographical demarcation and can thus be produced at any farm. Continue reading →

Twee thesis opdrachten lokaal voedsel – Almeerse Weelde

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Esther Veen's avataronderzoekerstadslandbouw

Deze zomer zijn een aantal wetenschapswinkelprojecten gestart, waardoor we verschillende studentenopdrachten in de aanbieding hebben. De opdracht waar ik laatst over schreef staat nog uit, maar we zijn nu voor een ander project ook op zoek naar twee studenten.

Dit wetenschapswinkelproject speelt zich ook af in Almere; de opdrachtgever is Almeerse Weelde. Almeerse Weelde (AW) bestaat uit ongeveer vijfentwintig mensen die zich bezighouden met lokaal voedsel. Sommigen van hen doen dat professioneel, anderen meer hobbymatig. Naast de verwerking van lokale producten, houdt AW zich bezig met bewustwording en kennisoverdracht over lokaal voedsel.

AWproducten

Momenteel denkt AW na over de toekomst; hoe en in welke richting kan ze zich verder ontwikkelen? Deze vraag heeft ze voorgelegd aan de wetenschapswinkel, die AW daarbij gaat ondersteunen. In die zoektocht komen verschillende vragen naar boven, zoals:

  • Wat zijn de faal- en succesfactoren van dit burgerinitiatief?
  • Hoe houdt je het samenwerkingsverband levendig?
  • Welke bedrijfsvorm past bij Almeerse Weelde?
  • Hoe kunnen…

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Resultaten onderzoek volkstuinen

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Esther Veen's avataronderzoekerstadslandbouw

Dit voorjaar heb ik een Erasmus (= Europees uitwisselingsprogramma) studente uit Griekenland begeleid. Fenia deed onderzoek naar volkstuinen in Nederland en is momenteel bezig met een vergelijkend onderzoek in Griekenland. Tijd haar resultaten te delen (ze weet er van!).

Fenia’s onderzoeksvraag luidde: ‘What is the difference between gardeners (of allotments and /or community gardens) in the Netherlands and Greece, with respect to the building of contacts between gardeners, the role of fences and agricultural methods used?’ Het klinkt misschien als een gekke verzameling – contacten tussen tuinders, de rol van hekken en productiemethoden – maar dat heeft te maken met de interesses van haar begeleiders (ik dus, en haar begeleider in Griekenland), en die van haarzelf. Ach, en waarom niet.

20140530_150952

Het bleek nog erg moeilijk om in de korte tijd die ze hier was (drie maanden) een geschikte volkstuin als case study te vinden. Volkstuinen die ze benaderde reageerden…

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