December 3 the EU-funded reserach projects FarmPath and SOLINSA will jointly present their findings at a final conference in Brussels. A detailed programme is available at the www.solinsa.net website. Location: Thon Hotel, Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 75, B-1040. From 9.00 am till 4.30 pm.
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
The next event of the Grassroots science series is a discussing on “The future of agriculture: myths, facts and moving beyond”: Wednesday November 20, at 20.00 in the Forum building.
Discussiants are:
A post by Max van Tilburg (MSc student International Development)
The nature of urban agriculture; initiatives in Lansing and Detroit, Michigan, United States
Urban agriculture over the past decennium has become very popular in the Western World, this brings up questions about the commonality between all these different initiatives. This question stood at the basis of my master thesis, and was translated to whether urban agriculture initiatives in Lansing and Detroit (Michigan, USA) could be seen as (being part of) a social movement.
Although the history and (organizational) background of the urban agriculture initiatives in Lansing and Detroit are very diverse, the similarity in practices, ideas and ideologies (both displayed in shared discourses and themes) was remarkably high. It turned out that community building with all its aspects is a first order concern for the initiatives, neighborhood organizations, a soup kitchen, private farmers, all practiced and expressed a major concern about working on the community.
On the overall I arrived at a point were I more or less hypothesize the same as Touraine (1998) did in his research on social movements; “that their ‘real’ purpose was a broad-based effort to oppose the corporate and government technocrats who initiated and directed most social change”.
Read more in my thesis!
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!
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 