Request for a master student in the ‘Reestdal’ (Drenthe)- new call

Posted on by

The PeerGrouP is a location-art group that specializes in site-specific theatre and visual arts in the northern provinces of the Netherlands. The PeerGrouP consists of a lively mix of theatre makers and artists who are inspired by the landscape, the location and the local inhabitants. The quality of food, ecology, practical knowledge of the landscape, community spirit and the supply of energy are recurring themes within the PeerGrouP’s projects.

The PeerGroup is looking for artists and researchers willing to participate in their P.A.I.R. (Portable Artist in Residence) project. The P.A.I.R.-project promotes artistic social commitment while focusing attention on man and his surroundings. This year the P.A.I.R. theme is Landscape Population: the landscape and its meanings in relation to the inhabitants and other users will be looked at on different levels. The P.A.I.R. will be visiting the Wolden in the ‘Reestdal’, near the village De Wijk, in the north of the Netherlands (Drenthe) from the second half of September till the end of October to meet local inhabitants and to investigate their surroundings. On 13th of September also an art-route initiated by inhabitants will be opened in this area.

The Rural Sociology Group and the Peer Group are looking for a master student interested in landscape, place, values and population, who is enthusiastic to do his/her internship or thesis in this site-specific project, starting preferably around July-September. The student-researcher will actually stay in the P.A.I.R. (see photo) in September in the ‘Reestdal’ and participate with inhabitants. The P.A.I.R. will then partly be a ‘Reestdal-library’ and partly accomodation for the student-researcher. Preliminary research questions are:
– What is ‘sense of place’ for the local population in the Wolden?
– Which meanings to people give to the landscape? What do people appreciate? What are important cultural markers in the landscape?
– Do inhabitants experience local identities? Which stories can be told related to the landscape?
– How are meanings, identities and sense of place linked to underlying values of people?
– How can meanings identities and sense of place be translated to recommendations for practice and policy? (people’s participation, community cohesion, networks)
Methods that can be used are e.g. social (deep) mapping, visualization methods, appreciative inquiry, integral theory. The student researcher will carry out ‘on-site’ participatory research on the sense of place and values of the local population in this area. The research will be supervised by the RSO group (Ina Horlings) and the Peer Group (Henry Alles). If you are interested, please send a mail as soon as possible to Ina Horlings (lummina.horlings@wur.nl).

Oproep Onderzoeksstage “Smaak van het varken”

Posted on by

Gezocht: Studenten die in de periode mei-juni-juli een onderzoek willen uitvoeren naar aantoonbare verschillen in smaak en smaakbeleving tussen verschillend gevoerde varkens van Piggy’s palace in Bathmen.

Het Nieuwe Veehouden van Piggy’s Palace

De familie Stegink uit Bathmen is eigenaar en initiatiefnemer van het Piggy’s Palace concept. De familie bestaat uit Erik, Paula , Bart, Tim, Appie en Hennie Stegink. Appie en Hennie Stegink (ouders van Erik) zijn al in de jaren ’60 begonnen met het varkenshouderijbedrijf. In het project “het nieuwe veehouden” heeft Erik nu een bedrijfsconcept ontwikkeld, waarmee hij als varkensbedrijf duurzaam de toekomst in wil gaan.

Continue reading →

HappySixtyFive

Posted on by

The Rural Sociology group in Wageningen is celebrating its 65th anniversary. To celebrate this we decided to collect some of the stories from the people working here or who have been part of this group in the past. We asked them about how they started working with rural sociology issues, stories about their time here and things they look forward to.

Our hope is that through their accounts we can get to know a little bit more about the story of our group, its people, and where we are headed.

So, please click around, enjoy, and… Happysixtyfive RSO!

Traditional Foods at IP Romania (6) Student reflection

Posted on by

Four previous blogs reported on the Intensive Program on Traditional Foods in Romania which took place during the first weeks of February. Students who participated reflect on their experiences.

Written by Hylke Sibtsen

While watching the airplanes departing from Schiphol airport take-off from a runway with perfectly white lanes of snow on either side I wondered what the IP in Cluj-Napoca Romania would bring. Besides a little bit of information concerning the topic, “Microbes and traditional foods: competitors or allies?”, and that each participating country would present several traditional products of their country or region, I didn’t know what to expect from the IP.

Continue reading →

Traditional Foods at IP Romania (5) Student reflection

Posted on by

Four previous blogs reported on the Intensive Program on Traditional Foods in Romania which took place during the first weeks of February. Students who participated reflect on their experiences.

Written by Cho-Ye Yuen

picture: Stefanos Nastis - Valea Draganului

Not knowing what to expect, we arrived in Cluj-Napoca, where it was minus 15 degrees during the day and minus 20 during the night and everywhere was covered with snow. The first day started off well, students from different countries brought their own traditional food and held a presentations about it. Afterwards there was this big tasting where we enjoyed parmigiano reggiano aged 12 and 48 months, French saucisson, different kinds of cheeses and cakes, smoked bacon and off course accompanied by some drinks: strong liquors from Poland and Romania such as plum brandy. The next day was more serious and started with lectures from professors all over Europe. Assignments were given and working in groups with different nationalities was not unfamiliar when you come from Wageningen.

Continue reading →