Luister naar de nieuwste aflevering van de podcast De Sociologie Show met Bettina Bock. De voorlaatste verkiezingen leken met de winst van de BBB gedomineerd door gevoelens van miskenning in de regio’s en dorpen. Is dat gevoel sinds een jaar – en de blijvende verschrompeling van de BBB – soms verdwenen?
Bettina Bock, in Wageningen hoogleraar inclusieve plattelandsontwikkeling en in Groningen bijzonder hoogleraar bevolkingsdaling en leefbaarheid in noord Nederland, heeft daar zicht op. Hoe zit het met de gevoelens van miskenning buiten de stad? En zijn de zorgzame gemeenschappen die nu op veel plekken wortel schieten een bron van trots?
Presentatie door Tara Lewis (journalist) en Marcel Ham (hoofdredacteur van Tijdschrift voor Sociale Vraagstukken).
Luister de podcast hier.
Video series | Jessica Duncan: Uncovering the politics of food systems and fostering real-world change.
Jessica Duncan, Associate Professor at the Rural Sociology Group, discusses her passion for exploring the politics of food system transformation and how collaborative projects like SWIFT are driving gender-inclusive changes in agriculture.
“For the past decade, I’ve been privileged to work with an incredibly diverse and committed group at the Rural Sociology Group. Together, we challenge assumptions and address structural barriers to change. Projects like SWIFT, which focuses on gender-inclusive policies in agriculture, demonstrate the real-world impact of our work.”
Read more about the SWIFT project here.
Publication | Exploring the global connections of our food system
The complexity of food production and consumption in the Netherlands is deeply intertwined with international dynamics, requiring new approaches to sustainability. In this new publication, ten essays explore how global interconnections influence the ability of governments to shape policies and drive societal change within the Dutch food system.
Our colleagues Bettina Bock and Han Wiskerke contributed an essay, “Food from Near and Far: Shifting Relationships in the Food Chain.” They explore how agriculture has evolved since WWII, marked by modernization, globalization, and the rise of local food initiatives. These shifts not only affect nature and landscapes but also challenge how we balance efficiency, sustainability, and social cohesion.
You can download and read the publication here (available in Dutch only).
Video series | Anna Roodhof: Exploring sustainable solutions in food forestry through meaningful research.
Anna Roodhof, PhD Candidate at the Rural Sociology Group, discusses her passion for exploring the social and economic possibilities of food forestry in the Netherlands, and the collaborative spirit that drives innovation at the Rural Sociology Group.
“At Rural Sociology, I’m passionate about meaningful work that bridges research and practice. My focus on the social and economic possibilities of food forestry in the Netherlands allows me to collaborate with both practitioners and colleagues, fostering an environment of shared knowledge and innovation.
🔗 Anna regularly shares updates about her experiences as a food forest sociologist on her personal blog. Take a look here.
Municipal Politics and the PKK in the late 1970s: A citizenship perspective
Joost Jongerden and Francis O’Connor recently published a commentary in which they discuss the Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) municipal politics in the late 1970s through the lens of citizenship politics. The data for this work is based on empirical research on the PKK’s political activities among rural workers, peasants, women and workers in the petrol industry in Batman and Hilvan, including 24 interviews with witnesses and activists engaged in the PKK’s electoral and representative municipal political work in the 1970s.
The article introduces two concepts – activist citizenship and fugitive citizenship – to analyse the PKK’s mobilisation in this period, before the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Activist citizenship challenges the restrictive boundaries of state-sanctioned citizenship, while fugitive citizenship creates alternative political spaces for marginalized groups. Both concepts highlight how individuals and groups, such as the PKK, can assert their political agency in contexts where they are denied formal citizenship. The research questions linear understandings of the PKK’s emergence as a political movement inevitably destined to become an insurgent movement.
The PKK’s participation in municipal electoral and representative politics in the late 1970s in Batman and Hilvan was the PKK’s first attempt to establish Kurds as citizens, a struggle which continued in activist and fugitive forms through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, albeit in the shadow of the violent storm of insurgency, mass rural population displacement and suffering which characterised the years after 1984.
Read more: https://journals.tplondon.com/com/article/view/3428
