Publicatie | Gebiedsgericht werken: hoe maken we transitie écht werkbaar? 

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“Erken het politieke karakter van transities, combineer actie en leren, want blauwdrukken zijn er niet voor. Ken de mensen en hun emoties, en probeer wat zij doen, ook als is het klein, te zien als zaaigoed voor grotere verandering”  – Marleen Buizer (Rurale Sociologie, Wageningen University & Research)

Hoe geef je gebiedsgericht werken vorm in de complexe transities van het Zuid-Hollandse landelijk gebied? Dit rapport biedt houvast met zeven principes, gebaseerd op twee jaar actie-onderzoek. De inzichten komen voort uit intensieve samenwerking met mensen uit beleid en praktijk die werken aan opgaven op het gebied van water, natuur, stikstof, klimaat en landbouw.

Gebiedsgericht werken vraagt om een samenhangende en context-specifieke aanpak, waarbij de kracht en kennis in gebieden centraal staan. In de praktijk blijkt dit uitdagend: de focus ligt vaak op juridisch-technische maatregelen, sectorale beleidsdoelen en win-win oplossingen, terwijl er in beleid en recht een schijnbare tegenstelling is ontstaan tussen landbouw en natuur.

Dit rapport pleit voor het serieus nemen en voortvarend ondersteunen van gebiedssamenwerking en de mogelijkheden daarvan voor een duurzamere toekomst van het landelijk gebied. Het  biedt handvatten voor beleid en praktijk. Elk principe wordt toegelicht met concrete voorbeelden uit de provincie Zuid-Holland, waar gebiedsgericht werken in de praktijk wordt gebracht.

Dit rapport is het resultaat van het project ‘Actieleren gebiedsgericht werken’, een samenwerking tussen ACCEZ, de provincie Zuid-Holland en diverse kennisinstellingen.

Lees het volledige rapport:

Eindrapport-Gebiedsgericht-werkenDownload
2pager-gebiedgerichtwerken-in-zeven-principes (1)Download

Auteurs: Marleen Buizer (WUR), Mara de Pater (DRIFT, EUR), Saskia Ruijsink (TU Delft/LDE), Tobias Hofland (ACCEZ).

A Place to Transit: The seasonal migrant workers of Huelva’s strawberry industry

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A new article by Merissa Gavin and Joost Jongerden explores the lived experiences of seasonal migrant workers in Lepe, who play an essential yet precarious role in the agri-food industry of southern Spain. By examining their experiences and actions through a temporal lens, this research offers deeper insights into the dynamics that sustain migrant vulnerability and the individualized strategies they employ to navigate these challenges.

Embodying the paradox of being essential yet unprotected, undocumented migrant agri-workers navigate a terrain of precarious in-betweenness. Policy-making affords little urgency to addressing their routine exploitation or facilitating dignified solutions for their working and living conditions. Focusing on seasonal migrant workers in the strawberry fields of Lepe (Huelva, Spain), this article examines how temporality structures endurance, agency, and vulnerability.

Drawing on four months of ethnographic fieldwork—including participant observation, informal conversations, and semi-structured interviews—this study reveals how workers endure exploitation in expectation of future documentation through arraigo policies. However, the temporal horizon of arraigo not only sustains individual endurance but also dampens collective resistance, rendering precarity a structured condition rather than a momentary hardship. Because arraigo systematically encourages endurance over resistance, precarity becomes a long-term structural reality, with temporality actively shaping workers’ vulnerabilities. This process individualises what is essentially a shared struggle, further sedating collective action and reinforcing exploitation. While migrants in Lepe internalise temporality as a survival strategy, disruptions—such as withheld contracts—demonstrate the limits of endurance and trigger resistance.

This study advances scholarship on migrant precarity by shifting the focus from spatial or economic dimensions to the performative construction of sequential time as a mechanism that both sustains and constrains migrant agency. In highlighting how European agricultural policies prioritise productivity while obscuring labour exploitation, these findings underscore the need for interventions addressing both the legal limbo of undocumented workers and the temporal structures that sustain their vulnerability.

Read the full article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718525000661

Publication | Relational autonomy highlights how interdependencies shift in the transformation of food provisioning

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In a recent study published in JASFC, Margriet Goris, Daphne Schoop, Dirk Roep, and Jan Hassink explore the growing movement of values-based territorial food networks (VTFNs) in the Netherlands. These networks seek to transform conventional food systems by fostering stronger connections between farmers, citizens, and natural resources.

Abstract
In the past decade, there has been a surge in the Netherlands in food initiatives that seek to trans­form the prevailing agro-industrial model of food provisioning. This has evolved into a wide range of values-based territorial food networks (VTFNs). This article aims to understand the evolving diver­sity in VTFNs by looking more deeply into how community, circular, and territorial-based food net­works operate. In doing so, the article examines how citizens, rural workers, and farmers cooperate to change and create connections between live­stock, land, water, and other resources. Further­more, it aims to assess to what extent the evolving food provisioning practices of these VTFNs are re-embedded in the territory, how their collective capacity to transform food provisioning practices has expanded, and the impact that the expanded capacity has on the degree of relational autonomy over their operations. Twelve participatory obser­vations and 16 interviews with farmers and citizens engaged in three different VTFNs are analyzed by identifying themes that emerged from the data, and themes that originate from the concept relational autonomy. Relational autonomy is introduced by feminist scholars and entails that autonomy is not an individual matter but is created in relationships. The concept allows for a deeper understanding of how a transformation of relations can raise the autonomy of all living beings, both human and non-human. The analysis demonstrates how rela­tional autonomy in the three VTFNs studied is emerging along the three interdependent and co-evolving dimensions identified by Catriona Mackenzie (2019): determination, governance, and authorization. All three VTFNs studied crafted their own pathway toward relational autonomy by creating opportunities and building capacities. A relational autonomy lens enables us to articulate the interconnectedness between human and non-human systems; for example, phasing out agro­chemicals increases our reliance on natural pro­cesses. This necessitates farmers and rural workers’ ability to mimic these processes and requires a rear­ranging of market relations to share risks more equitably with citizens.

https://www.foodsystemsjournal.org/index.php/fsj/article/view/1341

Video | Rural Sociology vs. Sociology of Development and Change Explained

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Video | Are you a student interested in Rural Sociology (RSO) and wondering how it compares to Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) at Wageningen University & Research?

At Rural Sociology, we study societal change, inequality, and power with a focus on food, agriculture, and rural development. In this video, we explore how RSO and SDC approach these topics differently and what that means for your studies and research opportunities.

How does this relate to your interests? Our PhD researchers take you to Fruitproeverij Zandberg, an alternative agriculture site, to show how both groups conduct real-world research—helping you discover which themes and methods resonate with you.

Watch now to explore your options for courses, theses, or future research. Still unsure? Reach out to our education coordinator or drop by our hallway for a chat. A special thanks to Fruitproeverij Zandberg for allowing us to film at their inspiring location!

You are where you live

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“Your house is more than the place where you happen to live. Student houses and residential communities often have their own character. How does that happen? And how does the house influence its residents? Judith Rommens (International Development Studies) wrote her thesis about the house she lived in for eight years – De Wilde Wereld – from the perspective of the building itself.“

A student of International Development Studies wrote a thesis about the house where she lived, as well as her supervisor before her. Resource interviewed her to learn what inspired her to conduct this research and write a thesis not only about the house she lived in but also from the perspective of the house itself.

Read more here: https://www.resource-online.nl/index.php/2024/11/15/you-are-where-you-live/?lang=en