Living the peasant way of life in Santa Cruz de la Colina

After a longer posting-pause in which I finalized my first research phase, identifying supporters of rural grassroots development initiatives in the Province of Soto, here a new update of my activities in Colombia: Time is flying and I am finalizing my second research phase, asking grassroots development initiatives to evaluate the support they are receiving [...]

DERREG film Westerkwartier

Over the last 3 years, we have been carrying out research in the Westerkwartier concerning global influences on rural regional development. This research was carried out as part of the European project DERREG. The Westerkwartier was involved in two work packages of the project: 1. Investigating arrangements through which public support for joint learning and [...]

‘Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society’ Conference – new deadline for submission of abstracts

As mentioned in previous posts, an international conference entitled ‘Agriculture in an Urbanizing Society’ will be held from 1 to 4 April 2012 in Wageningen. A whole range of different topics and research findings will be presented and discussed in 20 different working groups. The deadline for submitting abstracts was originally 20 December 2011 but [...]

Presenting my Colombian case study area

During the last two weeks, I was in Bogotá to talk to experts from the IER at the Javeriana University as well as the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to find out about public support for joint capacity building in rural Colombia. Now, I am back in the department of Santander to start my [...]

Excursion to Los Maklenkes nature reserve

Last Monday (21st of November), I participated in a field trip to Los Maklenkes nature reserve on top of the mountain La Judía in the municipality of Floridablanca, close to Bucaramanga. This nature reserve is managed by the peasants living around the reserve and, amongst others, sponsored by the Dutch state lottery. The field trip was [...]

On the trail of regional learning in rural Colombia

Over the last two and a half years, we have been investigating arrangements to support regional learning in various rural areas across Europe (EU-project DERREG). This intense period of field work and data analysis has given me a first idea of just how complex this subject is, how diverse supportive arrangements can be, and how [...]

Is facilitating citizen initiatives a food strategy?

One can be quite busy at the moment just going to interesting food strategy events. After all, it is harvesting time. Hence, we have the Week of Taste with activities all over the country and the Capital of Taste which is Groningen this year and the Food4You festival in Wageningen and.. probably many more events that I [...]

Rural regional learning in the Comarca de Verín, Galicia, Spain

Within the European research project DERREG, we are investigating how public policy can best be arranged to stimulate capacity building within development initiatives operating at grassroots level in rural areas across the European Union. To find out how public policy interventions can best be arranged, we and our research partners have spoken to various stakeholders [...]

Afstudeerscriptie Alternative Food Geography Amersfoort

Waar komt ons voedsel eigenlijk vandaan? Steeds meer consumenten stellen die vraag en gaan op zoek naar alternatieven wanneer zij niet tevreden zijn met de gangbare antwoorden. Steeds meer steden zijn ook bezig met dit vraagstuk. Het besef dringt door dat veel autokilometers te maken hebben met supermarkt bezoek, dat ons eetpatroon te maken heeft met hoe we ons verhouden tot voedsel, dat eten en koken het wijkwerk ondersteunt, dat stadslandbouw meer dan één publieke functie kan vervullen. Vaak ontbreekt veel kennis over hoe de stad zich tot haar dagelijkse maaltijd verhoudt. Zo ook in Amersfoort. Een succesvolle brainstormbijeenkomst op 17 juni jl (zie eerder blog) door enkele initiatiefnemers (o.a. Transition Town [...]

Integrated-regional food paradigm

In the current second year Bsc course ‘Agrarische en rurale ontwikkeling; sociologische perspectieven’, students have to make assignments in groups connected to documentaries which subsequently provide input for discussion tutorials. During the first week we worked with the concept of ’paradigm’ and compared current competing agro-food paradigms. The agro-industrial paradigm (see e.g. Ploeg 2010) and the [...]