MASTER PROGRAMME IN
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Guide to selecting a research topic, conducting fieldwork and
writing a thesis
2013-2014 – 1st Semester
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Contents
1.
LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES .................................................................................................... 3
2.
LIST OF SUPERVISORS AND THEIR TOPICS.......................................................................... 3
3. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 6
4. CHOOSING YOUR RESEARCH SUBJECT AND SITE ................................................................... 7
4.1 THE PROCEDURE TO FOLLOW IN MAKING AND REGISTERING YOUR CHOICE ................................................... 7
5. WRITING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL ......................................................................................... 9
5.1 PRELIMINARY PROPOSAL (DUE 21 MAY – SUBMIT TO YOUR SUPERVISOR) ......................................................... 9
5.2 FINAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL – (DUE BEFORE DEPARTURE) ............................................................................... 10
5.3 FROM PROPOSAL TO DEPARTURE.............................................................................................................................. 11
Thesis contract ................................................................................................................................................................... 11
6. FIELDWORK AND WRITING UP THE THESIS........................................................................... 13
6.1 WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A SUPERVISOR? ..................................................................................................... 13
6.2 PRACTICAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIELD ............................................................................................................ 13
6.3 IN THE FIELD ................................................................................................................................................................ 14
6.4 ADDITIONAL TIPS ON DATA COLLECTION/FIELD NOTES .................................................................................... 15
6.5 WRITING UP THE THESIS ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Thesis Seminar .................................................................................................................................................................. 16
6.6 PRIMARY DATA VERIFICATION PRINCIPLES............................................................................................................. 18
6.7 HANDING IN THE THESIS ........................................................................................................................................... 18
7. FIELDWORK POSITIONS OFFERED 2013-2014 1ST SEMESTER ................................................. 19
NATURAL RESOURCES & WELLBEING GROUP............................................................................................................. 20
EDUCATION AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH GROUP & YOUTH STUDIES ............................ 31
URBAN POVERTY & GOVERNANCE – INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH GROUP ............................ 40
PROJECTS OFFERED BY INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISORS ...................................................................................................... 45
FIELDWORK PREFERENCE FORM .................................... ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
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1. List of important dates
Fieldwork information meeting
(location tba)
Registration form of fieldworkreferences (see appendix)
Preliminary proposal
24 September 2013, 11.00-12.00
Final research proposal presentation
14 January 2014
Return from the field (ultimately)
6 April 2014
First Thesis Seminar
Week 7-11 April
Deadline for thesis hand in
24 June 2014
Deadline for retake
16 August 2014
4 October 2013
11 December 2013
2. List of supervisors and their topics
Natural Resources & Wellbeing Group
Maarten Bavinck
[email protected]
Livelihoods and competing
Yves van Leynseele [email protected]
claims in specific environments
Mirjam A.F. [email protected]
Tonen
Joyeeta Gupta in
collaboration with
Water governance
UNESCO-IHE
[email protected]
Institute for Water
Education
Joyeeta Gupta
[email protected]
Climate change
Yves van Leynseele [email protected]
Mirjam A.F. [email protected]
Tonen
The economics of wellbeing and
Nicky Pouw
[email protected]
the environment
Education and International Development Research Group & Youth studies
Education, Conflict and
Mieke Lopes
[email protected]
Securitization of Development
Cardozo
Aid
Margriet Poppema
[email protected]
Education and Sexual and
Reproductive Health and Rights
Educational Reforms and the
consequences for Social Justice
& Cultural Pluralism
Hulya KosarAltinyelken
Jacobijn Olthoff
Graciela Paillet
Mieke Lopes
Cardozo
Graciela Paillet
Margriet Poppema
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Privatization and marketization
Xavier Bonal
[email protected]
of education in the Latin
Jacobijn Olthoff
[email protected]
American context
Urban Poverty & Governance – International Development Research Group
CHANCE2SUSTAIN – City
growth and the sustainability
Isa Baud
[email protected]
challenge in growing economies
(India, Peru, South Africa, Brazil)
[email protected]
Isa Baud
Themes related to urbanization,
[email protected]
Michiel Baud
urban poverty and social
[email protected]
Christien Klaufus
movements, and local
[email protected]
Kees Koonings
governance
[email protected]
Karin Pfeffer
Hebe Verrest
[email protected]
Projects offered by individual supervisors
Subjects on Latin America
Michiel Baud
[email protected]
Contemporary globalization
Niels Beerepoot
[email protected]
(Philippines, India)
Social, spatial and development
issues and phenomena in
Bart Lambregts
[email protected]
Thailand and in Bangkok in
particular.
Two projects: 1) Leadership
training for development (Libre
Jacobijn Olthoff
[email protected]
Foundation); 2) Dutch
Consortium for Rehabilitation
2011-2015
Children & youth, child rights
Jacobijn Olthoff
[email protected]
Caribbean Urban governance,
Hebe Verrest
[email protected]
planning; issues of spatial justice
Climate change and the SME
Hebe Verrest
[email protected]
sector
Security privatization, urban
inequalities, governance beyond
Rivke Jaffe
[email protected]
the state, popular culture in
urban social movements
Theorizing Children's Rights in
Olga Nieuwenhuys
[email protected]
International Development
The multiple faces of education
policy; the effects of neoYves van Leynseele Contact via [email protected]
liberalization in Chile
Barbara
Political governance and
Hogenboom
[email protected]
environment in Latin America
Political ecology ; biodiesel
program and territorial
governance in Brazil
Fábio de Castro
[email protected]
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3. Introduction
From the fishing industry in coastal India to neighbourhood improvement projects in Peru, from
gender roles in Bangkok to urban governance in Paramaribo: In the year 2014 dozens of master
students will swarm out all over the globe in order to empirically investigate particular aspects of
International Development.
The process of formulating a research question, conducting fieldwork and writing up the
results in a thesis is always experienced as one of the most edifying – if intensive – periods within
one’s academic career. There is the academic craftsmanship that goes into formulating a research
question that is not only based on the existing literature but also in line with your particular interest,
and reworking that research question into a concrete plan of work. There is the host of practical skills
that goes into finding an exact research location, establishing contact with local organizations,
preparing – in a myriad of ways – for travel, finding a place to stay and more generally one’s feet in a
different country and getting to work there. There is the stamina needed to put up with the inevitable
tension between questions drawn up in the Netherlands and the recalcitrant reality of real respondents
and actual situations. There are the social skills needed to approach people and establish contact with
them in countries very different from your own, and to deal with the loneliness and the feelings of
alienation that are so inextricably part of the ‘fieldwork blues’. There is the feeling of euphoria that can
occur when you are sitting in on a meeting of a grassroots organisation, in a local bar (or karaoke), a
respondents family home, or in an ILO boardroom and people apparently have started to trust you
enough to let you into their lives. And, finally, there is the hard scientific labour that goes into
reworking and analysing those encounters, interviews, thoughts, and experiences into a readable thesis
that answers those questions that you posed yourself.
The second semester of your masters’ course – in short - will be one of great heights and –
sometimes - deep lows. It will also be a period that marks the transition between studying and working
as a professional in the field of International Development. The scientific, analytical and practical skills
that you acquire during the year will, hopefully, form essential baggage for your further career,
whether its emphasis is more on the practical side or the more theoretical aspects of international
development cooperation. It is for this reason that it is so important to choose your research topic
and location with care: it has to be an issue that not only inspires you, from the reading up to the
fieldwork to the actual writing, but that can also form a first step towards a future career.
This guide forms an introduction to the process of selecting a research topic and a supervisor,
writing a research proposal, conducting the fieldwork and writing up a thesis. It introduces the
projects that you can sign up for this year and the people who can supervise these projects. It contains
the form on which you indicate your research preferences and that you have to hand in October 4,
2013 ( [email protected] ). There is a separate general GSSS guide in which you can find all
rules and proceedings related to your MA-thesis. Read together, these guides will introduce you to the
various steps to take in order to make sure that at the end of your studies you do not only have a host
of memories to last a lifetime, but that you are also the author of an interesting, thoroughly researched
and well-written contribution to the field of the International Development Studies. Please, therefore,
read it carefully, and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
 Niels Beerepoot,fieldwork coordinator IDS ([email protected]))
 Jacobijn Olthoff, programme director IDS ([email protected])
 Anika Altaf, study advisor IDS ([email protected])
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4. Choosing your research subject and site
With the choices you make in your MA-programme you profile yourself for you future career.
In this profile you can take your fieldwork and MA-thesis as an important 'ticket to the job
market'.
By choosing the elective that fits your field of interest, and combining this with your
fieldwork and thesis you can build up this profile. Especially if you link up with an ongoing
research project or pick a theme that is currently debated in academic circles, your fieldwork
is also your entrance to a professional network.
In this fieldwork-guide we offer you a wide variety of countries and themes that you
can choose from. All these themes are directly linked to currently debated topics in the field
of development studies. By choosing one of these topics you thus choose a topical theme in
our domain.
Yet: profiling yourself in a given field is not the only factor at stake in choosing your
fieldwork site and topic. Although you have to start with the most important question (what
do I want and why?) there are a number of other questions you have to consider. Just to
name a few:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do I prefer to work independently, or do I prefer to team up with somebody?
o We strongly encourage students to go to the field in pairs or small groups. In every fieldwork
you will encounter problems and you will have to face disappointments or stress. Then it is
very nice that you can share your ‘fieldwork-blues’ with a colleague. Whatever dear local
friends you have made in the field, you will often have to bridge cultural barriers, which
weigh heavier in times of stress and disillusion.
Do I prefer to entirely design my own research, or do I prefer to work within the
framework of a larger project?
o There are a limited number of positions available on certain themes that do allow you to
develop your own research project within a given theme. However, this takes more time,
requires more independent work, and makes it more unlikely that you will finish in time.
Do I prefer to work in a rural or an urban setting?
When am I supposed to leave, and is that a timing that suits local circumstances?
o Be aware of local holidays and off-seasons (Christmas and the Holy Week are famous for
laming research projects) and climate (too hot or too cold to be able to carry out your
fieldwork). If you want to do a research on for instance education think about the
consequences of the local school-holidays. Does the time I plan for my research coincide with
the availability of my envisaged supervisor?
Do I speak the (local) language? If not: am I prepared to work with a translator, and if
so, do I have any idea how much that costs? Can I afford that?
Can I afford the costs of living in my country of choice (there are some countries
where the costs of living are almost as high as in the Netherlands).
4.1 The procedure to follow in making and registering your choice
Step 1: Study the fieldwork projects
Go through the list of fieldwork-opportunities offered (see below), and select one that
interests you. If you feel you need some more information to make your choice, please
contact the contact-person that is indicated in each project (during the fieldwork information
meeting, by dropping by or send an email to request an appointment).
Step 2: Fieldwork information meeting
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More detailed information on fieldwork positions will be provided in a meeting with the
thesis supervisors (24th September 2013, 11.00-12.00). In this meeting you will get a chance
to talk to the available thesis supervisors and learn more about the research projects offered
in the field-work guide.
Step 3: Preference form
You hand in your registration form of fieldwork-preferences (see appendix) at the latest on
October 4 2013 to the fieldwork coordinator, Niels Beerepoot, by email:
[email protected] or hard copy. If you have made specific arrangements with a
supervisor that is not on the list, please indicate so under ‘Remarks’. If you agreed with one
of your colleagues that you want to opt for fieldwork position together, please indicate so
under remarks on the form as well. We will let you know a.s.a.p. (during the second or third
week of March) whether we can grant your priority. In the case the supervisor of your choice
is not available Niels will contact you to discuss possible solutions.
Please note: if your form is not with your fieldwork coordinator on the mentioned date, we as coordinators do
not have the information we need to match your interests with the available positions. It thus will be far less
likely that you can undertake the fieldwork of your choice.
Step 4: Planning
Once you know where you will go and who your supervisor will be, contact him or her for a
first meeting to specify the theme, and decide with your supervisor on a rough planning.
Step 5: Research proposal workshops and thesis groups
For the research proposal workshops (part of the course “Research Methods and Techniques
for doing Fieldwork in Developing Countries” thesis groups will be made on the basis of
regional or thematic interests, or by supervisor. You will discuss your research proposal
within this group, have contact with your thesis group once you are in the field, and work in
these groups alongside the thesis seminar sessions to discuss each other’s work once you are
back in the Netherlands.
Step 6: Start fieldwork preparations
In your fieldwork preparations you have to combine practical, theoretical, and settling-in
preparations.
•
•
•
Practical include: arranging your visa, vaccinations & advice on which medicine to
take (e.g. handy to have one set of broad-spectrum antibiotics just in case),
housing/accommodation, airplane ticket, travel insurance and preparation of a budget
for yourself that covers these items. Remember: The earlier you book your ticket, the
cheaper it most often will be, but bear in mind the possibility of having to revise your
proposal. You need the approval of your supervisor in order to book your ticket.
Theoretical knowledge includes: increasing your knowledge of the theme of your
choice, reading what is known about the topic of your choice in the country of your
choice, and gathering general information about the country/region of your choice.
Settling-in knowledge includes: finding at least one reliable contact person, who you
can talk to upon arrival, who can direct you to other people and contacts and provide
you with basic support while getting settled at the beginning. Especially in the initial
phase, before becoming friends with the neighbors so to speak, find out where the
closest hospital and/or pharmacy is located and what the local emergency numbers
are.
Don’t hesitate to ask your supervisor or coordinator whether he/she knows students who
have completed their fieldwork in the country of your choice that can be contacted.
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Do not forget to ask your supervisor whether you will need any specific paperwork to be dealt with to be able to
undertake research in the country of your choice. Some countries require research visa, acquiring them might
take up to 3-4 months!
Step 7: Local supervisor
Ask your supervisor about the available local supervisor (the supervisor in the field). Your
local supervisor is specifically there to help you during your fieldwork. Some supervisors
might prefer to be engaged in your research planning from the very beginning, and thus
would like to see early drafts of your proposal. Other local supervisors will concentrate more
on your work once you are in the field. Ask your first supervisor about the wishes of your
local supervisor, and ask what would be the appropriate moment to contact him/her. In
order to explain the role of the local supervisor ‘in the field’ to your local supervisor you can
download the ‘letter local supervisor’ at www.student.uva.nl/mids, A-Z, Local Supervisors
Fee.
5. Writing the Research Proposal
Writing the research proposal is one of the major preparations you will have to undertake in
order to be able to sign your thesis-contract, receive our permission to leave to the field and
to receive your fieldwork subsidy. Developing your research proposal is one of the major
aspects of the Research Methodology course.
!!!!! WRITING A GOOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL REQUIRES A MINIMUM OF 4
WEEKS FULL-TIME WORK!!!!!
TAKE THIS INTO ACCOUNT WHEN YOU PLAN THE TIME TOWARDS
YOUR DEPARTURE TO THE FIELD,
START EARLY COORDINATIONS WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR ON HIS/HER
HOLIDAY OR TRIPS, SO THAT THIS DOES NOT CATCH YOU BY SURPRISE.
Don’t underestimate the amount of work that comes with writing such a proposal. We will
start to work on it in November in the Research Methods and Techniques course (RMT
course). Proposal writing is a reflective process. You start thinking, exploring, narrowing
down your theme, discussing it with your supervisor etc. When we start our intensive
workshops by early December you have to be 100% sure about your theme, have a general
idea of the outline of your theoretical framework, and have general information about the
specific local circumstances and the group you are going to research.
In the first block of the course we will discuss the outline and characteristics of a research
proposal, to enable students working in advance to start working on the proposal. Regularly
contact your supervisor on the course your proposal is taking, and ask him/her for advice on
relevant literature, theoretical framework etc. During the RMT course you will receive
sufficient input to be able to develop a preliminary proposal.
5.1 Preliminary Proposal (due 11 December – submit to your supervisor)
A preliminary proposal should include:
1.
First outline of a theoretical framework
2.
Preliminary Research questions
3.
Optional: Conceptual scheme
4.
Research location and unit of analysis
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5.
Time-planning and budget
You should start the intensive 2nd part of the RMT course with a preliminary proposal
approved by your supervisor. This means that at the latest on December 11, 2013 you
should hand in your preliminary proposal to your supervisor. Only after the approval of your
supervisor you can book your ticket/finalize your ticket reservation.
NEVER BOOK A TICKET WITHOUT PERMISSION OF YOUR SUPERVISOR!
Discussing the preliminary proposal with your supervisor is also a good moment to express to
your supervisor what you expect in terms of supervision. What are your ambitions? Do you
want to prepare yourself for a future academic career, or for professional work? It is also
important to know what kind of supervision you hope for. Do you prefer to work
independently, or do you prefer regular short contact? Do you need strict deadlines, or do
you prefer process- monitoring? Don’t forget you are expected to finish your thesis by June
24, 2014 (see below under ‘handing in the thesis’). This means there may not be time to dive
into all the theories you want, or to rewrite your thesis a dozen times. It also means you need
a very careful and strict planning; discuss this with your supervisor. He or she will indicate
whether your ambitions are realistic, or not.
5.2 Final Research Proposal – (Due before departure)
Your months December and the first part of January are reserved for developing your
research proposal. If you use this time efficiently you will have the bulk of work for your first
thesis-chapter (the theoretical chapter) done when you go on fieldwork. This tremendously
speeds up your thesis writing. This period is supported by three sessions directed towards
developing your proposal step by step (theoretical chapter & research questions;
operationalisation; unit of analysis and fieldwork methodologies). During and between
sessions you will meet with your thesis-group to discuss each-others work and progress.
Simultaneously you will receive input from your thesis-supervisor.
On 14th January 2014 we will have the final research proposal presentation. During the final
presentation you will comment on each-others work. This is the last time you will receive
detailed comments on your proposal in class. In the same period you will present your final
research proposal to your thesis-supervisor, and receive comments from him/her.
The final Research Proposal should include:
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Framework
3. Research Question and Sub questions
4. Conceptual scheme
5. Operationalization of major concepts (variables, dimensions and indicators)
6. Short description of research location
7. Unit of analysis
8. Research Methodologies
9. Data-analysis
10. Outline of the thesis-chapters
11. Planning and Budget
12. Literature list
The final order of these elements is different in each research proposal. Generally speaking,
there are three major criteria on the basis of which we judge your proposal
• Is it relevant?
• Is it coherent (theory-research questions-operationalization and methodology)?
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•
Is it feasible?
The maximum word count for the research proposal is 7500 words (excluding references).
5.3 From proposal to departure
After receiving comments at the final research-proposal seminar, and from your thesis
supervisor, there are two possible outcomes:
1.
Your supervisor considers your research proposal good enough to start your
fieldwork. If this is the case, you can sign the thesis form and contract (administered by the
registrar of the GSSS), and start your fieldwork. Also your first supervisor and your academic
advisor have to sign your thesis-form and contract. The completed form should be handed in
to the registrar (see addresses-section).
Please note that you have to have completed all your coursework (including resits and rewrites if applicable)
before leaving ‘for the field’. If you still have other outstanding obligations, please discuss these with your
academic advisor.
2.
Your supervisor considers your research proposal insufficient, but we are aware that
you have booked your ticket. You will have to present a rewritten research proposal. Worstcase scenario is that you will have to send a re-written proposal from the field. Be aware that
as long as we do not have approved your research proposal, you will not receive the
fieldwork-subsidy, and you are not allowed to start the fieldwork. Make sure that you leave
the thesis form and contract adequately filled in and signed at the registrar’s office. Your first
supervisor and your academic advisor can send their approval once they approve your
proposal.
3.
Your supervisor considers your research proposal insufficient, and you have not
booked your ticket yet. You will have to present a rewritten research proposal and define a
planning together with your supervisor. In case your fieldwork is delayed more than two
weeks, you need to contact the Exam Committee to ask for acceptance of your new planning.
Decades of student guidance in fieldwork preparations have taught us that based on a good research proposal
you can do a good fieldwork and write a good thesis. A bad research proposal leads to an unstructured
fieldwork and tremendous problems during thesis writing. That is why we put so much emphasis on a good
research proposal (in the RMT course, several examples of good proposals will be shared with you).
Please note : A research proposal is not a blue-print! You will always have to adapt it in the
field. Don’t panic about that. But a good research proposal will allow you to make informed
choices on what you have to change, and how to adapt to the reality of the field.
Thesis contract
(see annex for the contract)
Before you leave for the field you will draw up a thesis contract with your supervisor. The
thesis agreement form can be obtained from www.student.uva.nl/mids or the GSSSinformation desk. In the thesis agreement is laid down:
•
•
•
•
•
Whether your research proposal is already approved, or whether you still need to
submit an improved version, and if so when.
The contact details of your local supervisor (if applicable)
Your health insurance policy number
The period you will be in the field
The final date of your thesis submission
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•
What will happen if you do not hand in your thesis in time.
If your fieldwork takes place outside the Netherlands you are eligible for a GSSS fieldwork
subsidy. If you have a local supervisor, there is a local supervision fee available of €300,-. For
more information on both fieldwork grants and local supervision fee, please check:
www.student.uva.nl/mids, A-Z
You can hand in the signed thesis agreement form at the GSSS Information Desk or you can
send it via [email protected]. The application for the GSSS fieldwork subsidy can be
submitted online. You will have to advance the local supervisor’s fee. After return from the
field you can hand in the local supervisor fee form, the reimbursement form and a copy of
your passport at the GSSS Information Desk in order to receive a reimbursement of the local
supervision fee of € 300. Please check the above mentioned website carefully on the
procedures.
Please note that by signing this contract you agree to finish your thesis, before June
25, 2013. If you go beyond this date, you will need to ask for an extension with the IDS
Examination Committee. Please be aware that passing the set deadlines could have
repercussions in terms of supervision.
Left picture by Carolien Vis, IDS student 2011, studying training for women entrepeneurs in Kigali, Rwanda.
Right picture by Karen Smith, a 2012 IDS student looking into Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in education in
Kenya.
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6. Fieldwork and writing up the thesis
Your planning for the next phase of your work looks like this:
• Mid-January: leaving for the field.
• Mid-January – Early April: At fieldwork location. You can consult with your local
supervisor, and if necessary contact your thesis supervisor for feedback.
• Early April – June 24: Return from the field, thesis writing and working in the
thesis-groups. Four (compulsory) thesis seminar sessions will be scheduled during this
period. In these sessions you meet with your fellow students to share your research
experiences and get guidance on translating your findings into a thesis.
Make a detailed time-planning with your supervisor for the writing and finalizing of your
thesis when you arrive back from the field.
6.1 What can you expect from a supervisor?
It is important to know that your supervisor has a maximum of 35 hours available for
supervision of your thesis. These 35 hours include his/her time for supporting you in the
proposal writing, reading your chapters, the final version of your thesis and attending and
commenting upon the final presentation/discussion of your thesis. This means that he/she
has only a limited number of sessions with you. Typically, this amounts to two sessions
before leaving for the field, four sessions to discuss chapters (normally two together) and the
final draft, and the final presentation. Of course, this can differ subject to your needs and
your supervisor’s availability. Make sure that you stipulate the mutual expectations in the
thesis contract. Given the time constraints, it is important to make the best use of these hours
you can.
In this time available you can expect that your supervisor:
• Gives indications how to improve your proposal/chapters, helps to narrow down
your topic, indicates relevant literature and comments on the outline of your
surveys/interview-guides. It is also the role of the supervisor to indicate whether your
proposal is feasible (given the amount of time and money available) and relevant. A
supervisor has the right to turn a preliminary proposal down because it is either too
ambitious, or irrelevant, or both.
• Your supervisor is there to discuss problems and dilemma’s you encounter, either in
the field or while writing.
• Your chapters do not need to be perfect before you hand them in, supervisors are
there to improve the quality of your work. Yet: their time is limited and precious, so
make sure that you present something that is worth to discuss, preferably already
indicating where you feel you need specific help. It is also worthwhile to specifically
indicate the topics you would like to discuss during the meetings.
• Agree with your supervisor when he/she needs to receive your work (research
proposal, chapters etc.) sufficiently in advance to be able to read them.
6.2 Practical preparations for the field
Travelling, as you know, takes a lot of practical preparation. It is imperative to start these
preparations as soon as possible. Start surfing around for air tickets as soon as you have
decided where you want to go: prices differ vastly and it is well worth starting research on this
issue as soon as possible and comparing offers. Draw up a budget in which you reserve
money for travel, vaccinations, visa, housing and travel. Read all that you can find about the
practical conditions in the country that you are traveling to, take language lessons if at all
viable and try to contact as many people as possible with work experience in the country
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concerned. In addition, try to establish as many contacts as possible before departing. Local
supervisors are often more than prepared to help you out with the practicalities of finding
initial accommodation, fetching you from the airport etcetera. You might need vaccinations
and there might be specific visa requirements for the country you want to visit: do not leave
finding out about these to the last minute! Also think about a good travel insurance.
6.3 In the field
A successful field research is all about establishing the right contacts, and about working
towards the final product by asking feedback on your work.
• Contacts with the local supervisor: Start making contact with your local supervisor while
you are still in the Netherlands. As said, there is a fee of € 300,- available for local
research supervision. You can schedule appointments with your local supervisor to
discuss research dilemmas but also send him/her draft research memos and chapters.
Do not, more generally, be shy in asking advice from local experts, whether within
universities, in NGO’s or in the government. People are often happy to share their
experiences with an interested outsider. Make sure, however, that you thank people
properly and that you discuss if and how they would like to receive research results
(depending on the context and topic, you might consider to produce a short research
report for distribution to respondents after finalizing the thesis).
• Contacts with the local population: The more you reach out, the more you learn. The most
interesting research findings are often not done in a formal research setting but while
hanging around waiting for the bus, attending a wedding or a church session or
sipping tea with some locals. Try to allow space for such encounters, even if there is
always a certain temptation to ‘hide behind one’s project’ in a period in which so
much is new. It is through going out and immersing oneself as much as possible in
local life – whether this is about hanging out at an NGO expat-party or attending a
birthday party – that fieldwork becomes a fully gratifying and edifying experience.
• Contacts with your UvA supervisor and the wider (academic) community: In these days, email
allows one to communicate easily with the rest of the world. If you have access to
email: use it! Send your supervisor drafts of what you are doing and ask advice in
uncertain situations: now is still the time in which you can change direction, while it is
impossible to do so once you are back in the Netherlands. You can also send
questions and drafts to other experts in your scientific fields; researchers are more
often than not happy to communicate with someone ‘in the field’. You can also
consider setting up a web page with information on your projects, both for your peers
and for interested friends and family (in this case, do think about the privacy-aspects
of the work you are publishing on the worldwide web). If you feel your topic is
relevant to a wider audience, you can also consider publishing a more journalistic
article in the faculty newsletter, the Folia, a magazine on International Development
Cooperation or a local or Dutch newspaper. All these forms of ‘reaching out’ often
generate the type of feedback needed for your project. Just as, of course, letting
respondents read first drafts of interview reports.
• Contacts with your fellow students: Try to maintain contact with your fellow students,
especially the ones in your thesis group. Previous groups set up Facebook
communities for exchanging experiences, and we very much encourage you to do the
same. You are, by now, familiar with each-others projects and you can offer one
another invaluable advice.
• Working towards a final product: ‘Begin with the end in mind’, as the saying goes. Keep in
mind that you will have to hand in a final thesis by November 25, 2013. The best way
to prepare for this is to start writing up parts of your thesis while you are in the field.
Ideally, you have a thesis outline in which you already write up drafts of the answers
to (parts of) your research questions. This does not only save you a great deal of work
once you are back in the Netherlands; it also allows you to see what type of
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information is still missing while you are in the field, instead of when you are back
behind your desk in the Netherlands. This also means that you have to reserve quite a
lot of time for writing while in the field. If not starting to write your thesis, you need
to at least digitize/type up hand-written notes and recordings every day. All in all,
count on at least 4-5 hours of typing (transcribing, journal writing, first analysis,
writing/reflecting) a day. While this might feel as wasted time out in Peru, Kenya or
South Africa, your time (and that of your respondents) is even more wasted if you are
out collecting material that you won’t be able to use afterwards!!
6.4 Additional tips on data collection/field notes
 If you cannot voice-record, make sure to take thorough notes, either during the
conversation/observation/interview, including about the setting & situation. If note
taking interrupts the conversation too much, take brief notes of keywords that help
you remember the conversation and write it up immediately after the
interview/conversation more elaborately in a quiet place (before you forget the
details!).
 Make use of visual media, including photography and video, if you are permitted to
do so. Also, “record” yourself as researcher in the field. This provides illustrations for
methodology and introduction section of your thesis when you describe your role in
the field and methodological process and constraints.
 At the same time, be aware of media technology’s influences on people responses and
behavior when you interpret/analyze recorded material.
 If you find the time, keep a personal diary. Besides helping you to reflect on your
encounters with a new place and coping with it, it puts into perspective your own role
and its influences on interpretations in the long-run.
 Don’t forget to take notes of observations, remarks and responses that are not
directly related to your survey instrument or interview guide. They often offer
interesting additional, new, or unexpected insights.
 The final point may be counter-intuitive, but be careful not to collect “too much
empirical material” to avoid drowning in information during analysis/writing stage
and losing focus after returning from the field, and also not waste people’s time.
Some tips from Sebastian Reck, a 2009-2010 IDS student who looked into fair trade
certification of Costa Rican pineapple producers:
−
−
−
−
try to stay open minded: Things will not work out the way you planned them and research questions/ foci might
need to be adapted depending on the local circumstances
talk to as many people as possible, even those who are not directly related to the issue you are researching. The
chance is good they know someone and they are probably willing to introduce you
Do not forget your voice recorder
try to start organizing your data at an early stage. This might allow you to identify knowledge gaps (out of which
you can formulate interview questions)
15
Some tips from Jenny Sawyer, a 2011-2012 IDS student who studied gender equality in the
Bolivian education system:
−
−
−
−
I think the best piece of advice I could give anyone going on fieldwork is - don't panic! It may take longer than you
anticipated to get going in the beginning but you'll get there in the end.
Take the time in your first few weeks whilst you set things in motion to observe your new surroundings, get a taste
for local life and try to see how things work. Take a step back to understand it all before diving in at the deep end
carrying out interviews.
Talk to as many people as possible - you never know who may be able to help you or even if one small thing a taxi
driver or shop keeper says may become the turning point for your research.
Last of all, enjoy yourself! Make the most of the experience and the opportunities which come your way.
Some tips from Loes Bijleveld, a 2011-2012 IDS student who focused on into non-formal
education in the broader Stellenbosch area, South Africa:
−
Visit events, meeting, conferences and locations that do not always seem to be directly related to your research.
Through these visits you might get in contact with interesting people and get additional valuable information that
might help with contextualize your data.
− People that are hard to reach, busy all the time and who are not that interested in your research might still be very
interesting to you! Start early with approaching experts and policymakers to give yourself the time to contact them.
− Introduce yourself and your research to groups the way you want to. Make sure it happens, and make sure - if
possible - to do it yourself.
- Find a good place to sit quietly to analyse your data and start transcribing. Don't wait with transcribing interviews
until you get home!
6.5 Writing up the thesis
And there you are, back in the Netherlands. With a computer, or notebooks, full of
interesting interviews, research observations and hopefully draft chapters. How to rework all
these experiences to a thesis? One important aspect is to continue communicating, both with
your supervisor and with your fellow students. You will meet with your thesis group at least
once a month to discuss progress and comment on each-others writings.
Thesis Seminar
Students of IDS complete their thesis after they have returned from their fieldwork. Usually
they are well prepared for the field and collect their data based on a solid research proposal.
Most students return from the field with enough time and data to complete their thesis in due
time. Experience however learns that the thesis-writing process easily takes more time than is
available. Part of the delay is due to not knowing how to start and get going and how to make
an argument out of a pile of data and experiences. This is where the Thesis Seminar comes in.
The goal of the Thesis Seminar is to enable students to speed up the thesis-writing. This goal
is accomplished by providing advice and information on various stages of the thesis writing to
students, practical assignments and the exchange of experiences and information between
peers.
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Practically, the Thesis Seminar consists of four sessions, and a final presentation day;
alongside these sessions, students will meet in their buddy groups and work on thesis related
assignments. In September 2013, a detailed course manual for the thesis Seminar will be
available.
Note: The Thesis Seminar does not replace the supervisor-student relationship. It supports
the process of analysis and writing concerning technique and form. The interactions with the
supervisor will remain of key importance concerning the content of the thesis. You will not
hand in your draft chapters to the thesis seminar, but to your supervisor. You will discuss
these chapters with her/him (and not with the lecturer of the thesis seminar). The first thesis
seminar session is scheduled to take place in the week of 9 September. Exact date and time
will be announced.
For the details of how to write up the thesis we refer you to the GSSS manual, available here:
http://www.student.uva.nl/mids/thesis.cfm. Also, we strongly recommend you to read one
of the many good guides available on this topic. Some often-used Dutch titles are M.
Aalbersberg Het afstudeerproject; U. Eco Het schrijven van een scriptie; H. Oost Hoe schrijf ik een
betere scriptie.
A few central points, however, are worth mentioning here:
• Length: the thesis should be composed of between 20.000 and 25.000 words, which
amounts to about 60 pages with a line spacing of 1.5. If your work is longer than this,
there is a real chance of it being turned down.
• The importance of planning. Be aware of the time constraints involved. While it is hard to
offer a blueprint, a typical thesis consists of about six chapters: an introduction, a theoretical
chapter, an introduction to the research setting, two chapters with empirical findings and a
conclusion. If you have two and a half months to write up your thesis, this means that you
have two weeks to write up each chapter, and about a day per subsection. Planning from this
angle helps you to avoid spending too long on each chapter, or gathering a host of material
that you will not be able to use anyway
•
The importance of working neatly: from day 1 of your project, try to establish clear
procedures on archiving your work. If you have a draft chapter lay-out before you leave to
the field, this can help you in organizing your findings. Be neat in copying quotations, add
the page numbers, and write down the full references of everything you need. The use of
Endnote, or another library program, can save you an enormous amount of work in editing
your library, and also the frustration of knowing that ‘there is this great quote but where,
where did I leave it…’. Endnote, and other computer programs, also allow you to ‘label’
information designated for a certain chapter. Working neatly also means trying to avoid
spelling errors from the beginning.
•
The importance of establishing procedures for yourself: now is the time to find out what way of
writing works best for you. Many people benefit from writing in the morning, and reading up
and checking references in the afternoon. Others seem to thrive at night. Try to design a daily
routine that is molded on your personal strong points. The thesis guides referred to also go
into the practicalities of the writing process, and reading them can save you a lot of time and
lead to a much more enjoyable period.
•
The importance of tidy references: the thesis guides referred to provide you with
information on how to present references. Now that ‘research by Google’ is on the rise, it is
imperative to underline the importance of tidy referencing also – especially – when it comes
to electronic references. All theses handed in are checked in Ephorus
(http://www.ephorus.nl) and plagiarism leads to heavy sanctions.
•
The importance of relaxation: writing up a thesis is hard, and often solitary work. It is
important not to become completely enmeshed by it, but to take time to relax and re17
energize. We advise you to keep one day a week free from working on the thesis, and to pick
up sporting or another form of relaxation.
6.6 Primary data verification principles
•
•
•
All students should make a numbered list of all respondents included in the research,
indicate what method was used (interview, focus group, survey, etc.) and include their key
characteristics (name, age, sex, location), as well as the date of interview/participation.
This list should be handed to the thesis supervisor upon return from fieldwork.
When citing perspectives of respondents, a reference should be made in the text (or in a
footnote) at least indicating the interview-number, and in agreement with the supervisor
other aspects might be included (interviewed by…, date, affiliation, or other specific
characteristics important for the analysis). The number should correspond to the number
of the above mentioned list.
The complete dataset, either in the form of interview transcripts or summaries thereof, or
in the form of an Excel/SPSS/STAT/GIS datasheet, should be submitted for verification
to the thesis supervisor during the thesis writing process.
6.7 Handing in the thesis
Upon the deadline you hand in a digital copy of the final version of your thesis to the
registrar’s office (e-mail: [email protected]) and two hard copies to your supervisors (one
to the first and one to the second). For more information on handing-in deadlines for the
final thesis, please check: http://student.uva.nl/mids/a-z/g.cfm. You also hand in your thesis
electronically to blackboard, for the check in Ephorus.
At this point, a date is set for the final evaluation which consists of a thesis-defense. The
thesis defense takes 1 hour, and enables you to present your findings orally to your first and
second supervisor. The second reader will discuss a number of questions and observations
with you. Since your first supervisor has been intensely involved in the process, his/her role
in the thesis defense is more limited.
The second reader will typically be selected in conjunction with you supervisor, and only
reads the final draft in order to provide a second opinion in the grading process. There are
instances, however, in which a second reader can play a larger role: if you have worked on a
topic on which there is little expertise available in the Department, for instance, or when your
local supervisor is the co-reader. In such a case the second supervisor will have read drafts as
well.
The deadline for submitting your thesis is June 24, 2014. In the two weeks thereafter, the
defense will be planned. The deadline for the retake is August 16, 2014. Exact requirements
with respect to the retake eligibility will be communicated to you upon return from the field
(in the Thesis Writing Manual and in the Thesis Seminar). As mentioned above, if you go
beyond this date, you will need to ask for an extension with the IDS Examination Committee.
Please be aware that passing the set deadlines could have repercussions in terms of
supervision.
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7. Fieldwork positions offered 2013-2014 1st semester
For practical reasons, the research positions offered are grouped per supervisor. You will find
a brief description of the project, and of the supervisor. In selecting a topic, you can follow
either your thematic interest or regional preference. Some supervisors are willing to supervise
a great variety of projects within a certain region or field, while others offer very strictly
defined positions. Many projects are explicitly designed for two students, but even when this
is not the case you can sign up as a pair, and we will try to accommodate this. Read this
section carefully, and then indicate your 1st, 2nd and 3rd preference in the form in the Annex
(deadline October 4, 2013).
In order to obtain further information on the research projects of IDS staff members you can
take a look at the website of the Geographies of Inclusive Development group (GID-group, see
http://www.aissr.uva.nl/gid) or the Geographies of Globalisation group (GOG-group, see
http://www.aissr.uva.nl/gog) of the AISSR (Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research
– see http://aissr.uva.nl/). The GID group consists of three thematic sub-groups, including:



Governance of natural resources and well-being
Urban governance and resilient development
Governance of human development (education, knowledge, rights and social justice –
see also http://educationanddevelopment.wordpress.com/)
Almost all staff-members in the IDS-programme are connected to the GID group and
website, where you can find their CVs/websites explaining their research focus. Students are
expected to develop their research project in line with the current (or past) research work of
staff-members and the work of the theme-groups. During the weeks before the fieldwork
information meeting you can already contact the individual staff-members and ask them
about their research work.
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Natural Resources & Wellbeing Group
In the Natural Resources and Wellbeing group, research is being carried out on multi-level and multiactor governance with respect to (i) livelihoods and competing claims over resource use in specific
environments (tropical forests, coastal areas and vulnerable rural areas), (ii) water governance (local to
global water issues, ecosystem services, access to water and sanitation services, equitable sharing of
water resources, dealing with water pollution and water resource management), (iii) climate change,
and (iv) people’s priorities regarding material, socio-relational and subjective well-being within a
poverty and marginalised context. This group critically examines multiple claims to resources and
space and associated conflicts, the principles for inclusive governance, options for conflict mitigation,
peace building, and enhancing resilience and various types of ‘development partnerships’ (including
value chains and co-management arrangements) that connect global and local drivers of change
impacting people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. Theory development is connected with practical
implications for development and wellbeing, linking up with debates about nature conservation,
climate change and the tensions between humans and nature, as mediated by socially constructed ingroup/out-group differences (the politics of difference).
The fieldwork opportunities offered by the group centre around the four themes mentioned above
and are grouped under the following mentioned headings, with multilevel and multi-actor governance
and environment-development relationships as cross-cutting themes.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Livelihoods and coping with conflicts over natural resources
Water governance
Climate change
The economics of wellbeing and the environment
Understanding the relationship between environment and development (both wellbeing and
growth) at multiple levels of governance and involving multiple actors.
Supervisors:
Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta, [email protected]
Dr Maarten Bavinck, [email protected]
Dr Mirjam A.F. Ros-Tonen, [email protected]
Dr Nicky Pouw, [email protected]
Ir Yves van Leynseele, [email protected]
In addition, there may be supervisors from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft.
I. Livelihoods and competing claims in specific environments
1. Title: Destructive fishing methods in Sierra Leone
Supervisor: Maarten Bavinck
Location: Sierra Leone
Description:
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Its large rural fishing population is suffering not
only from the impacts of the recently concluded civil war, but also from the industrial fishing
operations carried out by fleets from China and the European Union. The Environmental Justice
Foundation is now commencing an investigation “into the relative impacts of bottom-trawling and
forms of artisanal fishing methods in Sierra Leone to support a campaign to end destructive fishing
methods in the country’s coastal waters. The research will fund an international fisheries scientist and
a Sierra Leonean fisheries scientist to undertake field activities over a year, working with fishing
communities to document the impacts of different fishing methods.” The project also includes the
filming of the investigation building on EJF’s existing video-training programme in Sierra Leone,
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enabling local activists to document environmental issues and communicate them to decision-makers,
stakeholders and the broader public.
EJF would like to involve one or two Master-students in this study, which fits in the environmental
track of IDS. More information on this project will be available soon.
2. Title: Sea tenure in India
Supervisor: Maarten Bavinck, Johny Stephens
Location: East coast, India
Description:
The coastal regions of India are rapidly being transformed through the development of industry,
coastal tourism, aquaculture, urbanization, and environmental conservation. These processes are
having a major impact on the traditional fishing population of the coast, whose professional
opportunities are declining through competing claims on coastal resources and space. This project
focuses on the major fishing castes in India, which are known to have their own law and management
systems (frequently called systems of sea tenure). The aim is to document these sea tenure systems
and investigate the way in which the people involved have been impacted by and react to the new
claims that are being made on coastal lands and waters. These studies will help to strengthen the
position of these fisher peoples in the very unequal struggles that are taking place, and tie into the
activities of the National Fisher Forum (NFF) and local organizations such as Fishmarc. This year we
will be focusing on the east coast, including the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal.
3. Reincluding the excluded – participatory governance for overcoming fishing conflicts and
moving toward sustainability
Supervisors: Maarten Bavinck, Joeri Scholtens, Johny Stephens
Locations: South Africa, South Asia (India/Sri Lanka)
Description:
These possibilities for fieldwork fit into the large NWO-funded project ‘Reincluding the excluded :
Providing space for small-scale fishers in the sustainable development of fisheries of South Africa and
South Asia’ ( www.reincorpfish.info). This project is concerned with the field of environmental
justice and with the possibilities of improving the position of weaker parties (South Africa: black and
coloured fishers; South Asia: small-scale fishers) in long-time environmental conflicts. This implies
collaborating with fisher organizations and NGOs, but also with government departments and
agencies in an interesting, and sometimes also frustrating, process of multi-level governance. A
number of master students have participated in this project in past years, and new opportunities will
be emerging in the period until 2016. For example, Nicky Pouw is now offering positions in a SouthAsian sub-project of REINCORPFISH on wellbeing (see …). Students who are interested in the
general themes of REINCORPFISH are invited to contact the supervisors for other possibilities.
4. Institutional robustness of small-scale fisher organizations in southern and eastern Europe
Supervisor: Maarten Bavinck
Locations: Greece, Romania, Bulgaria
Description:
The Canadian-funded ‘Too Big To Ignore’ project is concerned with reinforcing the position of smallscale fishers in the world (see www.toobigtoignore.net), and the University of Amsterdam is acting as
one of two European coordinators. Small-scale fishing is still a very important enterprise particularly
in southern Europe (notably Greece) and the countries adjoining the Black Sea (Rumania/Bulgaria),
which can be considered part of the Global South. The people involved in small-scale fishing there,
however, are undergoing multiple pressures, including a variety of policies developed by the European
Union (such as the new Common Fisheries Policy). TBTI would be interested in recruiting Master
students to develop our knowledge of the small-scale fishing sector in these countries (which is very
scant!), and particularly to understand the structure and role of institutions (organizations) in their
governance. This information will help the pan-European effort, conducted together with the
21
International Collective for the Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), to defend and improve the position of
this vulnerable group.
5) The sociology of Climate Change: Public Policy, regional trajectories and social representations of
climate change in Southern Chile (2 positions)
Supervisors: Yves van Leynseele (UvA) / Dr. Gustavo Blanco Wells and Dr. Jilles van Gastel (Austral
University, Chile)
Location: Southern Chile
This project researches the gradual construction of a public agenda on Climate Change in Chile as well
as the heterogeneous social responses arising from regional and local context. We aspire to understand
how Climate Change, constructed by international agents as a global phenomenon, is territorialized in
distant and different geographical areas, such as southern Chile, by different regional social groups:
scientist, regional authorities, local organizations and citizens through initiatives, practices and
symbolic expressions representing their visions of development, interest and valorization of the
environment.
To achieve this goal we are building a number of case studies in the regions of Los Ríos and
Los Lagos which explicitly link the relationship between development and Climate Change. The case
studies include five socio-technical fields: i) forest and biodiversity conservation; ii) competing claims
around water resources; iii) energy production and consumption; iv) agriculture and rural livelihoods,
and; v) environmental education and the formation of environmental citizenship. The case studies will
be constructed through qualitative social research methods.
General research questions:
1. What has been the social process by which climate change, a techno-scientific object raised to
the category of planetary problem, is territorialized in peripheral regions such as southern
Chile?
2. How social actors represent regional climate change in different areas of regional activity?
3. What are the relationships and effects of this new public agenda on development policies in
southern Chile and how they affect the lives of its inhabitants?
4. What is the role of social sciences in the process of construction of the phenomenon at
regional and local level?
The research ought to deepen the understanding of climate change as a social process, not only in
terms of an effect of human activity but also as the associative forms that organize responses and
actions to change production and consumption practices threatening life support systems. In other
words, climate change is the most recent and comprehensive developmental policy aiming to induce
social and technological change at a global scale. However, this study does not aim to reproduce topdown perspectives of other development interventions. Instead, a fundamental assumption of this
research is that social science can play a major role if we treat public policy as a social object, that is,
making visible how grassroots social groups engage in the public debate, and act collectively to
transform their environmental practices in different areas of social life.
The student(s) will be part of an international, multidisciplinary research team of Master-students. We
expect that the student(s) are able to construct a case study in one of the five fields mentioned above.
Basic command of Spanish is required.
6. Reforestation and private conservation networks in Southern Chile (1 position)
Supervisors: Yves van Leynseele (UvA) / Dr. Gustavo Blanco Wells and Dr. Jilles van Gastel (Austral
University, Chile)
Location: Valdivia Province, Chile
This project investigates the recent shift from state-led to private-led forest conservation (Private
Protected Areas or Áreas Privadas Protegidas), which is taking place across the Region of Los Ríos
and Los Lagos in Chile. Conservation networks are currently being formed between conservationoriented NGOs and landowners of various types - from peasants to big landholders - who make part
of their land available for forest conservation and reforestation. In these so-called public-private
partnerships, landowners may perform two roles. Firstly, they do the actual management of
22
conservation on their lands – typically indicating a shift in land use from grazing to conservation.
Secondly, they enter into these co-management structures as decision-makers who discuss the
conservation strategy and how the wider landscape of conservation shoud take shape. These actions
together imply the making of a new, politicised conservation space in which farmers’ knowledge ofand experiences with the natural environment encounter expertly-defined solutions regarding ‘good
conservation practice’ and desirable land-based acitivities.
Possible research themes include: i) the legal frameworks / institutional arrangements that are being
adopted for enabling conservation on private land, ii) how the memberships of these networks is
organised (what are boundaries to participation?); iii) how involved landowners have adjusted their
land use and livelihood strategies to conservation objectives and iv) how farmers’ knowledge is
produced and codified in the context of the joint management of the private conservation areas.
For studying the new partnerships, it is suggested that a case study be done of SIRAP (see:
http://www.sirapchile.cl/noticia.php?id_noticia=108#.UNBm0uRfGtY).
Basic command of Spanish is required.
2. Livelihoods and coping with conflicts over natural resources
1. Investigating livelihood trajectories and the potential of corporate-smallholder partnerships for
increasing food sovereignty in tree crop systems in Ghana and South Africa (4 positions)
Supervisors: Dr. Mirjam Ros-Tonen 1 and ir. Yves van Leynseele (UvA)
Locations: Ghana and South Africa
Smallholders – categories of small-scale family farms producing for both market and subsistence
(Cousins, 2011) – are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to global economic crises, environmental
degradation, and land and water grabbing. This threatens their food security and the natural
environment (Rosset, 2011). Policies focus on smallholder market integration and value chain
development (MOFA, 2012; Spierenburg et al., 2012; Greenberg, 2013), but research indicates
declining dietary diversity and biodiversity with increasing market-oriented production (Ecker et al.,
2012) and the risk of adverse inclusion in value chains (Laven, 2010). National policies stimulate chain
integration and corporate-smallholder partnerships (CSPs) (MOFA, 2012; NPC, 2011) to enhance
productivity, capacity building and service delivery (Spierenburg et al., 2012). Questions arise about
the potential of CSPs to contribute to greater food security. Evidence from South Africa suggests
CSPs to be exclusionary, not generating the expected benefits or leading to new forms of exploitation
(Spierenburg et al., 2012) or generating ambiguous results at best (Davis, 2013; Greenberg, 2013). In
Ghana however, innovative CSPs involving smallholders have been identified, notably in the cocoa
chain (Twin & Fairtrade Foundation, 2012). Corporate-smallholder partnerships may result in
innovation platforms for mutual learning and knowledge exchange (Nederhof & Pyburn, 2012)
through which private actors increasingly invest ‘beyond the commodity chain’ to enhance more
sustainable, food secure and resilient smallholder farming systems for improved chain supply. This
contradictory evidence requires a critical assessment of the terms of engagement in existent
partnerships and the paradigms informing value chain innovations.
This research seeks a better understanding of smallholder livelihood trajectories and of the conditions
needed to make value chains, partnerships and innovation platforms more inclusive (i.e. better attuned
to smallholders’ trajectories and creative adaptations through which they try to increase control over
their inputs and strengthen their natural resource base). The knowledge acquired about tree crop
systems and platforms will be used to develop insights into inclusive institutional arrangements in
corporate-smallholder relations and endogenous processes of resilience-building by smallholders.
Possible research questions are:
1. How do the different livelihood trajectories affect tree crop systems and their capacity to
contribute to food sovereignty and increased resilience?
1
Due to sabbatical leave not available for thesis supervision from April-October 2014.
23
2. How do smallholders engaged in tree-crop production respond to changing conditions of
market integration and new possibilities presented by corporate-smallholder partnerships?
3. What are the trade-offs or points of convergence between terms of engagement in value
chains and innovative strategies of smallholder producers in order to enhance their food
sovereignty?
4. How are the terms of engagement in corporate-smallholder partnerships and innovation
platforms negotiated and how are principles of inclusive commodity chains translated into
these partnerships?
Thesis students will conduct their research in Ghana or South Africa in collaboration with local
partners, They are expected to develop their research proposals in cooperation with fellow thesis
students.
3. Water governance
1.
Sustainable development goals and the water sector (4 positions)
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta and someone from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water
Education
Location: Two LDCs (one water rich, and one water poor), two emerging economies (one water rich,
and one water poor)
Description: At the global level, there are ongoing discussions on adopting sustainable development
goals and on adopting post-2015 development goals; as yet it is unclear whether there will be one
integrated output or two different outputs. What is clear is that there will definitely be
goals/targets/indices/indicators in relation to water.
The purpose of this research project is to develop a bottom-up approach to identifying countryspecific goals/targets/indices and indicators with respect to water and how these can be implemented
and measured at multiple levels of governance. The theoretical framework will focus on goal-setting as
an instrument of governance and the conditions under which such goals work.
The method will include a literature review on the water related millennium development goals
(MDGs) and their country specific implementation, and will develop in-depth case studies in specific
countries to identify their interests and ideas with respect to adopting goals, targets, indices and
indicators and the challenges in implementing these. This approach will go beyond existing water
discussions which focus only on fresh water, but will also look at ground water and ocean water
systems, and will try to use a bottom-up approach to understanding what is needed and the conditions
under which it is achievable.
These theses will jointly form a project that aims to publish a joint paper that contributes to the
ongoing political process of adopting goals/targets/ indices and indicators on sustainable
development goals. Depending on the timing and quality of the theses, it may also contribute to the
ongoing Post-2015 project of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Earth System Governance
Tokyo Research Centre and UNU-IAS; and the existing work of the Global Water System Project
based in Bonn.
4. Climate change
(3 projects, 4 positions)
1. Climate change and capacity building (4 positions)
Supervision: Prof. Dr Joyeeta Gupta
Location: Two in LDCs and two in emerging economies
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Description:
Climate change is a serious challenge for all countries. Initially the idea was that developed countries
would reduce their own emissions drastically and in the process need to help developing countries in
addressing climate change (both mitigation and adaptation). One of ways of assisting developing
countries is through ‘capacity building’. However, the ongoing work of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change reveals that there is gap in knowledge regarding the best practices in capacity
building, whether capacity building works or does not work; what is the politics of capacity building;
whether the one-way transfer of capacity is more problematic than useful; the nature of the demand
for capacity building; etc.
Given this research gap, the purpose of this research project is to identify (a) what does the literature
tell us about the theory and implementation of capacity building and the conditions of success for
capacity building; (b) what lessons can be learnt from capacity building in a number of different fields;
and (c) case studies of existing capacity building in the climate change field and analyse their
effectiveness.
The method will combine content analysis of capacity building frameworks, literature review, and case
studies to generate new empirical evidence on the best practices in capacity building. We hope to
generate publishable material from this research project.
5. Wellbeing of Fisher Families affected by the Palk Bay Conflict
Project coordinator: Dr Nicky Pouw
Positions: 2
Affiliated University: Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka
On the Sri Lankan side of the Palk Bay, fishermen from the Northern Province are just recovering
from a protracted civil war. Over the course of 30 years of armed conflict between the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan armed forces, many fishermen were displaced from their
villages and fishing activity was heavily restricted for security reasons. Since 2009, the end of the civil
war, fishermen have gradually begun resettling in the area, restrictions are being lifted, and the sector
has witnessed a slow recovery. It is in the context of this recovery that fishing communities encounter
the much larger Indian vessels that trawl their waters. The incursions of Indian trawlers result in the
destruction of fishing gear and constitute a major hindrance to sustainable livelihoods of Sri Lankan
fisher households. Over 100,000 fisher families of the Northern province are facing a threat to their
livelihood due to the two-decades poaching by Indian fishermen.
As part of an on-going research project in the region, Reincorpfish led by Dr Maarten Bavinck, one
component of the study focusses fisher families wellbeing being affected by this conflict.
The purpose of the wellbeing project is to develop a comparative understanding of the wellbeing of
various fisher categories in the Palk Bay as affected by thrawling. The method that we intend to use is
a series of wellbeing studies in selected sites by applying the human wellbeing methodology (see:
http://www.welldev.org.uk/research/methods-toobox/toolbox-intro.htm). The Master student
project is meant to link to a PhD study currently being started on this theme. As such, the Master
student project should be discussed in close conslutation with this PhD fellow and the project
coordinator. A series 3 joint preparatory meetings will be organized to formulate the research
questions, choose study location and work out the fieldwork methodology. For more information
contact Nicky Pouw: [email protected]
6: Sustainable increase of production and nutritional value along the food chain
(1 projects, 2 positions)
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1. Building Inclusive Food Chains. Strengthening Women’s Role as Food Providers in Urban
Slums in Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Supervision: Dr Nicky Pouw, Agnieszka Kazimierczuk
Location: Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso
Description:
The need for inclusive and healthy food chains is imperative in Sub-Saharan African rapidly growing
cities. The FAO calls for “building greener cities”, to counter the “nutrition transition” – the shift
towards high-calorie, low-nutrient diets. Despite women’s traditional role as food providers, their role
in urban food chains is overlooked. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring women’s role and
potential to build inclusive urban food value chains. Specifically, the research focuses on women’s
knowledge and technologies, capacity, access and mobility, and constraints. Women’s food
provisioning and their connection to other chain actors will be assessed in three comparative casestudies in urban slums in Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso: (i) Women as food producers in urban
slum gardens; (ii) Women as food consumers and providers for the family; (iii) Women as food
processors to service local schools, and communities, explicitly encompassing social as well as
technological aspects.
The University of Amsterdam (UvA) in collaboration with the Royal Tropic Institute (KIT), Centre
for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE) (an NGO registered and working in Kenya), University for
Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana, Centre for Information, Research and Excellence Training
(CIRET) in Burkina Faso and Dutch private sector will assess innovative opportunities and potentials
as well as limitations and constraints faced by women to strengthen their roles as food providers to
the family and others in the wider community, including schools, markets and small enterprises,
fostering more inclusive urban food chains.
The research will build on a recent study conducted by Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Kisumu,
Kenya on “Value chains for nutrition: Improving access to nutritious food of poor urban pregnant
women and lactating mothers and their children in Kisumu, Kenya“. The study looks at food
consumption patterns and existing value-chains and identifies options for gender-sensitive and costeffective strategies to increase access to nutritious food in urban areas, especially by pregnant and
lactating women with children under two. The research will consist of three work packages
corresponding to three different roles of women in the food value chain: (i) women as food producers
in urban slum gardens (focus on increasing and improving production); (ii) women as food processors
to service local schools and community centres, small traders and businesses (focus on reducing
limitations and constraints in processing and marketing); and (iii) women as food consumers and
providers for the family (focus on access and utilization of nutritious food).
This existing dataset can be used as a point of reference to formulate student projects around more
one of the above sub-themes. Possible projects are:
1. Critical understanding of the role of women in urban food chains and the limitations and
constraints they face in enhancing their roles to the nutritional benefit of their family and
wider community:
a) Gather in-depth information on food consumption decisions (including men’s role),
food processing, food storage, and food waste patterns of women: in the everyday
context, while pregnant and when/if their children are at school. Main focus on the
lean season and on the poorest women with relatively large families and/or femaleheaded households;
b) Participatory assessment of women’s financial and physical equipment, and capacity
building needs in relation to urban gardening, livestock keeping, food production,
processing, storage and transport necessary to strengthen their role in groups and
develop synergies between different stakeholders (small retailers, women’s group,
community centres, local schools, local businesses);
2. Increased accessibility to food with maximum nutritional value among urban vulnerable
groups:
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a) Participatory mapping of how food is transported and distributed into homes, local
schools, community centres, and local markets and small businesses;
b) Assessment of current soil and crop quality in urban gardening and of the potential
of using rock dust fertilization to improve yields and quality of home-grown food.
c) Assessment of food losses/damage and best practices for reducing such losses,
improving food production and nutrition quality, and ensuring longer food storage
d) Participatory assessment of links and opportunities for technology and capacity
improvement for women food providers within the existing home grown school
feeding programmes (one in each location) and possibility to scale it up to other
markets;
e) Participatory assessment of links and opportunities for technology and capacity
improvement for the women’s connection to local traders and small business actors
in the urban food chain;
3. Knowledge and capacity building of women groups to strengthen their roles as food
providers in urban spaces:
a) Assess women groups’ critical “success factors”: what is needed to make the group
string and responsible;
b) Assess women groups’ potential, priorities and needs to organize in small
cooperatives and/or establish business linkages that can enhance women’s role in
the socially anchored urban food chain;
c) Identification of key actors in the urban food chain in slum areas for women groups
to liaise with and develop a more sustainable and inclusive urban food chain.
Other questions can be formulated in close consultation with the project coordinators.
This research will take place in three rapidly growing sub-Saharan African cities: Kisumu, Kenya;
Tamale, Ghana; and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Kisumu is located in Western Kenya is the 3rd
largest city of Kenya, with a population of an estimated 440,000 inhabitants of whom 60% live in
slums. Tamale is the fourth biggest city of Ghana with a population of more than 500,000 people. As
the capital of the Northern Region it attracts people from all over the North, considered to be the
poorest part of the country. There is limited information on slums and no special consideration for
slums in the provision of services. The population of Ouagadougou is at present 1.5 million and
accounts for 50 percent of the total urban population of the country. Poverty is very high, particularly
among families centred in so-called “non-divided into plots” areas - areas with no official right of use
Information about the lecturers:
Joyeeta Gupta is professor of environment and development in the global south at
the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of
Amsterdam and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft. She is also a
member of the Amsterdam Global Change Institute. She is editor-in-chief of
International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (IF 1.128) and is on
the editorial board of journals like Carbon and Law Review, International Journal on
Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Policy, Current Opinion in Environmental
Sustainability, Catalan Environmental Law Journal, Review of European Community and
International Environmental Law and the new International Journal of Water Governance.
She was and continues to be lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which
recently shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment which won the Zaved Second Prize. She has published extensively. She is on the scientific
steering committees of many different international programmes including the Global Water Systems
Project and Earth System Governance. She has published several books including Gupta, J. (1997).
The Climate Change Convention and Developing Countries - From Conflict to Consensus?, Environment and
Policy Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht; and Gupta, J. (2001). Our Simmering Planet:
What to do About Global Warming, Zed Publishers, London. Edited books include Faure, M., J. Gupta
27
and A. Nentjes (eds.) (2003),Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol: The Role of Institutions and Instruments to
Control Global Change, Edward Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham Glos; Van Ierland, E., J. Gupta and M.
Kok (eds.) (2003). Issues in International Climate Policy: Theory and Policy, Edward Elgar Publishers,
Cheltenham Glos; Gupta, J. and M. Grubb (eds.) (2000), Climate Change and European Leadership: A
Sustainable Role for Europe, Environment and Policy Series, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht;
Dellapenna, J. and J. Gupta (eds.) (2009). The Evolution of the Law and Politics of Water, Springer Verlag,
Dordrecht; Gupta, J. and N. van de Grijp (eds.) (2010). Mainstreaming Climate Change in Development
Cooperation: Theory, Practice and Implications for the European Union, Cambridge University Press, and
Gupta, J., N.van der Grijp and O. Kuik (eds.) (2013). Climate Change, Forests and REDD: Lessons for
Institutional Design, Routledge.
Maarten Bavinck is Associate professor at the Department of Human Geography,
Planning and International Development Studies and coordinator of the
NWO/WOTRO-funded CoCooN project entitled ‘Re-incorporating the excluded:
providing space for small-scale fishers in the sustainable development of fisheries of
South Africa and South Asia ’ (2010-2015). He is also President of the Commission
on Legal Pluralism of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological
Sciences, and affiliated with the International Association of Legal Sciences and
Director of the biennial MARE People and the Sea Conferences. His key research
interests include fisheries governance, coastal zone development, livelihood/wellbeing studies, legal
pluralism, with a regional interest in South Asia. His PhD thesis (1998) was on Legal pluralism in the
inshore fisheries of the Coromandel Coast, India. Maarten teaches in the Bachelor and Masters,
amongst others in the International Development Studies Lecture Series; Environment, Climate and
Spatial Dynamics; Sustaining the Future and Environment and Development in the Global South. HE
supervises several PhD students.
Selected publications
Bavinck, M., R. Chuenpagdee, S. Jentoft and J. Kooiman (eds) 2013. Governability – theory and applications for
fisheries. MARE Publication Series, Dordrecht: Springer.
Bavinck, M., L. Pellegrini and E. Mostert (eds.) forthcoming 2013. Conflict over natural resources in the
global south – conceptual approaches. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.
Bavinck, M., D.Johnson, O. Amarasinghe, J.Rubinoff, S.Southwold and K.T. Thomson (2013). From
Indifference to Mutual Support – A Comparative Analysis of Legal Pluralism in the
Governing of South Asian Fisheries. European Journal of Development Research Vol. 25, 4, 621–
640
Jentoft, S., M. Bavinck, D.S. Johnson, and K.T. Thomson 2009. Fisheries co-management and legal
pluralism: how an analytical problem becomes an institutional one. Human Organization 68
(1): 27-38.
Bavinck, M. 2008. Collective strategies and windfall catches: fisher responses to tsunami relief efforts
in South India . Transforming Cultures 3 (2) 17 pp.
Kooiman, J. M. Bavinck, R. Chuenpagdee, R. Mahon, R. Pullin 2008. Interactive governance and
governability: an introduction. The Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies 7 (1):
11 pp.
Bavinck, M. and V. Salagrama 2008. Asessing the governability of capture fisheries in the Bay of
Bengal – a conceptual enquiry. The Journal of Transdisciplinary Environmental Studies 7 (1):
13 pp.
Bavinck, M. , L. de Klerk, D. van Dijk, J.V. Rothuizen,A.N.Blok, J.R. Bokhorst, E.K. van Haastrecht,
T.J.C. van de Loo, J.G.J. Quaedvlieg, J. Scholtens 2008. Time-zoning for the safe-guarding of
capture fisheries: a closed season in Tamil Nadu, India . Marine Policy 32: 369-378.
Bavinck, M. and D. Johnson 2008. Handling the legacy of the blue revolution in India – social justice
and small-scale fisheries in a negative growth scenario. American Fisheries Society Symposium 49:
585-599.
28
Mirjam Ros is a human geographer with a PhD in Policy Sciences who is
affiliated to the University of Amsterdam as assistant professor at the
Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development
Studies. As a researcher, she is engaged in research on forest use and governance
in Ghana and Indonesia and supervising several PhD students in this field. Her
specific research interest concerns the interaction between multi-layered forest
governance and local livelihoods. She has published on forest governance and
livelihoods related to timber and non-timber forest products (including
ecotourism), social safeguards needed to compensate livelihood losses resulting from increased law
enforcement associated with global governance initiatives such as REDD+ and the implementation of
legality standards to combat illegal logging, forest conflits and the use of environmental discourses in
securing accees to forest resources. As a lecturer she is responsible for teaching in the ‘Environment
and Sustainable Development’ and ‘Quality of Life’ courses at Bachelor level and the ‘Environment,
Development and Conflicts’ and ‘Governance of the Commons’ Master’s courses, as well as for
supervising MSc research and thesis projects. Her PhD research (1993) was on the timber industry in
Brazilian Amazonia, after which she became programme coordinator for non-timber forest product
research at Tropenbos International (1992-1999) and ran a consultancy firm for science writing and
editing (1999-2005) before she joined the UvA in 2005. In addition to her affiliation with the UvA,
Ros-Tonen was visiting professor at the Postgraduate Programme in Environmental Sciences of the
University of São Paulo (USP-PROCAM) from June-September 2009.
Selected publications:
Quaedvlieg, J., Garcia Roca, M. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (forthcoming). Amazon nut certification a
way towards smallholder empowerment in Peruvian Amazonia? (conditionally accepted for
publication in Journal of Rural Studies).
Wiersum, K.F., Ingram, V.J. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (2013). Governing access to resources and
markets in non-timber forest product chains. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods (in press).
Derkyi, M., Ros-Tonen, M.A.F., Kyereh, B. and Dietz, T. (2013). Fighting over forest: towards a
shared analysis of livelihood conflicts and conflict management in Ghana. Society and
Natural Resources (in press).
Derkyi, M., Ros-Tonen, M.A.F., Kyereh, B. and Dietz, T. (2013). Emerging Forest Regimes and
Livelihoods in the Tano Offin Forest Reserve, Ghana: Implications for Social Safeguards.
Forest Policy and Economics 32: 49-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2013.03.005
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F., Insaidoo, T.F.G. and Acheampong, E. (2013) Promising Start, Bleak Outlook:
The Role of Ghana's Modified Taungya System as a Social Safeguard in Timber Legality
Processes.
Forest
Policy
and
Economics
32:
57–67.
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2012.11.011.
Insaidoo, T.F.G., Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. and Acheampong, E. (2013). On-Farm tree planting in Ghana’s
high forest zone: The need to consider carbon payments. Pp. 437-463 in: R. Muradian and L.
Rival (eds) Governing the provision of ecosystem services. Studies in Ecological Economics 4.
Heidelberg: Springer Publishers.
Arts, B, Bommel, S., Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. and Verschoor, G. (Eds.) (2012) Forest-people interfaces:
Understanding community forestry and bio-cultural diversity. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic
Publishers.
Arts, B., van Bommel, S., Ros-Tonen, M.A.F., Verschoor, G. (2012). Forest-people interfaces: From
local creativity to global concern, Pp. 15-26 in: B. Arts, S. Bommel, M.A.F. Ros-Tonen and G.
Verschoor (Eds.) Forest-people interfaces: Understanding community forestry and bio-cultural diversity.
Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers.
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (2012). Non-timber forest product extraction as a productive bricolage process,
Pp. 29-48 in: B. Arts, S. Bommel, M.A.F. Ros-Tonen and G. Verschoor (Eds.) Forest-people
interfaces: Understanding community forestry and bio-cultural diversity. Wageningen: Wageningen
Academic Publishers.
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. and Kusters, K. (2011). Governance for Non-Timber Forest Products. Pp. 96-114
in: N.R.M. Pouw and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Countries. New
York: Routledge.
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F and Kusters, K. (2011). Pro-poor Governance of Non-Timber Forest Products:
The Need for Secure Tenure, the Rule of Law, Market Access and Partnerships. Pp. 189-207
in: S. Shackleton, C. Shackleton and P. Shanley (eds.) Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global
Context. Tropical Forest Series. Heidelberg: Springer Publishers.
29
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (2010). Changing Prospects for Sustainable Forestry in Brazilian Amazonia:
Exploring New Trends, Pp. 139-153 in P. van Lindert and O. Verkoren (eds.) Decentralized
Development in Latin America. Experiences in Local Governance and Local Development, GeoJournal
Library 97, Dordrecht / Heidelberg: Springer Publishers. DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-37398_10.
Berman Arévalo, E. and Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. (2009) Discourses, Power Negotiations and Indigenous
Political Organization in Forest Partnerships: The Case of Selva de Matavén, Colombia.
Human Ecology 37(6): 733-747.
Ros-Tonen, M.A.F. and Werneck, A.F. (2009). Small-scale Tourism Development in Brazilian
Amazonia: The Creation of a ‘Tourist Bubble’, European Journal of Latin American and Caribbean
Studies 86: 59-79.
Nicky Pouw is assistant professor in the MSc in International Development
Studies. She was trained as a development economist at the University of
Amsterdam (MA) and at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague (PhD) with
an individual NWO-WOTRO fellowship. She completed her PhD on The
Characterization and Monitoring of Poverty. Smallholder farmers in rural Uganda at the VU
Amsterdam University in 2008. She holds over 15 years of teaching experience in
the field of development studies, particularly in courses on household economics,
poverty analysis, research methodologies, development theories, and gender and
development. Nicky has been involved in multiple research projects on poverty assessment, gender
mainstreaming, economic literacy, impact of aid, welfare indicators measurement in various countries
throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, Uganda, Kenyan and Tanzania, and recently in
India. Her current research interests lie in the field of inclusive economic development, economic
theory and modelling, poverty and inequality, gender and economics, household survey analysis and
rural economic development. Currently, she is developing a research line on the theme of 'Inclusive
Economics', in which she proposes an alternative approach to economics in response to the recent
critique to the economics discipline.
Recent publications
Pouw, N.R.M. and A. Thorpe (2013) ‘Fishing Na Everybody Business” : Women's Work and Gender
Relations in the Artisanal Fisheries of Sierra Leone’, Feminist Economics, April (in print).
Pouw, N.R.M. and C. Elbers (2012) ‘Modeling Asset Accumulation among Smallholder
Farmers in Uganda’, 48(9): 1360-1374.
Pouw, N.R.M. and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) (2011) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations New York:
Routledge [in print]
Pouw, N.R.M. ‘When Growth is Empty. Towards more inclusive economics’, The Broker, Issue 25, pp.
4-8.
Pouw, N.R.M. and B. Gilmore (2011) ‘Well-being in Theory and Practice’, in N.R.M. Pouw and I.S.A.
Baud (eds) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations New York: Routledge.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) ‘Asset Accumulation among Smallholder Farmers in Uganda’, in N.R.M. Pouw
and I.S.A. Baud (eds.) Local Governance and Poverty in Developing Nations New York: Routledge.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2011) 'Toward more Inclusive Economics: Some conceptual and methodological
departure points', paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Eastern Economics
Association, 24-27th February 2011, New York.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2010) Book Review of 'Unpacking Globalization: Markets, Gender and Work' by
Linda Lucas (ed.) in Feminist Economics, 16(4): 222-225.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2010) 'Naar een Gender-Bewuste Economische Wetenschap', Tijdschrift voor Gender
Studies, Vol.2(13): pp. 38-53.
Elbers, C. and N.R.M. Pouw (2009) ‘Modelling Sequencing Patterns in Asset Acquisition by Rural
Smallholder Farmers in Uganda’, Annual Conference of the Centre for African Studies, 22-24
March 2009, Oxford University, UK [under review]
Pouw, N.R.M. (2009) ‘Integrating Gender in Economics’, Paper presented at the IAFFE Annual
Conference on Feminist Economics, 26-28 June 2009, Boston, USA.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2009) 'Food Priorities and Poverty. The case of smallholder farmers in rural Uganda',
Journal of African Economies, Vol. 18(1): pp. 113-152, UK: Oxford University Press.
Pouw, N.R.M. (2008) The Characterization and Monitoring of Poverty. The case of rural smallholder farmers in
Uganda, Amsterdam: Thela Thesis, Rozenberg Publishers
30
Yves van Leynseele holds an MSc degree in Development Sociology from
Wageningen University and is finalising his PhD research in competing claims to
land in South Africa and the formation of Community-Public-Private-Partnerships.
His research follows an actor-oriented approach with an emphasis on development
brokers (state and non-state) and Community-Public-Private-partnerships in land
reform and rural transformation. This includes a focus on the privatisation of the
responsibility for development and how particular projects produce a set of
entitlements that challenge efforts to plan and coordinate local projects. Related
research interests include place-based development, livelihood strategies, property arrangements,
commoditification of nature/culture and methodological approaches to studying articulation in
environmental governance.
Publications
Leynseele, Y.B. van (forthcoming) ‘Seeing Like a Land Reform Agency. The Making of Community
Farming at Makhoba’, in P. Hebinck en Cousins, B (eds), Emergent Properties of Rural
development in the Eastern cape Region, South Africa, Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Leynseele, Y.B. van and P. Hebinck (2011) ‘Contested livelihoods at the interface? Ethnographic
explorations of two land restitution cases in rural South Africa´ in P. Hebinck and C.
Shakleton (eds) Reforming Land and Resource Use in South Africa. Impact on Livelihoods,
London: Routledge-Cavendish, pp. 137-161.
Leynseele, Y.B. van (2011) Between Public and Private: new environmental frontiers in South Africa,
paper presented at congress: Nature™ Inc? Questioning the Market Panacea in
Environmental Policy and Conservation, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, the
Netherlands, 30 June – 2 July 2011.
Leynseele, Y.B. van, and P. Hebinck (2009), ‘Through the Prism: Local reworking of land restitution
settlements in South Africa’ in D. Fay and D. James (eds) The Rights and Wrongs of Land
Restitution: 'Restoring What Was Ours’, London: Routledge-Cavendish, pp. 163-184.
Leynseele, Y.B. van (2008) Contesting Ancestral Space Through South Africa´s Land Restitution
Programme, paper presented at the American Association of Anthropologists (AAA), Annual
Meeting, San Francisco, 18-23 November 2008
Becx, GA, and Y.B. van Leynseele (2006), ‘Competing Claims on Natural Resources’ Chapter 4 in N.
Koning (ed) Long-term global availability of food: Continued abundance or new scarcity? A
technical report for the Workshop on Global Food Availability 2030, Wageningen, 26
January 2006.
Research Cluster on Education, Development and Social Justice
The Governance of Education, Development and Social Justice
Cluster consists of an interdisciplinary team of researchers focusing
on issues related to global and local (glocal) governance and
multilevel politics of education and development, with a specific
focus on processes of socio-economic, political and cultural (in)justices. The work on issues related to
education and international development of this research group have developed at the UvA since the
early 1990s and was firmly institutionalised since the initiation of the IS Academie Education and
International Development (EID), since 2005 co-funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
31
the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Since 2012, the IS Academie has entered a second phase of the
project (2012-2015). Since 2012, the two main focus areas of the IS Academie EID are the role of
education in (post-conflict) state reconstruction, peace-building and reform, and education in
relation to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Other fields of interests include the
architecture and delivery of development aid to education, privatization and decentralization of
education, teaching and learning processes, educational reform, multicultural and bilingual education,
gender (in)equalities and children’s rights, rights-based education and youth issues, education and
citizenship regimes, teacher training and the relationship between the state and teachers, the role of
advocacy coalitions and social movements in promoting quality education, education and religion, and
non-formal education.
The team has developed a strong international network with academic and development institutes
over the past decades, and has experience in bridging and connecting these two spheres through its
publication and dissemination strategies. Research undertaken in this group aims to follow critical
theoretical insights, as well as historically informed and empirically-grounded analysis. Group
members have expertise in a range of countries and regions including Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia,
Argentina, Brazil, Chile; Peru, Turkey, Uganda, Sierra Leone, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Students
with an interest in this field are invited to discuss ways to get involved in our on-going research
activities. We can facilitate contacts and research collaborations with a number of international
organisations (see project descriptions below).
For more information visit: http://educationanddevelopment.wordpress.com/ and follow us on
https://www.facebook.com/educationandinternationaldevelopment.
Thesis supervisors in this group:
Hulya Kosar-Altinyelken – [email protected]
Xavier Bonal - [email protected]
Sean Higgings – [email protected]
Mieke Lopes Cardozo - [email protected]
Jacobijn Olthoff - [email protected]
Graciela Paillet – [email protected]
Margriet Poppema - [email protected]
Photo: graduated students sharing their research at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs with students, policy-makers and civil society
organizations, March 2013
Four thematic areas are specified; other relevant & related themes might be considered in
discussion between the supervisor and the student.
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Theme 1) Education, Conflict and Securitization of Development Aid
Researchers: Mieke Lopes Cardozo, Margriet Poppema, Sean Higgins
Potential partner organizations: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNICEF, SPARK
The relationship between education & conflict is becoming an increasingly important theme for
INGO’s, states, bi-lateral aid agencies and academic researchers. Multiscalar perspectives on education
in emergencies and conflict situations open up ways of exploring a range of interlinked factors which
remain absent or underdeveloped in current research and policy formulations in this emerging subfield. Donor agencies make explicit and implicit connections between so-called ‘failed or failing states’,
conflicts overseas, and terrorism and security at home yet the complex links between these scales
remains under-theorised. Aid assistance – including for education – in countries such as Afghanistan
and Pakistan is increasingly shaped by military aims and interventions. Aid agencies are challenged
when their programs bump up against military interventions; equally complex are questions around
the roles of religious groups in filling relief needs, including education, in emergency situations, and
the dangers of politicizing and even militarizing educational aid and educational practice in war-torn
countries.
In contrast, globalization perspectives at the micro-level also encourage a critical examination of the
lives and experiences of students, teachers and other education personnel as they negotiate access to
teaching and learning opportunities in a context in which physical and psychological violence pervade
and ‘being a teacher’ or ‘going to school’ may make them targets for political attacks. Further
exploration is required of the strategies used by teachers and students in such contexts, and of the
possibilities for education to contribute to peacebuilding and stability. Tragic continuums of violence,
from the very personal to the complex political, affect the lives of students and teachers.
Students interested in this field can choose from the themes indicated below, or develop a proposal on
a related theme. We stimulate you to consider a cooperation with international organizations, and we
can facilitate contacts with (amongst others) the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Edukans/EDUCAIDS, War Child, SPARK and UNICEF as this will help to develop both policy
relevant and academically grounded research projects.
Policy relevant questions that could be studied in coordination with the Ministry or other related
organisations include, among others:
• What multiscalar actors and mechanisms are involved in current developments in the field of
education and conflict, what are the main perceptions and strategies in the area and how
various multilevel-processes of conflict both influence and are influenced by education?
• In contexts of fragility, what is the role of the state in educational partnerships with the private
sector? How is the role of the state changing in terms of education regulation, provision,
ownership and financing? What are the capacities and limitations of fragile-states to undertake
these activities by themselves?
• What is the role and impact of civic and democratic education - or the idea of citizenship
education - in processes of peacebuilding, state reconstruction and conflict mitigation?
• What are the achievements and main obstacles to education that supports peace-building
processes?
• And, in what way do these educational policies and reform choices contribute to conflict
transformation and what should be taken into account for future agendas?
Indonesia Project
The politics of educating and teachers’ agency for peacebuilding and social justice in
Indonesia
Project coordinator and lead researchers: Dr Mieke Lopes Cardozo (IS Academie, UvA) & Dr Ritesh
Shah (University of Auckland)
Open to a range of team members: UvA Ma and ResMa students, University of Auckland Masters
(Arts or Education) students, Indonesian (ICAIOS) researcher(s), PhD candidate(s), project assistant
UvA, translator(s). Start of project: December 2012.
Project website: http://educationanddevelopment.wordpress.com/research-projects/peacebuilding-socialjustice-and-education-in-aceh-indonesia/
See also: http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/news/template/news_item.jsp?cid=549095
33
Education in Indonesia, similar to many other fragile and/or conflict-affected states, remains a source
of political struggle and social tension that is triggered by unequal education opportunities and the
consequent grievances it produces. The province saw nearly 30 years of separatist struggle from
Indonesia that led to the deaths of thousands of citizens and the destruction of a significant amount
of infrastructure which was then exacerbated by the tsunami in 2004. After the tsunami, assistance
flowed into the region to restore infrastructure and in 2005 a peace accord was signed by the separatist
movement and the Indonesian Government. Since then, the region has focused on reconstructing the
state and reforming the education sector with significant changes in educational governance, school
curriculum, pedagogy and teacher management. Significant attention has also been given to the
Islamic school system that serves a sizable portion of the province’s children. The growing inequalities
that the education system is producing is a source of concern for both the national government and
the donor community working alongside it, who see it as a threat to the nation’s stability and
economic development. While there has been a lot of money and government/donor attention given
to Aceh in recent years, it is unclear how much of this has acknowledged the historical legacy of 30
years of conflict in Acehnese society. This research aims to demonstrate how a conflict-sensitive
approach to educational programming is both necessary and needed in Aceh.
The overarching aim of this research project is to look more critically into the broader relationships
between the multiscalar ‘politics of education’, teachers’ agency and rationales for action, and
processes of social justice and peacebuilding, within the context of conflict-affected regions of
Indonesia. As part of this main research focus of the larger project, several smaller and thematic subquestions and studies are developed, which can be taken up by (research) master students and
potential other researchers in Indonesia.
Thematic sub-studies Indonesia:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
decentralised education reform system in Indonesia
the parallel education system (religious and secular schools) and the consequences it
produces in terms of equity and opportunities for schooling
the role of the state in educational partnerships with the private sector, religious
leadership and NGOs (Public Private Partnerships – PPPs)
the role of religious (and civic) education in relation to peace-building, social justice and
dealing with diversity
teachers support systems, teacher education programmes, teachers’ perceptions and
practices (different school types)
teachers’ strategies and responses for/against peace building, social justice and
teaching/learning reform agendas
rationales, reasons and mechanisms of support to education that are promoted by the
international community in conflict-affected regions of Indonesia
More detailed information or the requirements and opportunities for interested students can be
further discussed with Mieke.
Theme 2) Education and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Researchers: Hulya Kosar Altinyelken, Jacobijn Olthoff, Sean Higgins, Graciela Paillet
Potential partner organizations: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Educaids, GCE NL
Since the Cairo conference on Population and Development, SRHR has been high on the
international agenda, and several steps forward have been made. However, there are still huge
differences between and within countries and social groups when it comes to access to healthcare and
many people, including many youth, are still not able to have their sexual and reproductive health
rights fulfilled. The topic of SRHR, is now (again) one of the focus topics in Dutch Development
Cooperation. The relationship between education and SRHR is internationally acknowledged;
schooling is seen as a key instrument to tackle epidemics such as HIV and AIDS, while on the other
hand education systems are heavily affected by such epidemics. Education on SRHR has a strong
34
linkage with themes like promotion of health, gender equality and child rights and participation. For
this research theme, we offer various possible projects, which can be further discussed with the
supervisors mentioned above.
Project 1 Education & SRHR: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
SRHR is now one of the key priorities in Dutch development policy. We offer students (preferably
those following one of the elective courses on Education and International Development) the
possibility to engage with policy makers to formulate both policy relevant and academically rigorous
thesis projects. Through the broad network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we could jointly look
for partner organisations and embassies that could support students in their fieldwork. Potential
research questions could for instance include:
• What are the main agendas, debates and strategies of actors in the field of education in
relation to SRHR, both from an education perspective and from a (sexual and reproductive)
health perspective?
• In what ways can SRHR be integrated into existing or new education programmes (at multiple
scales and types of education)?
• What happens when SRHR education is up-scaled? (from small scale/ local to more large
scale and mainstreamed)?
• How does sexual education in schools take place (and with which effects), taking into account
that the two main actors in the process (pupils and teachers) may differ so greatly (e.g.
generational difference, differing ideas about what ‘good’ values are, different approaches to
the circulation of information about sexual health, different needs)?
• What are the challenges faced in SRHS education in different countries, and how can these be
understood better? What are, for example, the challenges of SRHR education in Islamic
contexts, or in contexts of conflict? What are the complexities, and how these complexities
can be dealt with?
• How are SRHR (education) policies developed at higher ministerial levels translated in the
daily practice of (SRHR) education in schools?
• To what extend and how do issues related to SRHR hamper education of girls in developing
countries? What are the challenges? There can be various themes that relate to this topic, e.g.
early marriage, sexual maturation of girls, sexual abuse at school, schools being highly sexually
charged in many SSA countries and so on.
• Taking into account the needs of both children and youth, as well as teachers, what types of
SRHR education strategies are relevant and comprehensive and what is the influence of such
strategies on sensitive issues like HIV/AIDS, early marriages and pregnancies, female genital
mutilation (FGM), sexuality, homosexuality, etc.)?
• How can gender equality in education and girls’ labour opportunities be enhanced through
SRHR strategies in education? What are the implications of embedding SRHR education
strategies into broader gender equality strategies?
• What is or can be the role of social media in SRHR education?
• What impact can SRHR education strategies have on educational outcomes in terms of
diminishing sexual violence (at school, at the household level and in the wider society) and for
reducing unwanted pregnancy?
Students are invited to explore these or other related questions; please discuss with Jacobijn or Hulya
what the options are.
Jacobijn is also available for supervision on more general youth and children’s rights related themes,
please contact Jacobijn if you have interests in this direction. Later in the fieldwork guide, you will also
find information on two projects for field research for whom Jacobijn Olthoff is the first contact
person, although there is no specific focus on children or youth. These are the projects titled “Dutch
Consortium for Rehabilitation 2011-2015” and “Barraco #55: research on sustainability, gender and
social inclusion (Rio de Janeiro)”.
Project 2 Education & SRHR: Educaids
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The Dutch based organization Educaids is an alliance of Northern and Southern NGO’s that work in
the field of education and SRHR. Educaids aims to provide SRHR education that is relevant, as it is
answering the needs of young people. For that purpose, Educaids supports partner organisations in
Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda, through capacity building, linking & learning activities, research
and advocacy. To make education programmes more relevant and comprehensive (without avoiding
sensitive issues like HIV/AIDS, early marriages and pregnancies, female genital mutilation (FGM),
sexuality, homosexuality, etc.), Educaids partners in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi have performed
research among their respective target groups, in a so-called ‘needs assessment’. This research focused
on needs of children and youth, but also on teachers (in Malawi), identifying the SRHR education that
is provided to them in Teacher Training Colleges.
In both Ethiopia and Uganda, teachers and secondary school students are currently
participating in the curriculum development and design of an ICT-supported comprehensive sexuality
education programme. The curriculum is adapted to the national context of Ethiopia. in Uganda, the
religious background of schools and learners is now more taken in consideration in the
implementation process.
Master students are requested to develop a theoretically grounded and high quality research
proposal that aims for a critical evaluation of the activities of Educaids partners, and to provide
recommendations for future education programmes on SRHR. Research proposals could be based on
the outcomes of partners’ research outcomes in the needs assessment, or focus on the provision and
results of the ongoing comprehensive sexuality education programme in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi or
Uganda.
Proposals can be developed in coordination with Educaids, so as to ensure relevance of the research
topics according to the needs and context of the African partners. Educaids can help to establish
contacts with partners and Universities for local supervision. Please contact Hulya when you have an
interested to develop your research in cooperation with Educaids.
Theme 3) (Global) Educational Reforms and the consequences for Social Justice
Researchers: Margriet Poppema, Xavier Bonal, Graciela Paillet
Potential partner organisation: Education Internationa
l, Global Campaign for Education-NL, Edukans
Educational inequality, cultural misrecognition, and social segregation have led to the unjust
distribution of educational opportunities in the Global South. While access to primary education has
substantially increased, quality of education has diminished and opportunities for secondary and
tertiary education are still limited and often privatised. Segregated educational systems offer more and
better quality education to children from better-off families, while poorer families and communities
with a different cultural, ethnic and linguistic background have less educational opportunities and
receive inferior quality education. This research theme seeks to explore the multiscalar relationship
between education and social justice at a range of levels from the global to the local and vice versa. Of
particular interest is the local impact of global policies and how they are resisted, and what kind of
alternative initiatives are being developed. This could be studied through three strongly interrelated
areas of social justice:
• Educational Equity, in what way do current educational policies guarantee equal educational
opportunities and achievements of the different socio-economic and cultural groups? How do
the new public/private partnerships (PPPs) in education work out and how is social
justice guaranteed?
• Cultural Pluralism and Recognition, in what ways/in how far are historically excluded (gender,
ethnic, cultural, linguistic) groups recognized within the curriculum in order to overcome
domination and misrecognition, and to achieve equal status within society?
• Participation in education; which multiscalar actors and mechanisms influence education
policy making? How are policies recontextualised and resisted? To what extent can civil society
actors, like social movements, teachers unions, student organizations, community-based
organizations influence the decision making and the transformation of the educational system?
How is democratic participation within the schools organized and what role does education play
in creating kind of citizenship education is provided?
Within these three interrelated areas students can make a choice for a research on:
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a) The consequences of (global)education policies for equality and diversity. Which multiscalar actors are involved
in education policy making? What new kind of PPPs arrangements are constructed or in place?
How do educational policies work out for different groups in society? In what way do they
increase or reduce educational opportunities? How are they resisted and counteracted by the
different actors and what has been achieved?
b) What kind of theoretical approaches such as education for social justice, critical multiculturalism and coloniality
thinking, are used by actors (such as social movements) that (try to) reformulate the educational
curricula?
c) What kind of alternative proposals for redressing inequality and the revaluation of misrecognised
cultures and languages have been developed? This includes, for instance, an analysis of the
strengths, limits and complexities of proposals for decolonization and transformation of the
educational system. What is the role of the different actors like indigenous and social movements,
teacher unions and students organizations (e.g. in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile).
d) What role does education play in the creation of democratic citizens? What kind of citizenship education is
provided and for whom? How is democratic participation organized within and beyond the
school context?
e) What are the roles of teachers and/or teacher training, and how is teachers’ agency related to broader reform
processes? Although international debates confirm teachers’ importance in processes of
development, they remain often an undervalued and underpaid group. Reforms tend to demand
more of teachers, while training and support is often lacking behind. Often, the (pre-service and
in-service) training teachers receive is not sufficient in design and quality. We need to develop
research in order to understand why and how certain teacher training policies/practices aim to
bring about critical reflection and extensive professional autonomy, while in other cases teaching
is seen as more procedural, and as a scripted activity that asks teachers to only deliver the
standards of a prescribed curriculum. What are the policy rationales? How do main educational
actors mediate teacher reforms? And how are teachers affected by or do they affect reform
implementation processes?
A project with Edukans
Edukans, a Dutch NGO active in this field – offers UvA (research ) master students to support them
with local contacts in the regions where they run their Basic Education Programmes (Ghana, Malawi,
Kenia and Uganda). Please contact Mieke more information.
Biographies of the group members
Hulya Kosar Altinyelken
Hulya Kosar Altinyelken is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Child Development and
Education; and the Department of International Development Studies, at the University of
Amsterdam. She has educational background in International Relations and International
Development Studies.. She is involved within the IS Academie programme on Education and
International Development and coordinates research activities on the theme of Sexual and
Reproductive Health and Rights. Her past work includes educational challenges and coping
mechanisms of internal migrant girls in Turkey (MA study) and a comparative analysis of pedagogical
reforms at primary level in Uganda and Turkey (PhD). Her work engages with issues such as gender,
sexual and reproductive health and rights, migration, education policy transfer, education reforms,
curriculum change, pedagogy, teachers, and coping and support within the EU context.
Selected recent publications:
•
•
•
Verger, A. & Altinyelken, H.K. & De Koning, M. (Eds) (2013) Global Education Reforms and
Teachers: Emerging Policies, Controversies and lssues. Brussels: Education International.
Verger, A., Novelli. M. & Altinyelken, H.K. (Eds.) (2012) Global Education Policy and
International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies. London: Continuum.
Altinyelken, H.K. (2011). Student-centered pedagogy in Turkey: conceptualizations,
interpretations and practices. Journal of Education Policy, 26(2), 137-160.
37
•
•
Altinyelken, H.K. (2010). Pedagogical renewal in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of
Uganda. Comparative Education, 46(2), 151-171.
Altinyelken, H. K. (2010). Curriculum change in Uganda: Teacher perspectives on the new
Thematic Curriculum. International Journal of Educational Development, 30 (2), 151-161.
Xavier Bonal
Xavier Bonal is Special Professor in Education and International Development at the UvA and
Associate Professor in Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is Director of the
Social Policy Research Group (Seminari d’Anàlisi de Polítiques Socials, SAPS) at the Department of
Sociology of the same institution and a member of the Network of Experts of Social Sciencesand Education
of the European Commission. He has widely published in national and international journals and is
author of several books on sociology of education, education policy and globalisation, education and
development. He has worked as consultant for international organisations like UNESCO, UNICEF
the European Commission, and the Council of Europe. Between 2006 and 2010 he was Deputy
Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in the Office of the Catalan Ombudsman. Dr. Xavier Bonal’s
research lines focus on a variety of topics within the fields of sociology of education and educational
policies. He has extensively investigated on educational and social inequalities in Spain, Europe and
Latin America. During the last years his main research interest has focused on the evaluation of
globalisation processes in several dimensions of educational systems and processes, with special
reference to analysing the role of international organisations. He has widely published about these and
other aspects.
Selected publications
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•
•
•
•
Bonal, X. & Rambla, X. (2009)In the name of globalisation: southern and northern paradigms
of educational development. a Robertson, S. i Dale, R. Globalisation and Europeanisation in
Education. Symposium Books.
http://webs2002.uab.es/_cs_gr_saps/publicacions/bonal/In%20the%20nameofGlobalisatio
n%20_Bonal%20&%20Rambla_.pdf
Bonal, X. i Tarabini, A. (2009)“GlobalSolutions for GlobalPoverty? The WorldBank
Education Policy and the Anti-Poverty Agenda”, a M. Simons, M. Olssen &M. Peters
(eds)Re-reading Education Policies: A Handbook Studying the policy agendaof the 21st
century. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. pp. 96-111.
https://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789087908317PR.pdf
Bonal, X. (2007) “On global absences :reflections on the failings of the education and poverty
relationship”. International Journal of Educational Development, vol. 27 (1), pp. 86-100.
Verger, A. & Bonal, X. (2006) “Against GATS:thesense of a global struggle”. Journal of
Critical Education Policy Studies, vol. 4 (1). ISSN 1740-2743.
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=55
Bonal, X. (2004).-“Is theWorld Bank education policy adequate forfightingpoverty? Some
evidence from Latin America”, InternationalJournal of EducationalDevelopment, vol.24 (6),
pp. 649-666.
http://webs2002.uab.es/_cs_gr_saps/publicacions/bonal/IJED%20World%20Bank.pdf
Sean Higgins
Sean Higgins came to the field of education and international development having worked as a
secondary school teacher for many years in different contexts in England. Partnering a school in
inner-city London with a charity school for war-affected youngsters in Freetown catalyzed his interest
in the transformative potential of education in post-conflict contexts. This led to teacher training,
curriculum development and teaching with several charities and NGOs in Sierra Leone. He recently
wrote the SL country report for UNICEF’s Education and Peacebuilding Programme. He is
particularly interested in the agency of teachers as peacebuilders and in drawing on the frameworks of
cultural political economy to locate and understand them in this complex role.
Mieke Lopes Cardozo
Mieke Lopes Cardozo has a background in International Relations and Conflict Studies at the
University of Utrecht, and completed the MA programme in International Development Studies at the
University of Amsterdam. She worked for UNICEF Netherlands as a developer of educational
38
material and editor at the communication section. She currently works as assistant professor at the
University of Amsterdam, and is coordinator of the Education and Development IS Academie group.
Mieke lectures in both BA and MA courses on Education and International Development in the IDS
programme. Her PhD project dealt with Bolivian teacher training and teachers as agents of
societal/political change toward social justice. Her areas of research are teachers, teacher training,
(alternative) education reforms, education, conflict and security, peace education and
multicultural/intercultural/bilingual education in Bolivia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia (but willing to
supervise students going to different locations). I am happy to supervise students interested in the
above mentioned themes, and particularly if your research interest are connected to our ongoing
research in the field of education, conflict and peacebuilding.
Selected recent publications:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Novelli, M. and Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2008), Conflict, education and the global south:
New critical directions, International Journal of Educational Development, 28 (4), pp. 473-488.
Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2008), Sri Lanka: in peace of in pieces? A Critical Approach to Peace
Education in Sri Lanka, Research in Comparative and International Education, 3 (1), pp. 19-35.
Lopes Cardozo, Mieke T.A. (2009), Teachers in a Bolivian context of conflict: potential actors
for or against change?, special issue on ‘New perspectives: Globalisation, Education and
Violent Conflict’, Globalisation, Societies & Education, 7 (4), pp. 409-432.
GMR background paper: Dutch Aid to Education and Conflict, UNESCO. M.T.A. Lopes
Cardozo and M. Novelli (2011),
Novelli, M. and M.T.A Lopes Cardozo (2012), ‘Globalizing Educational Interventions in
Zones of Conflict: The Role of Dutch Aid to Education and Conflict’, in Verger, A.,
M.Novelli and H. Kosar Altinyelken (eds), Global Education Policy and International
Development: New Agendas, Issues and Policies, London, Continuum.
Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012), Decolonising Bolivian education: Ideology versus reality, in:
T. G. Griffiths and Z. Millei (eds), Logics of Socialist Education: Engaging with Crisis,
Insecurity and Uncertainty. Dordrecht: Springer.
Lopes Cardozo, M.T.A. (2012), ‘Turbulence in Bolivia’s Normales: Teacher education as a
socio-political battle field’, Propects – Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, Online
publication November 2012, journal publication March 2013.
Jacobijn Olthoff
Jacobijn Olthoff has a background in International Development Studies (Radboud University
Nijmegen) and Anthropology (Utrecht University), and extensive work and research experience in the
Global South (e.g. Peru, Chile, India, Philippines and Georgia). Her research interests include children
and youth in urban areas, participation of children and youth, children’s rights and the work of NGOs
related to children and youth in the Global South. Theoretically, her work is linked to interdisciplinary
debates concerning socialisation of adolescents and youth, questions of agency and structure and more
generally debates on childhood and children’s rights. At the moment Jacobijn is directing her research
focus to the topic of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in close relation to
education.
Graciela Paillet
Graciela Paillet, studied Educational Sciences at the Universities of Córdoba (Argentina), Grenoble
(France) and Amsterdam. Between 1990 and 2009, she was senior lecturer at the UvA at the
Departments of Educational Sciences (POW) and Human Geography, Planning and International
Development (GPIO). She has been teaching on "Children, Youth and (International)Development"
and "Education and Development". Currently she is guest-lecturer and supervises M.A. thesis. Her
major interests in the field of education (formal and non formal) and international development, are
the relationship between education and social justice, the quality equity debate, and educational
responses to exclusion, diversity and ‘postcoloniality’.
Margriet Poppema
Margriet Poppema is senior lecturer (part-time) at the Department of Human Geography, Planning
and International Development Studies (GPIO) and specialised in education and international
development studies. With a background in educational sciences, she has along standing experience of
39
teaching on different themes in the field of international development studies. Between 1990-2002 she
was the academic director of International Development Studies of the former Institute for
Development Research Amsterdam (InDRA-UvA). Currently she teaches on “Education and
International Development in Contexts of Diversity“ at MA and BA level, and well as on theoretical
foundations of international development thinking at the BA level. Her current research concerns
neoliberal and counter-neoliberal educational reforms in post-conflict and multicultural societies, the
changing governance of education with a multiscalar perspective to the role of the different actors
within the educational systems. She would preferably supervise themes related to educational reforms
from a social justice perspective focusing on issues like: the changing governance of education and
complex role of different actors/stakeholders (global, national and local, public and private) in
educational reforms; what are the consequences of the changes in governance and management and
how do the new public private partnerships (PPPs) and educational policies play out at the different
levels, and in what way do they contribute/impede social justice and conflict transformation?:
focusing on issues like educational (in)equality, cultural pluralism, , and representation/participation in
education. Other themes can be discussed.
Recent publications:
• Poppema, Margriet F. (2012) School-Based Management in Post-Conflict Central America:
undermining civil society and making the poorest parents pay, in Verger, Antoni, Mario Novelli and
Hülya Kosar Altinyelken (eds), Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues
and Policies, London, Continuum.
• Poppema, M. F. (2009) Guatemala, the Peace Accords and education: a post-conflict struggle for
equal opportunities, cultural recognition and participation in education Globalisation, Societies and
Education, 7(4), 383-408
Urban Poverty & Governance – International Development Research Group
Isa Baud – [email protected]
Hebe Verrest – [email protected]
Michiel Baud – [email protected]
Kees Koonings - [email protected]
Christien Klaufus - [email protected]
Karin Pfeffer – [email protected]
This research group works broadly on issues of urbanization, urban poverty and social movements,
and local governance. The world is currently urbanizing at a fast pace, with urbanization moving to
the global South, where the majority of the mega-cities are situated. This means that issues of urban
growth, cities as motors of economic development and social inequalities among urban citizens, social
movements and issues of identity, as well as environmental concerns are playing out in cities across
the global South to an increasing degree.
Therefore, this group offers positions to students to participate in various research programs in which
the group is working in a variety of countries. Two particular programs are suggested, but alternative
projects in the area of urban concerns are possible. An EU-funded program is examining the
pathways of fast-growing medium-size cities in four countries, focusing particularly on the
combination of economic growth through large projects (e.g. hosting international sports events,
large-scale infrastructural projects), the shifts in social inequalities through projects directed towards
slum areas, the use of local information in urban governance (participatory and GIS-based), and
environmental impacts of climate change and provision of basic services (see description
CHANCE2SUSTAIN below). The project works with local and international research teams in the
40
various countries concerned, providing a strong embedded location for students interested in these
issues.
A second project focuses on the impacts of climate change in the Caribbean, where local governments
are developing an interest in preventing future stresses and disasters from climate change, an area
most immediately threatened by sea level rise and strong storm weather patterns. Work is done
together with the national and regional universities in the region in Surinam, Guyana and Trinidad and
Tobago.
In each of the projects, students will be linked to local university staff members as supervisors, and
the ongoing research being carried out in the research networks indicated above. The range of
countries includes South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Surinam, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and India.
Michiel Baud is dealing with issues of social movements in Latin American countries.
Specific projects
Project 1: CHANCE2SUSTAIN
City growth and the sustainability challenge. Comparing fast growing cities in growing economies –
India, Peru, South Africa, Brazil
International EU-funded research project facilitates student’s fieldwork
Supervision by: Isa Baud, Christina Richter (number of positions to be discussed)
Project:
Since April 2010 the urban GID-team leads an EU-funded comparative research project in 10 cities in
the South, namely in Delhi, Chennai and Kalyan (India), Lima and Arequipa (Peru), Durban and Cape
Town (South Africa) and Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Guarulhos (Brazil). This project is carried out
with 8 research teams, 4 in the countries just mentioned and teams from Norway, France and
Germany (see www.chance2sustain.eu)
This comparative research project fills a gap. There is very little empirical research addressing the
three – sometimes conflicting – goals of sustainable development in an integrative manner. These
goals are:
1.
Economic growth
2.
Social Justice/Inclusive development
3.
Ecological preservation.
Chance2sustain addresses these three dimensions, with workpackages focussing on:
(WP2)Economic dimension: Large scale economic projects and infrastructure investments and their
social and spatial impacts
(WP3)Social dimension: Urban inequality: government policies and/or CSO networks and campaigns
on sub-standard settlements in metropolitan areas
(WP4) Environmental dimension: Environmental risk assessment and inclusive scenario building
with an emphasis on the themes water, energy and expected consequence of climate change
(WP5) Participatory Spatial Knowledge Management – The potential of mapping in livelihood
building, local governance networks and urban planning and management processes (both
participatory GIS and ICT-GIS are included)
The aim of the project is to develop instruments to improve urban governance in Southern cities, with
a special focus on improving participatory spatial knowledge management in cities, and to direct it
more towards more sustainable development (SD) and resilience. Participatory spatial knowledge
management is the main concept used to study this issue, as it reflects a strategic resource, to which all
stakeholders can contribute in urban governance processes. It includes expert knowledge and several
forms of non-expert knowledge, such as sector (practice-based) and social (community-based)
knowledge. The research project is well on its way. Literature reviews and methodology papers have
been developed, fieldwork has been carried out in many localities. There are however a number of
issues we consider insufficiently covered/understood so far. We specifically look for students willing
to work on:
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- Comparative analysis of framing/policy discourse on mega-projects, poverty alleviation and water
governance. Analysis of spatial representation of these discourses
- Poverty, exclusion and social mobilization in various Indian cities
- Participatory and e-governance structures in Indian or Brazilian cities; analyzing how e-governance is
being introduced and utilized in local government
- Poverty mapping in Indian and Brazilian cities (comparing various existing poverty maps, developing
your own, using GIS and ground-truthing in different settlements).
Previous students focused on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
E-governance: how residents used mobile phone systems for feedback to local government
about gaps in service delivery (India)
E-governance: how local governments are introducing spatial systems (mapping) for uptodate
knowledge for urban management
E-governance: how local NGOs are mapping dimensions of cities to make citizens more
knowledgeable about issues concerning their neighborhoods
Economic: Employment effects of the new airport constructed in Durban for the World Cup
2010
Economic: Local Employment effects of the new subway (Salvador, Brazil)
Economic: The role of the informal sector in sustaining livelihoods in Arequipa (Peru)
Urban Inequality: Intergenerational dynamics of collective action among the urban poor (a
case-study in Durban and a case study in Salvador)
Environment: The use of grey water in Arequipa
 Water governance in Arequipa
 Water accessibility from an environmental justice perspective (Durban)
The fieldwork within Chance2sustain have mainly been carried out between February 2012-September
2012, but we are now in the stage of identifying knowledge gaps. Undertaking your fieldwork within
this project thus implies being part of a dynamic international team, and find out what international
and interdisciplinary research actually entails. We will involve you as much as possible in ongoing
discussions. If your work is of high enough quality, it may become part of our project documentation
and be published online.
If you feel attracted by one of these themes, in one of the selected cities, please contact Isa Baud
([email protected]) to discuss the options. We will not be able to attend the fieldwork meeting since
we are in a Chance2sustain workshop. So please contact us by email, so we can consider your interest
during our workshop.
Project 2: UNHIDE: Uncovering Hidden Dynamics of Water Service Provision in Slum
Environments
UNESCO-IHE UvA – VITENS EVIDES INTERNATIONAAL (water supply company)
Number of positions: 3 regular IDS; 2 Research Master Students (start portfolio in November 2013,
fieldwork July 2014)
Supervisors: Klaas Schwartz and Maria Rusca, UNESCO-IHE
Staff members at GID-UvA: Nicky Pouw (gender, economics); Michaela Hordijk (urban informality,
knowledge in water governance, urban water scape)
Local Supervision and local research team: CHANCELLOR COLLEGE, Educational Institute based
in Zomba, Malawi
Urban water provision offers a fascinating lens to explore urban dynamics and the interplay between
economic, social, political, ecological and technological processes. In contrast to cities in the global
North – where water provision is entirely formalized – water provision in cities in the global South is
organized through a myriad of arrangements with varying degrees of formality. Small scale providers
play a very important role in ensuring water provision, especially for the urban poor, and are
increasingly recognized as important actors in the urban waterscape. Water provision in Lilongwe,
Malawi offers a particularly interesting case of state-provider relations. As has been argued the state
42
may selectively formalize, temporarily legitimize or normalize selected informal practices or providers
and these actions then become "one of the many state apparatuses that are mobilized in the governing
of populations". In this interpretation, the state mobilizes ‘informality’ to actively delegitimize
unwanted service modalities and temporarily tolerate ‘acceptable’ ones. In Lilongwe this has taken the
shape of ‘water kiosks’: small state supported communal blocks where water can be bought. Of special
interest is that these ‘kiosks’ are mostly run by women, which implies a specific focus on women as
entrepreneurs in water governance, a hitherto unexplored subject. Urban informal water provision and
the interplay with the wider urban water scape are increasingly studied, but information on Lilongwe
and Malawi is relatively scarce. And while much has been written on the role of the state in shaping
water service configurations, little is known about the role of users and small scale (formal and
informal) water providers in shaping service realities.
In a collaborative research project UNESCO-IHE (Institute for Water Education, Delft) and GIDUvA start a research project in which we hope to answer the following questions:
1. Understanding the co-production of service modalities in the urban waterscape. In particular:
a. How do different actors mobilize informality to transform or maintain the urban
waterscape?
b. How do consumers influence service configurations in the urban waterscape?
c. How do international agencies and donors influence service configurations in the
urban waterscape?
d. What is the relation between providers (state and non state), consumers, and
development agencies?
e. How do gender relations and, in particular, differential opportunities and challenges
shape service provision by female providers?
f. How do information flows at different scales shape decision-making processes and
actors’ strategies?
2. Understanding the interrelation between co-produced service modalities, the particular
biophysical context and the way this relationship is mediated by technological development.
In particular:
a. How is large scale infrastructure (dams, transmission lines, network extension, etc.)
decided upon and financed?
b. How does the construction of large scale infrastructure affect transformation of
urban waterscape?
c. How do changes in water sources affect development of small scale providers?
d. How are water sources mobilized to produce changes in the urban waterscape?
e. How do policymakers secure water resources for the Greater Maputo Area?
Students who opt for this project will form part of the international research team - with students and
staff from UNESCO-IHE, UvA, and Chancellors college - and are supposed to take part in the
regular meetings of the team convened both in Amsterdam and in Delft. UNESCO-IHE students will
already leave for the field in October, and will present their research proposals to the group mid
October. UvA students can choose to which objective they would like to contribute, hence this
project offers the possibility to choose your own focus. An added value of this project is the
collaboration with Vitens Evides Internationaal, the international branch of the Dutch water
companies, who support water provision in Malawi, and have an interest in the research outcomes.
Students wishing to undertake applied research thus also might have an interest in this project. For
more information contact Nicky Pouw ([email protected]) or Michaela Hordijk
([email protected])
Prof. Dr. I.S.A. Baud
Professor Baud holds the International Development Studies chair at the University of Amsterdam,
and teaches “Poverty and Development” and the elective “Resilience in Urban Development” in the
Masters’ curriculum. She is the overall scientific coordinator of the EU-project Chance2sustain, and
leads the work on participatory spatial knowledge networks in the project (with Karin Pfeffer). Her
main interests lie in urban governance networks, issues of urban poverty and inequalities in cities, and
potential impacts of climate change in cities.
43
She heads a WOTRO research program on Spatial information infrastructure and urban governance,
carried out in several Indian cities with the GIS Centre at AMIDSt, the School of Planning and
Architecture in Delhi and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. Isa Baud is Head of the
Board of the national research school CERES and previously one of three vice-presidents of the
European Association of Development Institutes (EADI).
Dr. Karin Pfeffer
Karin Pfeffer is senior researcher at AISSR/GPIDS and is specialized in the development and use of
spatial information infrastructure in urban governance. She is currently working on a research project
on the embeddedness and effectiveness of locally developed spatial information structures in urban
governance networks in Indian cities. As senior lecturer she is involved in all GIS-courses at the
department. In Chance2sustain she will lead the work on participatory spatial knowledge management,
together with Michaela Hordijk.
Some recent relevant publications:
• Hordijk M.A & Baud, I.S.A. (2011) Inclusive Adaptation: Linking Participatory Learning and
knowledge management to urban resilience, in Zimmermann K.O. Resilient Cities, Cities and
Adaptation to Climate Change, Proceedings of the Global Forum 2010, Springer Verlag,
Dordrecht, p. 111-121
• F. Linnekamp, A. Koedam, and I.S.A. Baud (2011) Household vulnerability to climate
change: examining perceptions of households of flood risks in Georgetown and Paramaribo,
in Habitat International, vol 35, 3, pp. 447- 456.
• Baud, I., Kuffer, M., Pfeffer, K. Sliuzas, R. Karuppannan, S. (2010) Understanding
heterogeneity in metropolitan India: The added value of remote sensing data for analyzing
sub-standard residential areas, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation,
vol. 12, issue 5. 359-374.
• Baud, I.S.A, J.R. Bokhorst, T.J.C. van de Loo, J.G.J. Quaedvlieg, J.V. Rothuizen, B.A.W.
Tulleners. (2010). Sustainable Urban Development? An analysis of fuelk innovation in the
autho- rickshaw sector in Bangalore and Hyderabad, in Environment & Urbanization Asia, vol.
1, no. 1, .
• Baud, I.S.A., Karin Pfeffer, Namperumal Sridharan, Navtej Nainan (2009), Matching
deprivation mapping to urban governance in three Indian mega-cities, Habitat International,
vol. 33, nr. 4, 365-377.
• E. van Ewijk, Baud, I.S.A., (2009) Partnerships between Dutch municipalities and
municipalities in countries of migration to the Netherlands; knowledge exchange and
mutuality, Habitat International, vol. 33, nr. 2, 218-226
• Baud, I.S.A. and de Wit, J. (eds.) (2008). New Forms of Urban Governance in India: Shifts, modes,
networks and contestation. Sage, Thousand Oaks, Delhi, London. (402 pages).
• Baud, I.S.A. and Nainan, N. (2008). ‘"Negotiated spaces" for representation in Mumbai: ward
committees, advanced locality management and the politics of middle-class activism,
in Environment and Urbanization, Oct 2008; vol. 20: pp. 483 - 499.
• Baud, I.S.A., N. Sridharan and K. Pfeffer (2008). Mapping urban poverty for local governance
in an Indian mega-city; the case of Delhi: in Urban Studies,June: 45: 1385-1412 (special issue
on urban segregation).
• Hordijk M.A. (2009) Peru’s Participatory Budgeting: Configurations of power, opportunities
for change? The Open Urban Studies Journal vol 2. pp 33-45
• Hordijk M.A. & Miranda Sara, L (2007) The United Nations and the Urban Environment:
Local Agenda 21 in Peru from a Practitioner’s Perspective in Hordijk M.A. et. al. (2007) The
Role of the United Nations in Peace and Security, Development and Global Governance: An
Assessment of the Evidence, Edwin Mellen Press, London, pp 181-205
• Hordijk, M.A. and Baud, I.S.A. (2006), ‘The role of research and knowledge generation in
collective action and urban governance: How can researchers act as catalysts?’ Habitat
International, vol 30, 3, 668-689.
44
Projects offered by individual supervisors
Prof. dr. M. Baud
Michiel Baud, who can supervise two Masters Theses on selected subjects in Latin-America, is the
Director of CEDLA and Professor in Latin American Studies at the University of Amsterdam, where
he teaches courses on democracy, identity and sustainable development in Latin-America. Prof. Baud
graduated in Contemporary History at the University of Groningen in 1982 and received his Ph.D.
cum laude in Social Sciences at Utrecht University in 1991. From 1995 to 2000 he was Professor of
Latin American Studies at the University of Leiden.
His Ph.D. research was carried out in the Dominican Republic, where he combined documentary
research with anthropological fieldwork techniques. After finishing his Ph.D. he did research in
southern Ecuador and North-Eastern Brazil. Currently, his research interests are indigenista ideologies
and their influence on present-day academic interpretations of the Andes, the role of ethnic
movements in Latin American politics, the social history of Latin American borders, the analysis of
Latin American modernity and the construction of collective memories in present-day Latin America.
Prof Baud is available to supervise a thesis on specific subjects on Latin America, the subject of which
can be determined in discussion with the students. He is particularly interested in supervising research
on urban and rural social movements and topics with a clear historical dimension.
Dr. Niels Beerepoot
(number of positions to be discussed)
Project: Understanding the current wave in globalisation: service outsourcing sector
development in India and the Philippines
Location: Philippines, India
Contemporary globalisation is increasingly referred to as hierarchical integration in a new international
division of labour, re-inventing and re-inscribing patterns of uneven development. In a project funded
by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-WOTRO), researchers from our
department, University and the Philippines and Mumbai University concentrate on contemporary
globalisation by means of the international expansion of the service outsourcing sector. Service
delivery from developing countries is still at an early stage of development and there is limited
knowledge on the scope and magnitude of this particular form of globalisation and its wider societal
impact in the cities that benefit from it. To what extent this follows different patterns compared to
industrial outsourcing, with regard to issues such as the embeddedness of production and
opportunities for upgrading and upward labour mobility has, so far, not been a subject of in-depth
analysis. Furthermore, limited knowledge is available on the “enclave-nature” of contemporary
globalisation and whether it strengthens inequalities between people who benefit from the new
economic opportunities and those who are confronted with various forms of exclusion. Whether it
leads to the emergence of a “new urban middle class” while leaving out the lower segments of the
urban labour market demands closer investigation.
45
Within this NWO-WOTRO funded project, students can focus their research on various aspects of
the recent transformations as part of contemporary globalisation. For example:
- How does the expansion of the service-sector impact on ‘new’ middle class formation in India and
the Philippines? What are the characteristics of the ‘new’ middle class?
- What are the wider societal impacts of new middle class formation in developing countries?
- The (international) social networks of workers in the offshore service sector.
- The spatial concentrations of interaction between the various labour market segments in the urban
economy
- The spatial configuration of trickle down effects in both cities. Where do consumer expenditures of
service sector workers take place?
- Relocation of service activities to smaller, provincial, cities in India and the Philippines. What is the
impact in smaller, less diversified, urban economies? How become provincial cities part of far-flung
international networks?
Participation in this project means being part of an international team and collaborating with (PhD)researchers from India and the Philippines. In addition it involves participation in various activities of
the research group such as seminars and academic publications.
http://www.understandingglobalisation.eu/
An example of a concrete project within the overall framework is the following:
Microsourcing in a globally competitive labour market
A recent phenomenon in the international expansion of service outsourcing is the emergence of
online job marketplaces (e.g. oDesk, Freelancer, Elance, Guru). Whereas internationalization of
service production has hitherto mainly been driven by larger, multinational, companies, these online
marketplaces make offshoring of work much easier for smaller companies and individuals
(freelancers). On these platforms, any digital work from data entry to building websites is traded. The
largest suppliers of freelancers on global online job market websites are the Philippines and India. This
project aims to understand how this work can act as stimulus for local economic development by
cutting off intermediaries in global production networks and by providing direct employment
opportunities for individuals in developing countries. Field research for this project will involve going
to the Philippines or India to interview freelancers involved in online work. Who are the people who
are active on online job marketplaces? How is global job market competition perceived by them?
What are the criteria to be successful in online work? How does this work help people to obtain
entrepreneurial skills and stimulate economic empowerment?
Profile:
Niels Beerepoot is lecturer and researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of
the University of Amsterdam. In 2000 he finished his graduate studies in International Economics and
Economic Geography at Utrecht University. In the same year he moved to the University of
Amsterdam to start his PhD research. In 2005 he finished his PhD thesis titled “Collective Learning in
Small Enterprise Clusters: Skilled Workers, Labour Market Dynamics and Knowledge Accumulation in the
Philippine Furniture Industry”. In 2006 he was visiting researcher at the Centre for the Study of Cities and
Regions of Durham University (for 6 months) and in 2009 a visiting researcher at the Tata Institute of
Social Science in Mumbai (for 3 months). He is project-leader of a 5-year research project together
with Mumbai University and University of the Philippines on understanding the next wave in
globalisation funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-WOTRO). This
project concentrates on the role of the offshore service-sector as a driver of economic development,
how it reconfigures local labour market structures, the contribution of the sector to middle class
formation and potential trickle-down effects.
See: http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/n.p.c.beerepoot/page3.html
Recent publications:
- Beerepoot, N. & M. Hendriks (2013). Employability of Offshore Service Workers in the Philippines:
opportunities for upward labour mobility or dead-end jobs? In: Work, Employment and Society
- Van Westen, G., N. Beerepoot, E. Andriesse & B. Van Helvoirt (2011). Regional business systems
and inclusive/exclusive development in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia In: B. Helmsing and S.
46
Vellema (eds.) Value Chains, Inclusion and Endogenous Development: Contrasting Theories and Realities.
London: Routledge.
- Beerepoot, N. (2010). Globalisation and the reworking of labour market segmentation in the
Philippines. In: H. Knutsen et al. (eds), Missing Links in Labour Geographies, London: Ashgate, pp. 1992010.
- Beerepoot, N. & M. Hernández-Agramonte (2009). Social movement unionism in the Philippines :
Organising displaced workers from the garments industry. In: Novelli, M. & Ferus-Comelo, A. (eds.)
Globalisation, Knowledge & Labour, London : Routledge.
- Beerepoot, N. & M. Hernández-Agramonte (2009). Post MFA-adjustment of the Philippine
Garments Sector: Women’s Cooperatives Amidst Manufacturing Decline. In: European Journal of
Development Research.
Dr. Bart Lambregts
Various projects
Bart Lambregts (1970) is currently based in Bangkok, Thailand, one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic,
multifaceted and, in certain respects, contested metropolises. He works at the Division of Urban and
Environmental Planning of Kasetsart University, but is also still a member of GPIO. In the summer
of 2009 he welcomed the GPIO-Hyperchange study tour to Bangkok and organized, also for GPIOstudents, the international workshop ‘Planning for Sustainable Development in Thailand’. His
research interests include spatial dynamics in metropolitan regions, the role of advanced producer
services firms in globalization and metropolitan development and strategic planning in Southeast
Asian cities. Bart holds an MSc in Infrastructure Planning from Delft University of Technology and a
PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Amsterdam.
Research ideas
For starters: there is hardly a limit to the number of social, spatial and development issues and
phenomena that are either ‘just waiting to be explored’ or ‘calling -sometimes urgently- for attention’
in Thailand and in Bangkok in particular. Below are mentioned just a few. Students that wish to study
any other phenomenon in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand, may always get in touch to explore the
possibilities ([email protected]).
Bangkok in the next wave in globalization. Bangkok, as an emerging world city-region, is inserted
in the global economy in various ways. It is an well-established node for example in the global
production networks of car manufacturers and in global tourism flows. Less clear, however, is how
Bangkok is faring in what has been dubbed 'the next wave in globalization' i.e. the globalization of
service production. Can Bangkok follow the example of cities such as Manila and Mumbai and
become a centre for offshore service production as well? What would be the niches to focus on?
Mobility. Bangkok (about 10 million inhabitants) is currently a highly congested, car-dependent
metropolis. Badly needed extensions of the mass-transit system are planned, but will take years or
decades to materialize. What can be done in the meantime to manage mobility in this huge city in a
more efficient way?
Spatial planning & governance. Urban development in Bangkok is managed by property
developers. There is no lack of supply, but the overall result can hardly be called sustainable. The
government gaining control over spatial planning by dethroning the developers is an unlikely scenario.
Which other, more realistic options does the government have to establish a more balanced and
accountable mode of governance in this field?
Urban restructuring. Bangkok has a vast stock of unoccupied buildings, both residential and
commercial. The Asia-crisis (1997-1998) and a poorly functioning market for used property lie at the
basis. How to encourage reuse/redevelopment of these properties? Could they serve for instance
Bangkok’s emerging creative economy?
Climate change. Bangkok, and for that matter, Thailand’s entire coastal plain only just emerge above
sea level. Coastal erosion, land subsidence, rising sea levels and unreliable rivers make for a potentially
47
dangerous cocktail. Awareness and preparedness among both urban and rural populations are limited
or absent. How to open peoples’ eyes?
Vulnerable and not so vulnerable groups. Bangkok as an urban society has many rough edges,
many fascinating stories, many social abuses. Taxi drivers, the new middle class, migrant
workers, garbage collectors, there is a story to each of these and many other groups.
Dr. Jacobijn Olthoff
Project: Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation 2011-2015
Supervisor: Jacobijn Olthoff or other supervisor (to be decided)
Location: Liberia, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan (English speaking)
DR Congo, Burundi (French speaking)
Positions available: 1-2
The Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation (DCR) is a collaborative venture of four non-governmental
organizations (ZOA, Save the Children, CARE and HealthNet TPO), currently implementing a fiveyear programme financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The DCR works together with
communities in six fragile states on the rehabilitation of service delivery and local economies. These
countries are Liberia, Uganda, DR Congo, Burundi, South Sudan and Sudan. Activities include:
improving basic services; creating employment opportunities; and strengthening civil society. The
DCR aims to contribute to greater stability and sustainable economic growth in these six (post)conflict
countries, since these are ultimately the best weapons against war.
DCR Knowledge Network
The purpose of the Knowledge Network (KN) is to effectively formulate evidence-based
recommendations and lessons learned, and to help put these lessons into practice in the ongoing
work. The KN consists of around 100 staff of the four agencies in the consortium, its partners in the
field, and several Universities around the world. Every year field research is conducted in several
countries, based on research requests of project staff.
Themes of research
For 2013-2014, the following themes of research will get specific attention within the Knowledge
Network: (1) Local governance; (2) Local development; (3) Inclusion of the poorest; (4) Conflict
sensitivity; (5) Adult literacy and livelihoods; and (6) Partnership.
For more information regarding the research opportunities through the Consortium DCR, please
contact Ilse Hartog (DCR Knowledge Network officer): [email protected] with CC to Jacobijn
Olthoff
Project: Barraco #55: research on sustainability, gender and social inclusion
Location:
Rio de Janeiro (Brasil)
Positions available: 1-2
Supervisor: to be discussed
Barraco #55, an Art and Research Center in, Rio de Janeiro, offers (student) researchers the
opportunity to conduct research in the favela Complexo do Alemao. Research residencies are oriented
towards creating international connections that foster the exchange of knowledge and culture for
reflection and mutual enrichment. More specific objectives include studying and researching local
topics and issues so as to arrive at a better understanding of an area such as this in the present context;
breaking stereotypes and countering prejudice; and exchanging different cultures and knowledge.
Barraco #55 is working on a variety of ongoing projects in the areas of street art, new media,
photography, film, urban planning, gender and urban gardening. Its partners are primarily specialized
in the fields of ecology and recycling, audiovisual technology and art.
48
Please visit the website (www.barraco55.org) for more information about the organisation and current
and previous projects.
At this moment, Barraco #55 is particularly interested in research related to the following issues:
1. Public space (what is public space in a favela > How can open spaces be used for and by the
public? What are the causes of and solutions tot eh garbage problem in the public space?
2. Sustainability (how could a parallel community live in a sustainable way and provide for itself in a
city which is not sustainable/ self-providing?
3. Gender (women’s rights, women and new media, funk (music) and sexuality)
Researchers can could submit their own research proposal.
For more information regarding the research opportunities through Barraco #55, please contact Ellen
Sluis (co-founder of Barraco #55, and currently in the Netherlands) at: [email protected]
with CC to Jacobijn Olthoff.
Dr. Hebe Verrest
Hebe Verrest obtained a MSc in Human Geography (1998) from the University of Amsterdam. From
2002-2007 she was a PhD researcher at this university. Her PhD-research considered the meaning and
organization of home-based economic activities among low-income households in urban Suriname
and Trinidad and Tobago. As a post-doc researcher in a large project on Suriname’s modern history
she considered urban development and segregation in Paramaribo. As of April 2010 she is UD at this
department. Her research focuses on urban development and spatial distribution in Caribbean cities,
urban governance of medium-sized cities, urban livelihoods and vulnerability, social exclusion, microfinance and entrepreneurship.
Key Publications
- Verrest, H.(2013) Rethinking micro-entrepreneurship and business development programs:
Vulnerability and ambition in low-income urban Caribbean households. World Development, 47.
Pp.58-70
- Verrest, H. S. Moorcroft and A. Mohammed (2013) . Global urban development programs and
local realities in the Caricom-Caribbean: mismatches in needs and approach. Habitat International
(40), pp. 258-267.
-Verrest, H., & Jaffe, R. (2012). Bipolar antagonism and multipolar coexistence: framing difference
and shaping fear in two Caribbean cities. Social & Cultural Geography, 13(6), 625-644.
-Verrest, H J L M (2010). City Profile: Paramaribo, Cities 27 (1), pp50-60
- Verrest, H. (2009) Assets and Vulnerabilities in Paramaribo and Port of Spain. McGregor, Duncan,
David Dodman and David Barker (eds) Global Change and Caribbean Vulnerability., University of
the West Indies Press, Kingston, Jamaica (2009)
- Verrest, H (2008) Working from Home, Urban Livelihoods in Low-Income Surinamese and
Trinidadian Households. In: Jaffe, R. (ed), The Caribbean City. Kingston, Ian Randle
- Verrest, H (2007) Home-Based Economic Activities and Caribbean Urban Livelihoods: Vulnerability, Ambition
and Impact in Paramaribo and Port of Spain. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Urban Governance, Planning and Spatial Justice in Caribbean Cities
The Caribbean is one of the most urbanized regions in the world, yet studies on Caribbean cities, and
developments are relatively scarce. Caribbean cities are relatively small (often less than 500,000
inhabitants) but typical “primate” cities as they harbour a large proportion of the nation’s population
and the majority of political, economic and social institutions and organisations. Caribbean cities are
characterised by extreme inequalities, informality, spatial fragmentation and segregation. Access and
use of the city for work, leisure and housing (or combinations thereof) is related to class, gender, age
49
and ethnicity. Poverty and unemployment, urban sprawl, climate change, crime and violence and large
scale squatting are current and future urban challenges. Urban planning in the region is poorly
developed and urban development takes place in a largely unstructured and informal way.
Nevertheless large scale interventions, such as Waterfront projects in Kingston, Port of Spain and
Paramaribo are taking place. Urban sprawl is a continuous development and includes the erection of
shopping malls and consequent changing use of the downtown area. Governance in urban areas in the
Caribbean is not much described in literature but is considered to take place through complex
interactions between governmental, private sector and civil society actors at local, city, state and
supranational level. Informality, personification and multiplicity characterise these interactions.
The UvA is part of the Caribbean Network of Urban Planning and Land Management (CNULM) and
involved in several projects related to urban planning and urban issues within the Caribbean region.
Hebe Verrest is developing a new research line on characteristics of Caribbean Urban governance,
planning and issues of spatial justice. Within these projects, several opportunities for student research
are opening up.
Green Economy and the private sector in Port of Spain, Paramaribo and Georgetown
The Rio+20 conference held in Rio in June 2012, pushed the issue of the Green Economy as one of
the necessary steps to take to reduce Climate Change and manage its possible effects. Despite its
modest contribution to climate change, the Caribbean region is extremely vulnerable to the effects of
climate change, mainly to seal level rise and change precipitation patterns. Previously groups of IDS
students have conducted comparative studies into the role of the government and households in
developing local resilience to climate change in Port of Spain, Paramaribo and Georgetown. This
study project invites three students to do research into the role and activities of the private sector in
creating resilience to climate change, in particular through greening the economy activities, and how
these can be explained from the local institutional and policy context. Each students does research in
one country, and a joint article (with staff input) is published after completion of the theses.
(3 students)
Neoliberalism, Caribbean Governance and the role of the state; the case of state companies.
The case of Port-of Spain, Trinidad
The shift from urban management to urban governance as proclaimed by neo-liberal visions, have
called for a retreat of the state and a larger role for private and civil society actors. In various cities in
the Caribbean this is coupled with a rise in parastatal or state companies. This research examines to
what extent such companies produce a less strong hold of the state on planning processes or may just
have complicated and strengthened their position.
Home-based Enterprises, livelihoods and sustainability: a ten year revisit
In the period 2002-2007 research was done in Paramaribo (Suriname) and Port of Spain (Trinidad
and Tobago) on the role of Home-Based Economic Activities in the livelihoods of involved
households, how these activities were organised and the role of institutions in this (See Verrest 2007).
A typology of entrepreneurs was made based on their vulnerability and ambition. Data for this study
were collected in two low-income communities in each city in 2003-2005. Methods included a survey
and in-depth interviews. The proposed study revisits these areas and households and focuses on the
development of the enterprises over the past 10 years and changes and continuities in their
contribution to household livelihoods.
(Two students: one in Suriname and one in Trinidad and Tobago)
Rivke Jaffe
Dr. Rivke Jaffe joined the Centre for Urban Studies and the Department of Human Geography,
Planning and International Development Studies in 2012. She previously held teaching and research
positions at Leiden University, the University of the West Indies, and the Royal Netherlands Institute
of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). Her anthropological research focuses primarily
on intersections of the urban and the political, focusing specifically on the spatialization of power,
50
difference and inequality within cities. She is interested in how urban problems such as poverty, crime
and environmental degradation are linked to social differentiation along lines of ethnicity, class and
gender. How are these inequalities constructed, reproduced and transformed through urban policy,
market forces and social movements? How does the (colonial) past shape the cities of today? What is
the role of popular culture - music, video clips, murals, graffiti - in the ways we experience and
communicate urban exclusion and solidarity?
Project: Public-Private Security Assemblages
Rivke is currently starting a five-year research program, funded by ERC and NWO, on public-private
security assemblages. This research is an anthropological study of how citizenship is being
reconfigured through hybrid forms of security governance. It will research these transformations by
focusing on public-private ‘security assemblages’, with particular emphasis on the role of the private
security industry. Much recent scholarly debate has focused on shifting modes of governance in a
context of neoliberal globalization. Specific attention has focused on how governance is increasingly
achieved through networks or assemblages of state, corporate and voluntary actors. Such assemblages
of state and non-state actors blur the lines between public and private, and between local, national and
transnational. This research will shed new light on this debate by investigating the implications this
form of governance has for how different groups enact and experience citizenship, concentrating on
public-private security assemblages as hybrid, multi-scalar governance structures. The project will
examine how forms of ‘differentiated citizenship’ are produced, and how political subjectivities shift,
as a result of these forms of security governance. These transformations in citizenship will be analyzed
through a comparative analysis of security assemblages in five cities with high levels of insecurity:
Kingston (Jamaica), Jerusalem (Israel), Miami (USA), Nairobi (Kenya) and Recife (Brazil). The project
will research the composition, operation and regulation of public-private security assemblages in and
across these different urban settings, with special attention to the global mobilities of security
companies and techniques. In each setting, the project will study the practices and discourses that
structure relations between state and non-state security providers, clients and those seen as threats. It
will focus on the ‘security encounter’ between these different actors, in which new social relationships
and subjectivities are produced. At this point in the project, Rivke can supervise one student who is
interested in conducting ethnographic research on security privatization (focusing on commercial
security guards or neighbourhood watches) in any of these five cities.
Selected recent publications
 Rivke Jaffe (2013). Visual Culture and Criminal Iconization in Kingston, Jamaica: A Photo-Essay.
Moving Worlds 13(1), 131-139.
 Rivke Jaffe (2012) The Popular Culture of Illegality: Crime and the Politics of Aesthetics in Urban
Jamaica. Anthropological Quarterly 85(1): 79-102.
 Hebe Verrest and Rivke Jaffe (2012) Bipolar Antagonism and Multi-Polar Coexistence:
Conceptualizing Difference and Shaping Fear in Two Caribbean Cities. Social and Cultural Geography
13(6): 625-644.
 Rivke Jaffe, Christien Klaufus and Freek Colombijn (2012) Introduction: Mobilities and
Mobilizations of the Urban Poor. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36(3): 643-654.
 Rivke Jaffe (2012) Talkin' 'bout the Ghetto: Popular Culture and Urban Imaginaries of Immobility.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research36(3): 674-688.
 Rivke Jaffe (2012) Criminal Dons and Extralegal Security Privatization in Downtown Kingston,
Jamaica. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 33(2): 184-197.
 Rivke Jaffe (2012) Crime and Insurgent Citizenship: Extra-State Rule and Belonging in Urban
Jamaica. Development 55(2): 219-223.
 Rivke Jaffe and Jolien Sanderse (2010) Surinamese Maroons as Reggae Artistes: Music, Marginality
and Urban Space. Ethnic and Racial Studies 33(9): 1561-1579.
 Rivke Jaffe (2010) Ital Chic: Rastafari, Resistance and the Politics of Consumption in Jamaica.
Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 14(1): 30-45.
Courtney Lake Vegelin
51
(Two positions available)
Courtney Vegelin joined the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International
Development Studies as a lecturer in the fall of 2013. Her academic background is in the fields of
International Relations and International Political Economy and, until joining the IDS programme,
she had been teaching in the International Relations programme at the UvA since 2004. Her PhD
research has been based on an interest in challenging the theoretical boundaries between traditional
International Relations theories and emerging knowledge and understanding about the causes and
sources of global poverty. Her approach in addressing these challenges has been, on one hand, to
assess the very different explanations for poverty in the developed and developing worlds, with some
attention to their geopolitical context, and explore the potential links between them insofar as they
are embedded in the same context of global economic restructuring. On the other hand, it has
involved including the political settings of the poor (at multiple levels including the local, national,
and global) to explore if and how their political agency is constrained or facilitated by changing global
structures in order to enhance knowledge about the political sources of poverty in both parts of the
world. In other words, the research attempts to answer the question if politics matters for the poor.
To operationalize these research objectives, her research focused on urban poverty in Global Cities
with her field research taking place in Mexico City and Los Angeles, with the majority of time being
spent with grassroots organizations in each of the cities who were actively attempting to have their
voices and needs heard by local or national governments.
Research projects that can be supervised by Courtney Vegelin may include those which focus on
continuing the preliminary research objective of challenging the North/South distinctions in
explaining the causes of global poverty. In addition to this (or along with this), research projects may
also focus on the particular characteristics of Global Cities and how they contribute to a re-shaping of
the social and political landscape in which the urban poor reside. Such re-shaping contributes to both
new problems and solutions for the poor that must be further explored. Within this vein, research
projects may focus on the political agency of the urban poor, urban grassroots organizing, and urban
poverty and inequalities more broadly speaking. Fieldwork contacts can be used for research that
would take place in Mexico City as well as a number of North American cities in addition to Los
Angeles, however students are certainly not restricted to research in these areas only.
Joyeeta Gupta
Water Governance
1.
The Law and Governance of National and Transboundary Aquifers (2 positions)
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Joyeeta Gupta (UvA & UNESCO-IHE), Kirstin Conti (UvA & International
Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre [IGRAC]), tentatively Dr. Neno Kukurić (IGRAC)
Locations: Dinaric Karst Transboundary Aquifer System [DIKTAS] Transboundary Aquifer 2[1] (Albania,
Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, & Slovenia) or Stampriet Transboundary
Aquifer (Namibia, Bostwana, & South Africa) depending on student preference and language skills
2[1]
Ability to speak Serbian or another regional language would be highly useful for a student seeking to undertake research
on this aquifer
52
This research will take place as part of a PhD research project that is aimed at addressing critical gaps
between the principles of groundwater law, groundwater governance and their actual occurrence on
the ground. Many aspects of groundwater governance have yet to be thoroughly explored, analyzed
and examined through the comparison of existing cases, especially cases involving transboundary
aquifers. Consequently, the overall PhD research will respond to the question ‘how can identification
of patterns in groundwater laws, which exist at multiple geographical levels, lead to effective
institutional (re)design for groundwater governance?’ Within that, the task of the master’s researchers
is to undertake in-depth analysis of the emerging governance structures in two transboundary aquifers:
Dinaric Karst Transboundary Aquifer System in South Eastern Europe and the Stampriet Aquifer in
Southern Africa.
Both of the selected case aquifers are undergoing rapid developments with respect to their
groundwater management and governance regimes. Over the next 2-3 years, each of these aquifers
will be part of international projects sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the
Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) aimed at assessing the state of their groundwater resources,
creating data sharing mechanisms, and mapping a way forward for the collective management of these
resources. Consequently, the aquifer states will participate in intensive consultation processes
regarding legal, technical and institutional aspects of groundwater governance, among others. The
purpose of the case studies (including stakeholder interviews) will be three-fold: (1) to identify the key
actor’s aquifer governance system; (2) to ground truth patterns identified through the PhD’s proposed
analytical framework; and (3) to elucidate the pathways of influence through which groundwater laws
are created and implemented. Therefore applicable research questions include:
·
·
·
·
What actors and institutions govern transboundary groundwater within the respective
aquifer?
What patterns exist in how the governance system for the respective aquifer is designed?
To what extent is the condition of groundwater in the respective aquifer attributable to
regulation at the national level?
Which legal principles and instruments support effective groundwater governance systems
in the respective aquifer and which do not?
Although the researchers will be working in separate locations, they will work cooperatively using the
same analytical framework to guide their analysis and contextualize their results. Their findings will also
serve to refine and evaluate the functionality of the framework. While there are ongoing projects
involving each of the case-study aquifers, the proposed research is not part of them. Nevertheless, the
project supervisors will be able to assist the students in establishing contacts and connections to
persons involved in the projects as well as regional groundwater experts. However, the students’ results
will be highly dependent on their own initiative and willingness to do independent investigation while
in the case study regions. An added value of this project is that students will also get to know UNIGRAC, the International Groundwater Assesment Centre, at which Kirstin Conti is based. For further
information on this project please contact Kirstin Conti (PhD student) [email protected]
Viviana d’Auria
Sustainable urban development: Visualizing the counter discourse
An Amsterdam-Lima-Leuven cooperation
No of positions (Amsterdam) 2
Prerequisite: Good command of Spanish
Lima offers a fascinating urban laboratory at the moment, in physical, social, economic and political
terms. Peru ranks high when it comes to the expected effects of climate change, hence there is
growing awareness of the problem. Peru also will host the next Conference of the Parties (to the UN
climate change negotiations) in 2014 (http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/lavidaloca/en/lima-sera-la-sedede-las-negociaciones-sobre-cambio-climatico-el-2014). Simultaneously the Municipality of Lima is also
starting to develop its Urban Development Plan, after about 30 years without any official planning .
53
The head of the technical team of this planning process (which is meant to be finished in November
2014) is a well known biologist and environmentalist. This creates political momentum for progressive
‘pro green’ legislations. It is for instance expected that Lima’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy –
developed in close coordination with civil society – will be approved this year. Simultaneously there is
a strong neoliberal wind in the country, which already left its marks on national legislations. The most
recent national building code has substantially lowered building standards, which is leading to a
substantial reduction of the quality of life in urban neighbourhoods where land-prices are high, hence
high densities are required.
Progressive movements in Lima are now lining up to develop proposals to counter this national
legislation and use the political ‘pro green’ momentum. In the second week of February a course will
be taught to municipal officials, members of NGOs, architects and planners as part of developing
and to validating an ecological infrastructure in Lima. This urban ecological infrastructure is meant to
be a substantial chapter into the Urban Development Plan of the Municipality.
Students opting for this fieldwork position will be allowed to follow this one week intensive course,
and will be asked to thereafter carry out a study on how the proposals resulting from this week
resonate with local stakeholders. What are the chances of success of such ecological infrastructure to
become implemented? What barriers to implementation do stakeholders see? What important legal,
social, technological aspects should be considered in design and implementation of this ecological
infrastructure (characterized by water, green and (public and private) open spaces and widening the
green inside the house unit itself). We hope that through this project we can also develop proposals
for ecologically friendly, climate change proof low income housing ( such as through reducing water,
energy and materials consumption as one of the ways to become sustainable). And what would
acceptance level be for such practices in low income areas? What possibilities are there for ecological
self-help housing?
This project is foreseen to also include students from Leuven’s Human Settlement’s programme, who
have a background in urban planning and architecture, and would develop their design proposals.
UvA/Leuven supervisor: Viviana d’Auria Local supervision: Liliana Miranda Sara
Yves van Leynseele
i) The multiple faces of education policy; the effects of neo-liberalization in Chile (2 positons)
Supervisor: Yves van Leynseele (UvA) or colleague / Dr. Jilles van Gastel (Austral University, Chile)
Location: Valdivia, Chile
The education policy in Chile is currently subject to intense public debate between different actors.
According to the students there is wide-spread corruption and collapse of standards in the education
system and this situation is due to an increasing privatization of education. Starting last year, the
students have organized themselves and taken political action to demand a radical reform to improve
the quality of education and make good education more accessible. The government of President
Piñera agrees that there is a need for changes in the education system. Yet, it does not agree with the
students on the question to what extent and how education policy should be reformed. Furthermore,
the universities play an important role in this debate but their concerns diverge and so do the ways in
which they try to influence the reforms. So, the debate around education involves many different
actors with each their own ideas of good policy and their own interests in education. This research
aims to gain knowledge on education policy in Chile as well as contribute to the debate about
liberalization processes in education elsewhere, including The Netherlands.
This research will study the problem through an ethnographic approach that provides detailed
description that is necessary to capture the complexity of the issue at stake. Thus, the student will have
to carry out participant observation, conduct in-depth interviews and study documents to analyze how
the different actors give meaning to education and position them vis-à-vis the current policy.
General research questions:
1. How is Chile’s national education policy formulated?
54
2. What policies and practices take place at the institutional level?
3. What are the effects of these national policies and the local institutional policies and
practices on (former) students and their families?
For this research we are looking for students who are interested in policy studies, organization issues,
ethnography, and life history analysis. Furthermore, the students should have at least a basic command
of Spanish. Please contact Jacobijn Olthoff if you have an interest in one of these projects/areas.
Dr Olga Nieuwenhuys (tbc)
Positions available:
Project:
Living rights: Theorizing Children's Rights in International Development
This is an ongoing, long-term project that wishes to move beyond the widely decried problem of
implementation of children’s rights by exploring alternative perspectives, including those of children
themselves (“living rights’). It aims at reflecting on how a local understanding of children's rights, in
particular how children engage with the challenges of their everyday lives, can be translated to the
international child rights community. The trust is on developing a research paradigm that reflects the
intention to see children as “subjects” of rights. Main themes:



Social justice: which ethics of children's rights are prevalent in international development work
for children and what is their actual influence in shaping the debates?
Living rights: how do children in the developing world conceptualise and make use of their
rights?
Translations: how does top down implementation of children's rights affect children? What are
experiences with and conditions for successful reverse translations of children's living rights?
What are the trajectories of both translations?
Location:
To be chosen by the student.
Brief description:
The project is carried out in close collaboration with Dr. Karl Hanson, Institut Kurt Bösch, University
of Fribourg (Switzerland). It involves senior researchers across social science and legal disciplines
based at universities in the US, UK, Germany, India, South Africa, Ghana, Norway, Switzerland and
The Netherlands who are currently producing a volume that takes stock of research on the topic of
“living rights”. Students can be part of this effort by carrying out their own research project within the
broad parameters of a “living rights” approach to children’s rights.
Students who have participated in the project have done research a.o. in South Africa on AIDSorphans; Guatemala on child labour, gender and education; Kampala on displaced children and “living
history”; Northern Thailand on displaced children as “becomings”; Niger River Delta on “social
justice”; Indonesia on “living rights”; Ghana on “interdependent agency”;
Students interested in the project may contact Dr Olga Nieuwenhuys ([email protected]).
Local supervision:
Depending on individual preferences and possibilities local supervision can be arranged through the
informal network of researchers on the topic.
Olga Nieuwenhuys was appointed assistant professor in at the then Institute of Development Research
Amsterdam (InDRA) in 1990. She holds degrees in sociology from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and
55
in non-western sociology from the University of Amsterdam. She obtained her doctorate form the Free
University in 1989. Her teaching and research interests include childhood and international development,
participatory development, post-development and postcolonialism, children’s geographies and the
anthropology of childhood. For her research on childhood and international development she obtained
thrice a research grant from NWO, the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Research, and
acquired numerous capacity building grants from the Netherlands Minister of Development Cooperation
and other donors. Olga Nieuwenhuys is the author of Children’s Lifeworlds, Gender, Labour and Welfare in the
Developing World (Rouledge 1994) and of a number of academic articles, book chapters and co-edited
volumes. Since 1996 she is editor of the leading Sage journal in childhood studies Childhood: A Global
Perspective and is on the international advisory board of Children´s Geographies and of Contemporary Education
Dialogue.
Main recent publications:
2013
Karl Hanson and Olga Nieuwenhuys (eds.), Reconceptualizing Children’s Rights, Living
Rights, Translations, Social Justice, Cambridge University Press
2013
Theorizing childhood, Why we need postcolonial perspectives , Childhood (20), 1 (in
press).
2012
Can the teddy bear speak? Childhood, 18 (4): 411-418.
2010
Keep asking: Why childhood, why Keep asking: Why childhood? Why children? Why
global? Childhood, vol. 17 (3): 291-296.
2009
From Child Labour to Working Children’s Movements, in Qvortrup J., W. Corsaro and
M.S. Honig, The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies, Palgrave, pp. 289-300
Is there and Indian childhood?, Childhood, 16 (2)
How the Poor Develop (in Spite of the Rich): A Commentary, Journal of Health
Management 11: 243-250
2008
The ethics of children's rights. Childhood, 15(1).
Embedding the global womb: Child labour and the New Policy Agenda. In S. Aitken,
R. Lund & T. Kjorholt (Eds.), Global Childhoods: Globalization, Development and Young
People (pp. 149-164). Londen: Routledge.
Barbara Hogenboom (tbc)
Barbara Hogenboom is a political scientist working at the Centre for Study and Documentation of
Latin America (CEDLA - www.cedla.uva.nl), which coordinates an international research project on
Environmental Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean (ENGOV - www.engov.eu). Her
main fields of interest are contemporary Latin American politics and the governance of environment
and development, studied from the angle of international political economy. The theme of her current
research is ‘The Politics of Natural Resource Extraction in Latin America’. This research concerns the
interaction between developments in global commodity markets, local resistance against resource
extraction, and political decisions on two central extractive sectors: energy and mining.
Hogenboom can supervise Master theses on the political dimensions of Latin America’s development
policies and practices; environmental conflicts and governance; effects of economic and political
globalization and regionalization; and the role of social movements and corporate actors. The topics
that are particularly close to her research activities are implications of new mining and hydrocarbon
policies (of Latin American progressive regimes); expanding resource extraction Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR); and China’s growing influence for (the politics of) sustainable and equitable
development in Latin America.
Some relevant publications:
— (2012) 'The New Politics of Mineral Extraction in Latin America', Special Issue of Journal of
Developing
Societies(guest
editor:
Barbara
Hogenboom),
Vol.
28,
No.
2,
June: http://jds.sagepub.com/content/28/2.toc, including her article 'Depoliticized and Repolitiziced
Minerals in Latin America'.
56
— (2011) 'Environmental Governance in Latin America: Towards an Integrative Research Agenda'
with Prof. dr. Michiel Baud, Dr. Fábio de Castro and Dr. Barbara Hogenboom. European Review of
Latin American and Caribbean Studies 90, April 2011, pp. 78-88
— (2010) Latin America Facing China: South-South Relations beyond the Washington Consensus (edited with
Alex E. Fernando Jilberto), CEDLA Latin America Studies 98, Oxford and New York: Berghahn
Books. — (2008) Big Business and Economic Development: Conglomerates and Economic Groups in Developing Countries
and Transition Economies under Globalisation (edited with Alex E. Fernando Jilberto), Routledge Studies in
International Business and the World Economy no. 36, London & New York, Routledge, 428pp.
Fábio de Castro (tbc)
Fábio de Castro (CEDLA – www.cedla.uva.nl) is a political ecologist interested in socio-ecological
processes shaping patterns of resource use and management in Latin America. His research focuses
on governance of natural resource, territorial and socioenvironmental change, and politics of
participation in co-management systems. Fabio’s research is part of the ENGOV Project, a
collaborative research program coordinated by CEDLA including several Latin American and
European researchers funded by the European Commission (http://www.engov.eu/en/). Fabio is
currently working on three specific research lines, listed below. Students interested in developing their
thesis around one of these themes must have fluency in Portuguese.
1) Political ecology of the implementation of Agro-extractive reserves in the Amazonian floodplain
a. Institutional arrangement and politics of participation in co-management systems
b. Socioenvironmental performance of the reserves
c. Perceptions and local subjectivities in the reserve governance
2) Socio-ecological dimension of the biodiesel program in Brazil
a. Institutional framework of the biodiesel program in the Amazon
b. Social relations between farmers, biodiesel producers and the governmental agencies
c. Socioeconomic performance of the feedstock production (oil seeds) by small farmers
3) Territorial governance of protected areas in Brazil
a. Comparative analysis between conservation areas and production areas
b. Institutional analysis of categories of ethnic territories and identity politics
c. Spatial reconfiguration of land use patterns and socioenvironmental conflicts
57
FIELDWORK PREFERENCE
This form has to be submitted to Niels Beerepoot on October 4 at the latest (digital or
hard copy). Forms handed in later cannot be processed, and the GSSS and GPIO
Institute can consequently not guarantee to provide adequate thesis supervision.
Name: …………………………………………………………………………………..
Previous Studies……………………………………………………………………….
Current Elective ………………………………………………………………………
58
Theme or Project
Country
Supervisor
Remarks:
59

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