The Art of Research

Last call for papers for the MOPAN 2012 conference!

2012-01-25T16:35:00.002+01:00

MOPAN 2012 Conference Last call for papers (submission deadline extended until February 3) www.mopan2012.wur.nl 19th Annual Conference on Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks “Multi-actor collaboration in an uncertain and ambiguous world” July 2-4, 2012, Wageningen, the Netherlands Confirmed keynote speakers Prof. Barbara Gray, Pennsylvania State University Prof

Web-based environmental simulation: bridging the gap between scientific modelling and decision-making

2012-01-21T10:15:00.000+01:00

This "just accepted" article results from an interdisciplinary project led by Wouter Buytaert. The project was funded by the NERC Environmental Services for Poverty Alleviation scheme and explores the potential of Virtual Observatories for local resource management. One of the key question is how to make environmental information and simulations useful for resource management and local decision

PhD position on “Multi-actor governance for sustainable materials management”

2011-12-06T15:54:00.001+01:00

In the framework of the policy support centre on sustainable materials management (SuMMa) of the Flemish government that will start in 2012, a PhD position is available on the topic of “Multi-actor governance for sustainable materials management”. The PhD researcher will be employed at the HUBrussel and jointly supervised with Wageningen University. The promoter of the PhD research will be Prof.

Discursive interaction strategies for 'doing differences'

2011-12-04T15:56:00.001+01:00

This year, I finally took the time to submit a paper that I still consider to be one of the best parts of my dissertation, despite (or perhaps thanks to) the fact that involves an unusual combination of things: a conceptual framework based on multi-actor change, interactional framing theory, dealing with dualities and discursive psychology, a methodological approach based on discourse and

Towards theoretical multiplicity for the governance of transitions: the energy-producing greenhouse case

2011-11-10T10:54:00.001+01:00

An article by Katrien Termeer and myself - that we worked on in 2010 - is finally in press in the International Journal of Sustainable Development! In the article we apply our multiple theory approach to understanding societal change processes to the case of the energy-producing greenhouse. Towards theoretical multiplicity for the governance of transitions: the energy-producing greenhouse case

Call for Papers for MOPAN 2012 on-line!

2011-10-14T16:50:00.001+02:00

The MOPAN conference series focusses on partnerships, alliances and networks between any combination of business actors, civil society actors and governmental actors. Together with the organising committee of MOPAN 2012 at Wageningen, I've been very busy trying to get the Call for Papers ready. The call is now is now available at www.mopan2012.wur.nl! Spread the word! The 2012 Conference

WASS Research Day "Knowledge in Society: Contestation, Boundaries and Bridges"

2011-10-06T21:07:00.000+02:00

Through some combination of participating in a WASS Talents and Topics course and in the WASS Research and Assessment Committee, I got involved in organizing this WASS Research Day. WASS stands for Wageningen School of Social Sciences, by the way, and the Research Day addresses one of the four research themes of the school. I'm very happy that both Mike Hulme and Marjolein van Asselt were

Irony is good for you

2011-09-21T09:27:00.000+02:00

Lots of funny research cartoons at www.phdcomics.com

Framing Matters

2011-08-18T14:35:00.007+02:00

Peter Lang has recently published a book on "Framing Matters. Perspectives on Negotiation Research and Practice", edited by Bill Donohue, Randall Rogan and Sanda Kaufman. Together with Barbara Gray, Linda Putnam and René Bouwen, I contributed the first chapter entitled "An interactional approach to framing in conflict and negotiation" (click here to download). The book relies on the framing

Special Issue on the governance of climate adaptation in Climate Law

2011-08-15T13:10:00.006+02:00

In a special issue of the journal Climate Law 'Adaptation in Delta Regions' five scientific papers were published. These publications are a direct result of the Deltas in Times of Climate Change conference, held in Rotterdam in 2010, and the research of the Governance theme of the Knowledge for Climate programme. The introduction and the five papers (click here to download them) in this special

Call for papers: "The Governance of Adaptation to Climate Change. An international symposium"

2011-08-11T16:00:00.004+02:00

In March 2012 a two day conference will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on “The governance of adaptation”, organized by our Knowledge for Climate consortium on Governance of Adaptation . Topics to be discussed include: the framing of adaptation problems and goals, modes of governance and available instruments, agency and leadership in adaptation governance, science-policy interaction and

MOPAN 2011 Glasgow and MOPAN 2012 Wageningen

2011-07-11T15:39:00.011+02:00

This year's small but vibrant edition of the MOPAN conference organized by Pam Hearne at the Strathclyde Business School had a lot to offer for adepts of multi-organisational partnerships, alliances and networks. With contributions from the health sector to the construction sector, cases from India to Panama and work forms from keynotes to workshops, the conference was very enjoyable. We had

Fragmentation and connection of frames in collaborative water governance

2011-03-31T09:42:00.008+02:00

This article dates back to my work with ACORDES at the University of Cuenca. Together with Monica Mancero, German Cárdenas and Dolores, we analyzed a case of river catchment management in Ecuador. The focus is on the fragmentation and connection of frames in this water governance process, with special attention to problem domain framing, issue framing and scale framing. The article is part

Do scale frames matter?

2011-03-16T08:44:00.005+01:00

One of the PhD students I'm working with - Maartje van Lieshout - has just published an article on Scale Frame Mismatches in the Decision Making Process of a “Mega Farm” in a Small Dutch Village. The article is part of a special issue on Scale and Governance in the interdisciplinary open access journal Ecology and Society.This is the abstract:Scale issues are an increasingly important feature of

MOPAN 2011 Call for papers!

2011-03-09T14:24:00.003+01:00

Pam Hearne at Strathclyde University (Glasgow) has been taking care of the arrangements for MOPAN 2011. The website is up at http://www.sbs.strath.ac.uk/mopan2011/ and a call for papers is waiting for your abstracts.The theme of this year's conference is "Interventions in collaboration systems"From the website:"This year the conference will be held in the University of Strathclyde Business

Two climate conferences put interesting material on-line

2011-02-10T13:55:00.004+01:00

The "Deltas in Times of Climate Change" conference (Rotterdam) and the "Climate Controversies: Science and Politics" conference (Brussels/Paris) have put papers, slides and recorded presentations on-line.Climate controversies: science and politics"Climategate" and climate skepticism received a lot of attention at this event. The majority of the presentations from the conference are now accessible

Looking for a new colleague!

2011-02-04T14:05:00.002+01:00

The Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University is looking for an Assistant Professor. This is the job description:"As an Assistant Professor you will participate in the research program “changing governance, governing change”. Within this context you will develop a research line that focuses on international organizations and global/European governance related to the

Call for papers on "Interactional framing in policy controversies" at the IPA conference

2011-01-04T10:02:00.008+01:00

The 6th International Conference on Interpretive Policy Analysis (IPA) takes place from Thursday June 23 to Saturday June 25, 2011 at Cardiff University (Wales, UK). The call for papers is open until January 31st.Together with Maartje van Lieshout we have organised a panel at this conference, on Interactional framing in policy controversies. An interactional approach to framing focuses on how

Disentangling Scale Approaches in Governance Research

2010-12-11T08:32:00.003+01:00

As part of the Scaling and Governance programme of Wageningen University, Katrien Termeer, Maartje van Lieshout and myself have worked on a position paper on different approaches to scale in governance research, particularly monocentric, multilevel and adaptive governance.The paper has just been published in the open access journal Ecology and Society: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/

Talk at the Cradle-to-Cradle Network thematic seminar on Governance

2010-10-19T19:47:00.005+02:00

The website of the Interreg project "Cradle-to-Cradle Network" has reported on the thematic seminar on Governance that took place in Leuven in July. Our Cycloop network was contracted by the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) for the perspective study on governance for cradle-to-cradle. The presentations of Johan Hovelynck and myself presented at the thematic seminar are available online.The

Coping with ambiguity in natural resources management

2010-10-09T21:01:00.003+02:00

An article by Marcela Brugnach (now at University of Twente), Hans-Jorgen Hendriksen, Peter van der Keur and myself has just been published on-line in the Journal of Environmental Management. On the basis of existing literature, and illustrated with the Guadiana case, we address the question of how to deal with the ambiguity resulting from the simultaneous presence of multiple frames in natural

Uncertainties in climate change projections and water management

2010-08-27T10:21:00.003+02:00

The interdisciplinary paper on "Uncertainties in climate change projections and regional downscaling in the tropical Andes: implications for water resources management" has been accepted and published in the open access journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. This is the full reference:Buytaert, W., Vuille, M., Dewulf, A., Urrutia, R., Karmalkar, A., and Célleri, R.: Uncertainties in climate

Interdisciplinary knowledge integration

2010-05-27T20:28:00.006+02:00

An article I worked on with ex-colleagues from Leuven (Johan Hovelynck, Greet François and Tharsi Taillieu) has just appeared on the Environmental Science and Policy website.Hovelynck, J., Dewulf, A., François, G., & Taillieu, T. (in press). Interdisciplinary knowledge integration through group model building: recognizing dualities and triadizing the conversation. Environmental Science & Policy,

PhD and Assistant Professor positions at PAP

2010-04-10T10:18:00.009+02:00

Our Public Administration and Policy Group is looking for candidates for two new positions:(1) PhD position on the framing and governance of climate adaptationAs announced informally earlier on this blog, the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University now offers a position for a 4-year PhD project on “Making sense of climate impacts: understanding and dealing with the variety

(Re)framing uncertainties in water management practice

2010-04-04T21:06:00.005+02:00

The title of this post is also the title of the recently completed dissertation by Dr. (!) Nicola Isendahl at the University of Osnabrück. Before a commission consisting of Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Jens Newig, Carolin Rettig and myself, Nicola defended her dissertation succesfully on March 24th!Apart from a theoretical and methodological discussion of uncertainties, frames and water management

"Manuscript published for discussion" !?

2010-03-12T17:06:00.004+01:00

The title of this post was the surprising subject of a recent e-mail I got from a scientific journal. It's not the review method I'm used to, but a quite interesting one nonetheless.I recently made a contribution to a paper by Wouter Buytaert and others, entitled "Uncertainties in climate change projections and regional downscaling: implications for water resources management", which has now

Knowledge for Climate PhD position “Making sense of climate impacts" at Wageningen University

2010-02-25T17:13:00.004+01:00

After favourable review by scientific and societal referees, the Knowledge for Climate board has decided to fund the full proposal submitted by our "Governance of Climate Adaptation" consortium! The consortium has been awarded the Center of Excellence label. In the framework of this 4-year research and action programme, we are looking for candidates for the following PhD position at our group (

Upcoming conferences and calls for papers

2010-02-24T21:16:00.005+01:00

A number of interesting conferences later this year have their calls for papers out now:The "Deltas in times of climate change" conference (Rotterdam, 29 September - 1 October 2010 ) has extended the deadline for abstract submission until March, 15th. The call for abstracts can be found here. There's a thematic session on governance and economics of climate adaptation where my colleague Katrien

A participant-structured approach for assessing and addressing the framing of uncertainties

2009-12-25T09:31:00.004+01:00

Another article by Nicola Isendahl has just been published on-line in the Journal of Environmental Management. I have been co-supervising her PhD project together with Claudia Pahl-Wostl at the University of Osnabrück. If all goes well, Nicola would be able to graduate in the spring of 2010!The starting point for Nicola's project is that in order to improve the way uncertainties in water

Knowledge for Governance of Climate Adaptation

2009-11-21T14:23:00.015+01:00

Knowledge for Climate is a research programme for the development of knowledge and services that make it possible to climate proof the Netherlands. Governmental organisations (central government, provinces, municipalities and water boards) and businesses, actively participate in research programming through the input of additional resources (matching). The overall goal is to assess investments to

Podocarpus simulation at Wageningen MSP Course

2009-10-01T16:31:00.005+02:00

During the past 3-week course on Multi-Stakeholder Processes by CD&IC Wageningen International, coordinated by Jouwert van Geene, I was invited as a guest lecturer to run the Podocarpus National Park simulation. About 30, mainly African and Asian students, did a great job in assuming the roles of farmers, miners, bureaucrats, politicians and ngo workers, resulting in a lively simulation over 6

MOPAN 2010 at Keele University

2009-09-21T19:29:00.007+02:00

At the MOPAN 2009 website the next conference location has been announced: "The 17th International Conference on Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances & Networks (MOPAN 2010) will be held at Keele University, United Kingdom from 28th - 30th June 2010. The Conference theme will be "Collaboration: Dynamics,

Book published on "Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture"

2009-09-11T10:46:00.010+02:00

A new book on Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture, co-edited by Katrien Termeer, has just been published and presented to the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV). The book brings together insights on a range of transition experiments in food production.Together with my colleagues at the Public Administration and Policy Group, I wrote an introductory theoretical

"The Art of Research" Web Clips

2009-09-02T12:32:00.004+02:00

I've been cleaning up both my real and virtual desktop over the summer vacation and one of the results can be seen in the right hand column of this blog. I've rearranged and tagged the research notes I share publicly through Evernote.These notes refer to upcoming conferences, interesting publications, blogs or websites. The most recent items appear in the blog column, but clicking through gives

Barriers to new modes of horizontal governance

2009-05-18T13:25:00.004+02:00

Recently, an article on barriers to new modes of horizontal governance, by my colleague Katrien Termeer, was published in Public Management Review.She discusses barriers public managers encounter when implementing new modes of horizontal governance (like partnerships or network governance). Using a sensemaking perspective, three cases in the field of sustainable agriculture are analysed.This is a

MOPAN Conference program available

2009-05-07T13:44:00.005+02:00

The program for the 16th Annual Conference on Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks (MOPAN, NUI Maynooth, June 17th - 20th 2009) is available at the the conference website: http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa/news/mopan_conference/programme/index.shtmlTogether with the network for research and facilitation of multi-actor collaboration 'Cycloop' I'm organizing a Symposium “Competing

Assessing Framing of Uncertainties in Water Management Practice

2009-03-31T18:37:00.008+02:00

Another result of the fruitful cooperation between Osnabrück, Leuven and Wageningen in the context of the NeWater project has just been published on-line as an article in Water Resources Management. This paper was led by Nicola Isendahl as part of her PhD project at USF Osnabrück.This is the abstract:Dealing with uncertainties in water management is an important issue and is one which will only

Upcoming conferences

2009-03-16T12:51:00.012+01:00

A number of interesting conferences are in sight, most of which I will have to miss because of an imminent family enlargement, but you might be able to make it. I did (or still have to) work on a number of contributions together with other authors.IRSPM, CopenhagenThe 13th Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, Copenhagen Business School, April 6, 2009 –

"Disentangling approaches to framing" paper just published in Human Relations

2009-02-11T09:38:00.005+01:00

It all started in October 2004 in Wageningen. Still a PhD student at the University of Leuven at the time, I was lucky to join a small group of experienced scholars in the field of framing research. Together with Barbara Gray, Roy Lewicki, Linda Putnam, Noelle Aarts, René Bouwen and Cees van Woerkum, we spent a weekend at Hotel 'De Wageningse Berg' to sort out the conceptual confusion among

MOPAN 2009 Call for papers

2009-01-19T15:24:00.004+01:00

The call for papers is out for the16th Annual MOPAN ConferenceJune 17th - 20th 2009 National University of Ireland, MaynoothHere are some important dates: Closing Date for Abstracts Abstracts of proposed papers, posters and other media (500 words maximum) are due by Friday 13th March 2009 and should clearly indicate the content of the final paper / poster / other. (See registration dates &

Conference on Sustainability Transitions

2009-01-13T13:20:00.003+01:00

The Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations has announced its International Conference for 2009:First European Conference on Sustainability TransitionsDynamics & Governance of Transitions to Sustainability4th and 5th June 2009, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, the NetherlandsDeadline for paper abstracts is January 31, 2009.More information can be found on the conference website: http://

Towards a relational concept of uncertainty

2008-11-27T13:38:00.004+01:00

As the Newater project is approaching its completion, results and products are appearing at increasing speed. One of these is a paper on uncertainty authored by Marcela Brugnach and Claudia Pahl-Wostl (University of Osnabruck), Tharsi Taillieu (University of Leuven) and myself. This paper on 'knowing too little', 'knowing too differently' and 'accepting not to know' was recently published in

Disentangling approaches to framing

2008-09-07T21:17:00.003+02:00

Good new from Human Relations! The paper where Barbara Gray, Roy Lewicki, Linda Putnam, Noelle Aarts, René Bouwen, Cees van Woerkum and myself have tried to disentangle the multiple strands of framing research has been accepted for publication. The accepted version of the manuscript can be downloaded at the bottom of this blog.Disentangling approaches to framing in conflict and negotiation

Kofi Anan at Wageningen University

2008-08-31T21:37:00.007+02:00

During the opening ceremony of the academic year at Wageningen University, on September 1st 15h30, former UN Secretary -General Kofi Anan will talk about the global issues concerning food security and food prices. The general theme of the event is 'Feeding the World'.Access to this event is restricted, but the opening ceremony can be watched live (and probably also afterwards) on the internet

Final NeWater conference in Sevilla

2008-07-16T20:26:00.007+02:00

Registration is open for the Final NeWater Conference 2008"Adaptive Integrated Water Resources Management under Uncertainty "November 17th - 19th 2008, SevilleThe conference is intended for water policy makers/advisors and water managers working at the EU, national and basin levels, as well as researchers. The NeWater project has further developed the concept of Adaptive Integrated Water

The art of survey research ...

2008-07-14T22:36:00.002+02:00

... with some nice examples of the art of framing(from the British series "Yes, Minister")

The Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations

2008-06-30T14:20:00.005+02:00

Recently published: the Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations Oxford University Press describes the book as follows: "Inter-organizational relations (IOR), the study of Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, Partnerships, Networks and other forms of relationship between organizations, is a field of study that has burgeoned over the last four decades, but is fragmented, drawing

MOPAN 2008 Conference in Boston

2008-06-29T14:18:00.024+02:00

MOPAN (or the 15th Annual Conference on Multi-Organizational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks) took place June 25 - 27 in Boston. After two smooth flights (with a change at Dublin) a cab brought me to the surprisingly quiet and beautiful center of Boston. The Suffolk university residence provided me with a decent student room sharing the bathroom with the room next door - probably a common

New Methods for Adaptive Water Management

2008-04-21T10:08:00.005+02:00

The special feature on New Methods for Adaptive Water Management in Ecology and Society is still in-progress but the list of available articles is growing. You can find the list of articles below. The articles can be downloaded from http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/viewissue.php?sf=31free of charge.Mechanisms of Resilience in Common-pool Resource Management Systems: an Agent-based Model of Water

Seminar Barbara Gray at Wageningen University

2008-03-13T09:59:00.006+01:00

seminar by Barbara Gray at Wageningen Universityclick here for more information

Deadline extension Transitions Conference

2008-03-10T15:12:00.002+01:00

The deadline for abstracts for the Transitions conference has been extended until April 30th 2008. The conference takes place in Wageningen, 26-29 Oct. 2008.For more information see http://www.agricultureintransition.eu

Train-the-trainer Workshop Cairo

2008-03-10T10:23:00.008+01:00

The NeWater project and the Nile Basin Initiative together organized a workshop about adaptive management for people involved in the management of the Nile river basin. A very diverse African group of participants, from Egypt to Rwanda and Burundi, took part in the workshop, together with NeWater people from Belgium, Netherlands and Uzbekistan.Thanks to the preparations of Fons Jaspers, the

Publication "Identification of major sources of uncertainty in current IWRM practice"

2008-01-20T11:10:00.002+01:00

The following paper, which is the result of joint work in the NeWater project, has been published in Water Resources Management:Identification of major sources of uncertainty in current IWRM practice. Illustrated for the Rhine basin.P. van der Keur, H.J. Henriksen, J-C. Refsgaard, M. Brugnach, C. Pahl-Wostl, A. Dewulf and H. BuiteveldHere's the abstract:Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM

Transitions Conference Wageningen

2008-01-14T09:46:00.000+01:00

In October Wageningen University organises the scientific conference "'Transitions towards sustainable agriculture, food chains and peri-urban areas". The conference will take place from 26 till 29 October.The program committee is chaired by my colleague Prof. Dr. Ir. Katrien Termeer, head of our Public Administration and Policy Group.From the conference folder (download as pdf):"The structural

CAIWA 2007

2007-12-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

The International Conference on Adaptive and Integrated Water Management took place in Basel (Switzerland) now about a month ago. It was an intensive week, with a lot of presentations, panels, discussions and interesting informal talks about such things as scaling, adaptation, uncertainty and knowledge frames. There was a good representation of the NeWater crowd but also quite some external

Water-related research in the social sciences

2007-10-22T20:03:00.000+02:00

My research generally deals with the organizational and governance aspects of negotiation, conflict and collaboration between multiple public and private actors in the context of natural resources management. Specific research topics focus on the processes of sensemaking, issue framing, dealing with differences, social learning and innovation, from an approach that emphasizes the role of meaning,

Publication "The importance of social learning and culture for sustainable water management"

2007-08-23T16:55:00.001+02:00

Another manuscript that resulted from the HarmoniCOP project (Harmonizing Collaborative Planning) has been accepted for publication in Ecological Economics. It is entitled "The importance of social learning and culture for sustainable water management" and is the work of Claudia Pahl-Wostl, David Tàbara, Rene Bouwen, Marc Craps, Art Dewulf, Erik Mostert, Dagmar Ridder and Tharsi Taillieu.Here's

Publication "A framing approach to cross-disciplinary research collaboration"

2007-08-20T21:16:00.000+02:00

More good news from Ecology and Society: the manuscript "A framing approach to cross-disciplinary research collaboration" has been accepted for publication. I worked together on this one with my WOPP colleagues Greet François and Tharsi Taillieu, and Claudia Pahl-Wostl from the University of Osnabrück, as part of the NeWater project.This is the abstract:Although cross-disciplinary research

MOPAN 2007

2007-07-18T14:57:00.000+02:00

The 14th International Conference on Multi-Organizational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks took place in Leuven on 28-29 June 2007. A lively exchange of ideas took place during a full two-day program among about 85 participants.More pictures can be found on the conference website http://ppw.kuleuven.be/mopan2007

Qualitative Research

2007-07-18T14:37:00.000+02:00

Resources for doing qualitative research are often not easy to find. On the following webpage you'll find some starting points that I came accross: http://art.dewulf.googlepages.com/qualitativeresearchThe collection is somewhat biased towards discourse analytic methods, which I have been using most in my own research.

Publication "Social Learning and Water Resources Management"

2007-07-18T14:20:00.000+02:00

A manuscript on "Social Learning and Water Resources Management" just got accepted for publication in Ecology and Society. The authors are a group of people who were involved in the HarmoniCOP project: Claudia Pahl-Wostl (Univ. Osnabrück), Marc Craps (VLEKHO Business School), Erik Mostert (T.U.Delft), David Tabara (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona) en Tharsi Taillieu (K.U.Leuven) and myself.Here