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To tweet or not to tweet: The role of personality in the social networks of great tits By: Lysanne Snijders Project video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0HysxhQz0 When mentioning social networks it is easy to think of online networks for people, such as Facebook and Twitter. But many animals also have social networks. In proximity networks they encounter each other physically and in communication networks they connect to each other by using signals. Their position in such social networks is important. It can influence the likelihood of finding new food, acquiring novel foraging techniques, rising in social status and acquiring a mate. However, having many contacts can also be risky as it increases the likelihood of encountering infectious diseases, social stress or ending up in a fight. As social network position can be so significant, it is essential that we know what determines it. A likely key factor is personality. Individuals consistently differ in how risk-prone (pro-active) and risk-averse (re-active) they tend to behave. As making face-to-face contact is not without risk, bolder individuals might have more social contacts. An ideal model to study this hypothesis is the great tit. A common garden bird. There are well established methods to quantify personality differences in great tits and with the newest tracking technologies we can now also monitor their face-tot-face contacts. What makes the great tit even more interesting is that they like to breed in nest boxes and so we can also study potential fitness effects of specific network positions. Additionally, great tits are songbirds, which makes them also ideal to answer a second question: Do individuals that are shy to approach others, use communication instead? Since communication is often a less risky connection strategy than face-to-face contact. In this PhD thesis I reveal how and when personality explains why some birds are better connected than others. In wild territorial populations pro-active males were better connected to other males and were most likely to approach a rival. In contrast, when removing the risk of fights during male-to-male spatial associations, via a video-playback experiment in captivity, the re-active males appeared to be most social. When confronted with the life-size video image of a novel conspecific, they spent the most time associating with it. When lowering the risks associated with spatial associations the social preferences of re-active individuals might thus increase. No relationship was found between social network position in the wild and reproductive success, an important fitness component. Wild male great tits that were less likely to approach a rival, sang more actively at dawn. Dawn song is the peak time for male great tit singing activity and operates as a large communication network. Since a prime function of singing at dawn is territory advertisement, these birds might thus try to prevent rival territory intrusions by singing more fiercely at dawn. No direct links were found between personality and an individual’s place in the communication network, however pro-active birds vocalized most actively during territory intrusions and increased their singing activity significantly during the fertile period of their mate. Communication networks and proximity networks can influence each other via song, by attracting or repulsing conspecifics to come close. For example, the vocal response of an intruded male to its rival significantly influenced whether female neighbours would come close to the intrusion site and if male neighbours would stay away. What determines the place in a social network? By knowing this we learn more about how groups function and how different social strategies in the same population can co-exist.

To tweet or not to tweet: The role of personality in the social networks of great tits By: Lysanne Snijders Project video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0HysxhQz0 When mentioning social networks it is easy to think of online networks for people, such as Facebook and Twitter. But many animals also have social networks. In proximity networks they encounter each other physically and in communication networks they connect to each other by using signals. Their position in such social networks is important. It can influence the likelihood of finding new food, acquiring novel foraging techniques, rising in social status and acquiring a mate. However, having many contacts can also be risky as it increases the likelihood of encountering infectious diseases, social stress or ending up in a fight. As social network position can be so significant, it is essential that we know what determines it. A likely key factor is personality. Individuals consistently differ in how risk-prone (pro-active) and risk-averse (re-active) they tend to behave. As making face-to-face contact is not without risk, bolder individuals might have more social contacts. An ideal model to study this hypothesis is the great tit. A common garden bird. There are well established methods to quantify personality differences in great tits and with the newest tracking technologies we can now also monitor their face-tot-face contacts. What makes the great tit even more interesting is that they like to breed in nest boxes and so we can also study potential fitness effects of specific network positions. Additionally, great tits are songbirds, which makes them also ideal to answer a second question: Do individuals that are shy to approach others, use communication instead? Since communication is often a less risky connection strategy than face-to-face contact. In this PhD thesis I reveal how and when personality explains why some birds are better connected than others. In wild territorial populations pro-active males were better connected to other males and were most likely to approach a rival. In contrast, when removing the risk of fights during male-to-male spatial associations, via a video-playback experiment in captivity, the re-active males appeared to be most social. When confronted with the life-size video image of a novel conspecific, they spent the most time associating with it. When lowering the risks associated with spatial associations the social preferences of re-active individuals might thus increase. No relationship was found between social network position in the wild and reproductive success, an important fitness component. Wild male great tits that were less likely to approach a rival, sang more actively at dawn. Dawn song is the peak time for male great tit singing activity and operates as a large communication network. Since a prime function of singing at dawn is territory advertisement, these birds might thus try to prevent rival territory intrusions by singing more fiercely at dawn. No direct links were found between personality and an individual’s place in the communication network, however pro-active birds vocalized most actively during territory intrusions and increased their singing activity significantly during the fertile period of their mate. Communication networks and proximity networks can influence each other via song, by attracting or repulsing conspecifics to come close. For example, the vocal response of an intruded male to its rival significantly influenced whether female neighbours would come close to the intrusion site and if male neighbours would stay away. What determines the place in a social network? By knowing this we learn more about how groups function and how different social strategies in the same population can co-exist.

Uitleg van het begrip heterotopia, waar het gaat om het gebruik van de ruimte. Volgens de auteur wordt heterotopia als persoonlijke ruimte en als vrijetijdsruimte op tal van manieren tot stand gebracht; het is een georganiseerde wereld

In 2010, Willem Assies, an astute and prolific Latin Americanist and political anthropologist, died unexpectedly, at the age of 55. This book brings together some of his writings. Assies would always gave central stage to the collective and multi-layered actor and not the system — but he would constantly do so within the context of restrictions, pressures, conditioning factors and contradictions, to provide the actor with a real setting of operation.

Aandacht voor onderwijsvernieuwing waarbij vragen van arbeidsmarkt en maatschappij om antwoord vragen

The Nükak are a people of hunters and gatherers in the Colombian Amazon who call themselves Nükak baka', which can be translated as ‘the true people’. More than a name, this denomination designates a shared moral and political project that enables this people to reproduce themselves materially and socially, to guide their individual conduct, to perpetuate and fertilize the cosmos and to steer their relationships with the other peoples of the universe. In this sense this project constitutes a biopolitics, or to put it differently, it is a politics oriented toward the creation and defense of life. This thesis, therefore, is an ethnographic research about what it means for the Nükak to live as a ‘true people’. It shows that such a common project constitutes above all a set of practices that is continuously being actualized, both in terms of individual conduct as well as in terms of collective interactions and activities. These become materialized in aspects such as the preservation of the environment and the construction, and care, of the body. For that reason living as ‘true people’ is neither a given condition nor a status that once attained can be maintained until death. Being an incomplete process, for the Nükak the constitution of ‘true people’ is continuously under threat. This means that their reproduction and the continuity of the universe is always at risk. These threats originate in actions, emotions and amoral attitudes of the Nükak themselves, or of other beings in the cosmos, which express themselves in situations such as illness or inter-personal conflicts. As a result the everyday life of this group unfolds within a continuous tension between the actualization of the project of constituting ‘true people’ and the threat of biological and social extinction, even the destruction of the cosmos. From a different perspective, this thesis is concerned with practices of ‘living together’, of accompanying each other, of sharing, of establishing kin relations in order to strengthen the common, and of finding out what they have in common. It is also about how to deal with possible sources of division. Finally, the thesis sets out to show how this group actualizes a sense of unity and diversity that enables them to create Nükak baka, i.e. ‘true people’, thus articulating differences without denying them. In order to develop these topics, the thesis explores the major features of the project of creating, and living as, ‘true people’, as well as a number of strategies and mechanisms (or social dispositifs) that the Nükak have generated for its actualization. It also examines the ontological and mythical bearings, going back to the times of the creation of the cosmos, which enables us to understand, from the perspective of the Nükak, with what peoples and beings they are interacting. In this sense the thesis contributes to the actualization of basic ethnographic information and elaborates on Nükak’s theories and practices concerning social life, the body, notions of the person, relations between kin, relations with other peoples and beings in the cosmos, shamanism, and narratives about the experiences of the ancestors who form part of their historical memory. This thesis also contributes to the documentation of the impact of the armed conflict in Colombia on the Nükak, clarifying the heterogeneity and complexity of the circumstances that have led to the forced displacement of different groups of Nükak, as well as the institutional and media attention that these groups have received.

The Nükak are a people of hunters and gatherers in the Colombian Amazon who call themselves Nükak baka', which can be translated as ‘the true people’. More than a name, this denomination designates a shared moral and political project that enables this people to reproduce themselves materially and socially, to guide their individual conduct, to perpetuate and fertilize the cosmos and to steer their relationships with the other peoples of the universe. In this sense this project constitutes a biopolitics, or to put it differently, it is a politics oriented toward the creation and defense of life. This thesis, therefore, is an ethnographic research about what it means for the Nükak to live as a ‘true people’. It shows that such a common project constitutes above all a set of practices that is continuously being actualized, both in terms of individual conduct as well as in terms of collective interactions and activities. These become materialized in aspects such as the preservation of the environment and the construction, and care, of the body. For that reason living as ‘true people’ is neither a given condition nor a status that once attained can be maintained until death. Being an incomplete process, for the Nükak the constitution of ‘true people’ is continuously under threat. This means that their reproduction and the continuity of the universe is always at risk. These threats originate in actions, emotions and amoral attitudes of the Nükak themselves, or of other beings in the cosmos, which express themselves in situations such as illness or inter-personal conflicts. As a result the everyday life of this group unfolds within a continuous tension between the actualization of the project of constituting ‘true people’ and the threat of biological and social extinction, even the destruction of the cosmos. From a different perspective, this thesis is concerned with practices of ‘living together’, of accompanying each other, of sharing, of establishing kin relations in order to strengthen the common, and of finding out what they have in common. It is also about how to deal with possible sources of division. Finally, the thesis sets out to show how this group actualizes a sense of unity and diversity that enables them to create Nükak baka, i.e. ‘true people’, thus articulating differences without denying them. In order to develop these topics, the thesis explores the major features of the project of creating, and living as, ‘true people’, as well as a number of strategies and mechanisms (or social dispositifs) that the Nükak have generated for its actualization. It also examines the ontological and mythical bearings, going back to the times of the creation of the cosmos, which enables us to understand, from the perspective of the Nükak, with what peoples and beings they are interacting. In this sense the thesis contributes to the actualization of basic ethnographic information and elaborates on Nükak’s theories and practices concerning social life, the body, notions of the person, relations between kin, relations with other peoples and beings in the cosmos, shamanism, and narratives about the experiences of the ancestors who form part of their historical memory. This thesis also contributes to the documentation of the impact of the armed conflict in Colombia on the Nükak, clarifying the heterogeneity and complexity of the circumstances that have led to the forced displacement of different groups of Nükak, as well as the institutional and media attention that these groups have received.

This book sets out to contribute to the pursuit of ‘making nonpersons full human beings’ (Boff & Boff:1987:8). It provides insights in the lives of residents of the slum of “Chão de Estrelas” in Recife, Brazil. I argue that slum dwellers should not be mystified and misrecognised as “the other”, as different from “normal” citizens, because of their marginalised position. I show that the slum is, in fact, an eminently knowable world. This book presents how slum dwellers, directed by local lideres comunitarios, community leaders, strive for material and intangible resources and engage in utopian projects. I argue that the needs and aspirations of these people, who are at constant risk of being ignored, disconnected, and abandoned, emerge from their yearnings for recognition and connectivity, and a fear of abandonment. To understand this life in the slum, I focus on the ways slum dwellers attempt to realise their needs and aspirations, modes of operating which I call “slum politics”. Chapter 1 defines slum politics as grounded in the needs and aspirations of those who live in the margins. Drawing on the work of Oscar Lewis (1959, 1965), it analyses how life in the slum, through stigmatisation and a long history of marginalisation, is reproduced in ways that are fundamentally different from middle- and upper-class people. This difference, expressed in particular needs and aspirations, is not generated because slum dwellers are a different kind of people, but because have they been structurally segregated in the dominant political and economic order. This chapter documents how these particular needs and aspirations, although not solely held by slum dwellers, are more emphatically and urgently present in their lives in the margins of the political and economic order, and have material, intangible and utopian dimensions. Material needs exist, for instance, for money, food, and employment. Intangible, or social, needs can be viewed in attempts to establish connections to all kinds of people and to gain prestige. Utopian aspirations find their expression in slum dwellers’ cravings for solidarity, a better environment, and a desire to be connected to the world instead of being ignored by it. This chapter coins the concept of slum politics as the ongoing and never finished endeavour of slum dwellers of creating connections and possibilities which break off all the time. Slum politics, driven by attempts to be connected to the political and economic order, centres on the notion of connectivity, the intricate face-to-face relations between persons which need to be constantly maintained, and a fear abandonment, which means being forsaken and excluded by everybody. It includes practices in the realms of family life, making a living, and dreaming about the future. Chapter 2 provides a portrait of community leadership. It shows how community leaders are the main facilitators of slum politics, as they articulate and consolidate needs and aspirations of their fellow slum dwellers, which they, being slum dwellers 340 themselves, know well. Community leaders distinguish themselves from other slum dwellers by their talent to establish and maintain myriad connections, both to other slum dwellers and people outside the slum. Through these connections they attempt to create access to resources, to gain prestige, and arrive at recognition of their needs and those of their fellow slum dwellers. Community leaders also need their connections in order to make a living. They engage in the realm of electoral politics, looking for resources and prestige. Yet, their practices inevitably implicate them in particular tensions between opposing dimensions. They are confronted with the diverging expectations of fellow slum dwellers. This results in tensions of love for the community versus self-interest, and between the expectation that community leaders derive prestige and resources through electoral politics and the accusation that they are contaminated by electoral political interests. Slum dwellers are attracted by electoral politics’ image of opulence and possibilities beyond compare. Meanwhile, they distrust involvement in it, as it seemingly marginalises community issues in favour of assuming and maintaining public positions and making money. Chapter 3 introduces the community leaders Ovídio, Creuza, and Zezinho, their personalities, their projects, their operational styles, and their competition. It pays attention to how they articulate and consolidate needs and aspirations of their fellow slum dwellers, and operate between the tensions introduced in chapter 2. Each leader’s trajectory towards becoming a leader is presented, including their historical record of achievements and their thematic interests, comprising issues in which they specialise, which allow them to establish connections with people around specific topics. Three case studies are presented, one on each community leader, closely examining how they give shape to slum politics in their projects. Chapter 4 discusses how ordinary life in the slum is lived, through narrating histories of how four families in the slum organise their lives. These stories shed light on the way the economy is lived in a site where unemployment is high, self-employment often the only way to make a living, and allowances form a great part of the money coming in. I show a particular economic dynamic, where much of the money remains circulating within the slum, with a specific gendered labour division, an emphasis on connections, gift-giving, and a social use of money. In Chapter 5, I analyse how slum politics is intertwined with, but different from, electoral and themselves, know well. Community leaders distinguish themselves from other slum dwellers by their talent to establish and maintain myriad connections, both to other slum dwellers and people outside the slum. Through these connections they attempt to create access to resources, to gain prestige, and arrive at recognition of their needs and those of their fellow slum dwellers. Community leaders also need their connections in order to make a living. They engage in the realm of electoral politics, looking for resources and prestige. Yet, their practices inevitably implicate them in particular tensions between opposing dimensions. They are confronted with the diverging expectations of fellow slum dwellers. This results in tensions of love for the community versus self-interest, and between the expectation that community leaders derive prestige and resources through electoral politics and the accusation that they are contaminated by electoral political interests. Slum dwellers are attracted by electoral politics’ image of opulence and possibilities beyond compare. Meanwhile, they distrust involvement in it, as it seemingly marginalises community issues in favour of assuming and maintaining public positions and making money. Chapter 3 introduces the community leaders Ovídio, Creuza, and Zezinho, their personalities, their projects, their operational styles, and their competition. It pays attention to how they articulate and consolidate needs and aspirations of their fellow slum dwellers, and operate between the tensions introduced in chapter 2. Each leader’s trajectory towards becoming a leader is presented, including their historical record of achievements and their thematic interests, comprising issues in which they specialise, which allow them to establish connections with people around specific topics. Three case studies are presented, one on each community leader, closely examining how they give shape to slum politics in their projects. Chapter 4 discusses how ordinary life in the slum is lived, through narrating histories of how four families in the slum organise their lives. These stories shed light on the way the economy is lived in a site where unemployment is high, self-employment often the only way to make a living, and allowances form a great part of the money coming in. I show a particular economic dynamic, where much of the money remains circulating within the slum, with a specific gendered labour division, an emphasis on connections, gift-giving, and a social use of money. In Chapter 5, I analyse how slum politics is intertwined with, but different from, electoral and governmental politics. I follow Partha Chatterjee’s theorising on popular politics, conceptualised as those ‘contrary mobilisations’ that may have ‘transformative effects … among the supposedly unenlightened sections of the population’ (2004:49). Chatterjee distinguishes the politics of marginalised people from the politics of the state apparatus and the government, and argues that the former should not be understood as “pre-political” and backward, but as a politics with its own parameters and logics, ‘different from that of the elite’ (idem:39). My reservation to Chatterjee’s theorisations is that he presents popular politics as a residual category, derived from governmental politics. I argue instead that slum politics is not primarily reactive to or derived from governmental politics, but co-exists with it as it is constituted in the needs and aspirations of slum dwellers. Chapter 6, zeroing in on the 2004 municipal elections, shows the overlap between slum politics and electoral politics. It documents how electoral politics penetrates into the slum and contaminates slum politics. Community leaders employ the moment of the elections to negotiate with candidates to garner resources for the community and themselves. However, electoral politics entails the possible risk of steering away from community interests into issues of self-interested yearnings for power and money. Two case studies show attempts of community leaders, as political canvassers, to manoeuvre in the realm of electoral politics in such ways as to also make money, cater to needs and aspirations of fellow slum dwellers, and steer clear of accusations of being selfinterested. Chapter 7 presents a case study of encounters between slum politics and governmental politics. Parts of Chão de Estrelas were planned to be regenerated by a large World Bank funded slum upgrading programme. I analyse the preamble of the programme, how it affected the population of the slum, and how community leaders dealt with it. With reference to Bruno Latour’s work, I argue that the ambiguity which existed around the programme actually called it into existence. I contend that a project creates a context in which it becomes real, through rumours and ‘little solidities’ (Latour 1996:45), like meetings, surveys, maps, aerial photographs, offices, brochures, registers, maps, surveyors and their reports, and census stickers. I also argue that the programme affected slum dwellers in their most vulnerable places: their homes, neighbourhoods, and possibilities for work. As a consequence, feelings of despair, evoking fears of being ignored as a person with specific needs and aspirations, hit hard in the lives of slum dwellers. Chapter 8 analyses how life in the slum is framed by violence. Next to the symbolic and structural violence of discrimination, slum dwellers face acts of violence on a daily basis, like fights, assaults and shoot-outs, often related to drug trade. Community leaders and drug traders maintain a tacit balance by which they steer clear of contact with each other. Slum dwellers, I show, perceive of violence as extraordinary through acts of mentioning it, reflecting upon it, avoiding it, and expressing aspirations for a life without it. In contrast, they also see violence as normal, as it is an everyday life experience. Furthermore, this chapter argues that, whereas actual violence occurs at random, potential violence is structured and structuring. Dealing with potential violence, slum dwellers ban violence discursively from their personal lives by depicting it as related to ‘the other’ and ‘elsewhere’. In addition, they adhere to moral categories which define those who die from violence as evil, as such seeing their death as a good thing which rids the community of wrong-doers. Turning again to the intersection between slum politics and governmental politics, the chapter argues that the concept of citizenship does not resonate with the lives of slum dwellers who reside in sites where citizenship rights per definition do not hold. Part of the violence slum dwellers face is related to the intrusive workings of the statedesigned project of registered citizenship, which centres on the compulsory carrying of identity cards. Slum dwellers, instead of being recognised as citizens through their identity cards, are discriminated and approached in violent ways by the police who consider them as criminals. Chapter 9, as a conclusion, argues once more against the mystification and “othering” of slum dwellers, and distances them from the philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s notion of homo sacer (1998, 2005). Slum dwellers do not coincide with homo sacer, as they are not officially abandoned by law and maintain personal connections with people outside the slum. Further, the dominant image of the slum dweller as a dangerous criminal separates him from homo sacer, who is harmless. Moreover, slum politics assigns a political quality to life in the slum, which makes it a politically qualified life (bios) instead of the bare life (zoē) of homo sacer. Slum dwellers’ position in the political and economic order, although marginalised, is different from the position of homo sacer, who exists outside of the order. Finally, in contrast to homo sacer, slum dwellers are not a minority, but a fast growing social class which will soon exist of more than half of the world’s population. I incite anthropologists to study not only the general exclusionary workings of political systems, but also the mundane practices and utopian aspirations of people living in the margins, as an analysis of these may help to imagine novel political possibilities.

Bespreking van een onderzoek naar de economische omstandigheden en het arbeidsmarktgedrag van langdurig werklozen in Friesland

This book is about sustainable development and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. It explores how Amazonian settlers construct their life in a settlement project and how this process accompanies the landscape change in the southeast of Pará State. The book critically examines discourses of sustainable development and natural resource management for the institutionalism and insufficient dealings with the settlers’ everyday practice of forest clearing. The study demonstrates rich social and political life of the settlers in ethnographic details and shows flexible community boundaries of settlement projects. Deforestation and sustainable development in the Amazon cannot be discussed without understanding changeable social and physical spaces from the settlers’ standpoint. This book further elaborates a critical account of development projects and international cooperation programs promoting sustainable development in the Amazon, based on the author’s own experience.

Hoe groter het aandeel mannetjes is in een groep apen, hoe dominanter de vrouwtjes worden over de mannen. Dit is een van de conclusies die Jan Wantia trok uit zijn computermodellen en vervolgens bevestigd zag in zijn analyse van gegevens over groepen van echte primaten. Dominantiehiërarchieën zijn in vele in groepsverband levende diersoorten onderzocht en beschreven, zowel in de natuur als in gevangenschap. De essentie van dominantie is dat in gevechten tussen twee individuen degene die voordurend wint dominant is, en degene die verliest ondergeschikt. Dit ontstaat door individuele ge-erfde verschillen en ook doordat het winnen van een gevecht de kans vergroot om een volgende keer opnieuw te winnen, en vice versa voor verliezen. Dergelijke ‘winnaar-verliezer’ effecten zijn in vele diersoorten aangetoond. Nu blijken er andere factoren die via het winnaar-verliezer effect de dominantiestructuur in een groep mede beïnvloeden, zoals de getalsverhouding tussen mannen en vrouwen binnen een groep. Daarnaast toonde Wantia met behulp van zijn modellen ook aan dat in gevechten met elkaar ‘despotische’ groepen ‘egalitaire’ groepen verslaan. Dit weerlegt huidige theorieën over primaten, maar lijkt te worden ondersteund door de schaarse empirische gegevens die er momenteel beschikbaar zijn.

Hoe groter het aandeel mannetjes is in een groep apen, hoe dominanter de vrouwtjes worden over de mannen. Dit is een van de conclusies die Jan Wantia trok uit zijn computermodellen en vervolgens bevestigd zag in zijn analyse van gegevens over groepen van echte primaten. Dominantiehiërarchieën zijn in vele in groepsverband levende diersoorten onderzocht en beschreven, zowel in de natuur als in gevangenschap. De essentie van dominantie is dat in gevechten tussen twee individuen degene die voordurend wint dominant is, en degene die verliest ondergeschikt. Dit ontstaat door individuele ge-erfde verschillen en ook doordat het winnen van een gevecht de kans vergroot om een volgende keer opnieuw te winnen, en vice versa voor verliezen. Dergelijke ‘winnaar-verliezer’ effecten zijn in vele diersoorten aangetoond. Nu blijken er andere factoren die via het winnaar-verliezer effect de dominantiestructuur in een groep mede beïnvloeden, zoals de getalsverhouding tussen mannen en vrouwen binnen een groep. Daarnaast toonde Wantia met behulp van zijn modellen ook aan dat in gevechten met elkaar ‘despotische’ groepen ‘egalitaire’ groepen verslaan. Dit weerlegt huidige theorieën over primaten, maar lijkt te worden ondersteund door de schaarse empirische gegevens die er momenteel beschikbaar zijn.

This book is about sustainable development and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. It explores how Amazonian settlers construct their life in a settlement project and how this process accompanies the landscape change in the southeast of Pará State. The book critically examines discourses of sustainable development and natural resource management for the institutionalism and insufficient dealings with the settlers’ everyday practice of forest clearing. The study demonstrates rich social and political life of the settlers in ethnographic details and shows flexible community boundaries of settlement projects. Deforestation and sustainable development in the Amazon cannot be discussed without understanding changeable social and physical spaces from the settlers’ standpoint. This book further elaborates a critical account of development projects and international cooperation programs promoting sustainable development in the Amazon, based on the author’s own experience.

The original entry point for this study was how to optimize long-term rotation strategies for addressing the problem of soil fertility decline inWenchi,Ghana. However, as the study progressed over time, it was realized that what we initially interpreted as soil fertility management strategies were closely intertwined with wider issues such as cropping systems, livelihood aspirations and land tenure relations. Exploration of farmers' soil fertility management practices revealed a link between tenure insecurity among migrant farmers especially, and limited attention for regeneration of soil fertility. The native farmers who own land tend to use rotations involving long-duration crops such as cassava and pigeonpea to improve their soils. In contrast, migrants who depend mostly on short-term rental or sharecropping arrangements, rely more on rotations with short- duration crops such as cowpea and groundnut to improve soil fertility. A study to examine diversity among farm households and their relevance and implications for orienting action research aimed at combating soil fertility decline revealed that historical, ethnic and gender dimensions of diversity provide additional insights in livelihood patterns and soil fertility management which are relevant for fine-tuning technical and social action research agendas. Relevant differences between farm households result from the interplay between structural conditions and the strategies of active agents. Five cowpea varieties were evaluated for their grain yield, Nsub>2 -fixation and their contribution to the productivity of subsequent maize crop grown in rotation. On both farmer and researcher-managed fields, there were no significant differences in grain yield among the different varieties. Using the 15 N natural abundance technique, the proportion of N 2 fixed by the different cowpea varieties ranged between 61 and 77%. On both farmer and researcher-managed fields, maize grain yield after cowpea without application of mineral N fertiliser was higher than maize after maize. Although farmers recognized the contribution of cowpea to soil fertility and yields of the subsequent maize crop, they did not consider this as an important criterion when selecting varieties for use in their own fields. The overriding criteria for selecting cowpea varieties were more related to their early harvest, seed quality in terms of taste and marketability and ease of production (low labour demand). The performance of maize under different cropping sequences was evaluated in both farmer and researcher-managed experiments. Yield of maize without N application was higher after cassava and pigeonpea compared to that after speargrass fallow, cowpea or maize in both researcher and farmer-managed experiments. A simple financial analysis performed to evaluate the profitability of the various rotational sequences showed cassava/maize rotation to be the most profitable rotational sequence while speargrass fallow/maize rotation was found to be the least profitable. Farmers' preferences for a particular practice were more related to accessibility to production resources and livelihood aspirations. An action research in the social realm was carried out to develop institutional arrangements beneficial for soil fertility. Initial efforts aimed at bringing stakeholders together in a platform to engage in a collaborative design of new arrangements were stranded mainly because conditions conducive for learning and negotiations were absent. The implementation of experimentation with alternative tenure arrangements initiated by individual landowners and tenant farmers too ran into difficulties due to intra-family dynamics and ambiguities regarding land tenure. Further investigations to find out how ambiguities could be tackled, revealed that the local actors themselves had worked towards institutional arrangements to reduce ambiguities. However, there is still considerable scope for further development of these self-organised innovations. The study stresses the need for continuous diagnosis and exploration in action research in order to steer research in a relevant direction.

The original entry point for this study was how to optimize long-term rotation strategies for addressing the problem of soil fertility decline inWenchi,Ghana. However, as the study progressed over time, it was realized that what we initially interpreted as soil fertility management strategies were closely intertwined with wider issues such as cropping systems, livelihood aspirations and land tenure relations. Exploration of farmers' soil fertility management practices revealed a link between tenure insecurity among migrant farmers especially, and limited attention for regeneration of soil fertility. The native farmers who own land tend to use rotations involving long-duration crops such as cassava and pigeonpea to improve their soils. In contrast, migrants who depend mostly on short-term rental or sharecropping arrangements, rely more on rotations with short- duration crops such as cowpea and groundnut to improve soil fertility. A study to examine diversity among farm households and their relevance and implications for orienting action research aimed at combating soil fertility decline revealed that historical, ethnic and gender dimensions of diversity provide additional insights in livelihood patterns and soil fertility management which are relevant for fine-tuning technical and social action research agendas. Relevant differences between farm households result from the interplay between structural conditions and the strategies of active agents. Five cowpea varieties were evaluated for their grain yield, Nsub>2 -fixation and their contribution to the productivity of subsequent maize crop grown in rotation. On both farmer and researcher-managed fields, there were no significant differences in grain yield among the different varieties. Using the 15 N natural abundance technique, the proportion of N 2 fixed by the different cowpea varieties ranged between 61 and 77%. On both farmer and researcher-managed fields, maize grain yield after cowpea without application of mineral N fertiliser was higher than maize after maize. Although farmers recognized the contribution of cowpea to soil fertility and yields of the subsequent maize crop, they did not consider this as an important criterion when selecting varieties for use in their own fields. The overriding criteria for selecting cowpea varieties were more related to their early harvest, seed quality in terms of taste and marketability and ease of production (low labour demand). The performance of maize under different cropping sequences was evaluated in both farmer and researcher-managed experiments. Yield of maize without N application was higher after cassava and pigeonpea compared to that after speargrass fallow, cowpea or maize in both researcher and farmer-managed experiments. A simple financial analysis performed to evaluate the profitability of the various rotational sequences showed cassava/maize rotation to be the most profitable rotational sequence while speargrass fallow/maize rotation was found to be the least profitable. Farmers' preferences for a particular practice were more related to accessibility to production resources and livelihood aspirations. An action research in the social realm was carried out to develop institutional arrangements beneficial for soil fertility. Initial efforts aimed at bringing stakeholders together in a platform to engage in a collaborative design of new arrangements were stranded mainly because conditions conducive for learning and negotiations were absent. The implementation of experimentation with alternative tenure arrangements initiated by individual landowners and tenant farmers too ran into difficulties due to intra-family dynamics and ambiguities regarding land tenure. Further investigations to find out how ambiguities could be tackled, revealed that the local actors themselves had worked towards institutional arrangements to reduce ambiguities. However, there is still considerable scope for further development of these self-organised innovations. The study stresses the need for continuous diagnosis and exploration in action research in order to steer research in a relevant direction.

Onderzoek naar de werking van zorgboerderijen. Geconcludeerd wordt dat een zorgboerderij een kansrijke plek is om persoonlijke groei en ontwikkeling van cliënten mogelijk te maken. Het is een omgeving die prikkelt en stimuleert en daarnaast voldoende structuur en veiligheid kan bieden opdat cliënten de uitdaging ook aan durven gaan. Een zorgboerderij is ook een omgeving met voldoende ruimte om elkaar niet in de weg te zitten en voldoende variatie om werk of dagbesteding op-maat te bieden. De diversiteit in werkzaamheden en de activering van alle zintuigen, de structuur en het ritme dat een zorgboerderij kan bieden, het levert allemaal een bijdrage aan de gelegenheid voor cliënten om veiligheid, uitdaging en verbinding te ervaren

Onderzoek naar de werking van zorgboerderijen. Geconcludeerd wordt dat een zorgboerderij een kansrijke plek is om persoonlijke groei en ontwikkeling van cliënten mogelijk te maken. Het is een omgeving die prikkelt en stimuleert en daarnaast voldoende structuur en veiligheid kan bieden opdat cliënten de uitdaging ook aan durven gaan. Een zorgboerderij is ook een omgeving met voldoende ruimte om elkaar niet in de weg te zitten en voldoende variatie om werk of dagbesteding op-maat te bieden. De diversiteit in werkzaamheden en de activering van alle zintuigen, de structuur en het ritme dat een zorgboerderij kan bieden, het levert allemaal een bijdrage aan de gelegenheid voor cliënten om veiligheid, uitdaging en verbinding te ervaren

Uitleg van het begrip heterotopia, waar het gaat om het gebruik van de ruimte. Volgens de auteur wordt heterotopia als persoonlijke ruimte en als vrijetijdsruimte op tal van manieren tot stand gebracht; het is een georganiseerde wereld

Er is informatie geonventariseerd over maatschappelijke behoeften die in 2015-2020 waarschijnlijk spelen ten aanzien van de groene ruimte en over beheersystemen waarmee agrariërs kunnen inspelen op deze behoeften. Speciale aandacht is uitgegaan naar het effect van de beheersystemen op inkomens van agrariërs en naar de betekenis van de beheersystemen voor drie ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten te weten economisch, sociaal en ecologisch. In totaal zijn twintig beheersystemen gesignaleerd. Zestien daarvan kunnen positief uitpakken voor het inkomen van agrariërs. Wel komen individuele verschillen voor tussen agrariërs met eenzelfde beheersysteem. Het effect van de beheersystemen op de ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten wisselt. Slechts één systeem is voor alledrie de ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten gunstig. Negen andere zijn voor twee aspecten gunstig en de tien overige voor slechts één aspect. Met een mix van beheersystemen kan op gebiedsniveau wel aan meerdere aspecten tegemoet worden gekomen. Het rapport sluit af met een aantal vragen voor vervolgonderzoek.

Er is informatie geonventariseerd over maatschappelijke behoeften die in 2015-2020 waarschijnlijk spelen ten aanzien van de groene ruimte en over beheersystemen waarmee agrariërs kunnen inspelen op deze behoeften. Speciale aandacht is uitgegaan naar het effect van de beheersystemen op inkomens van agrariërs en naar de betekenis van de beheersystemen voor drie ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten te weten economisch, sociaal en ecologisch. In totaal zijn twintig beheersystemen gesignaleerd. Zestien daarvan kunnen positief uitpakken voor het inkomen van agrariërs. Wel komen individuele verschillen voor tussen agrariërs met eenzelfde beheersysteem. Het effect van de beheersystemen op de ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten wisselt. Slechts één systeem is voor alledrie de ruimtelijke kwaliteitsaspecten gunstig. Negen andere zijn voor twee aspecten gunstig en de tien overige voor slechts één aspect. Met een mix van beheersystemen kan op gebiedsniveau wel aan meerdere aspecten tegemoet worden gekomen. Het rapport sluit af met een aantal vragen voor vervolgonderzoek.

Bij Nieuwe Verbreding gaat het om nieuwe taken voor boeren in het verzorgen en benutten van bijzondere plattelandskwaliteiten (natuur, rust en ruimte). Naast ecologische verbreding - het bedrijfsmatig onderhouden van milieu, natuur en landschap - is er sociale verbreding waarbij boeren werk maken van dienstverlening aan gasten op het platteland. Beide vormen van verbreding kunnen elkaar versterken, met name wanneer ecologische verbreding het platteland hoogwaardiger maakt voor sociale verbreding. Het oppakken van Nieuwe Verbreding betekent een breuk met de succesformule waarmee de Nederlandse landbouw na WO II groot werd. Voor een indruk van de implicaties van verbreding voor de boer onderscheidt de verkenning vier beroepscapaciteiten (Human Capital): Vakmanschap, Professionaliteit, Managementcapaciteit en Ondernemerschap. Ook de implicaties van verbreding voor beroepsondersteunende netwerken (Social Capital) komen aan bod. De uitkomsten in deze studie zijn conceptueel van aard en hebben een hypothetisch karakter. Er worden lijnen uitgezet voor een empirische verkenning op gebiedsniveau.

Bij Nieuwe Verbreding gaat het om nieuwe taken voor boeren in het verzorgen en benutten van bijzondere plattelandskwaliteiten (natuur, rust en ruimte). Naast ecologische verbreding - het bedrijfsmatig onderhouden van milieu, natuur en landschap - is er sociale verbreding waarbij boeren werk maken van dienstverlening aan gasten op het platteland. Beide vormen van verbreding kunnen elkaar versterken, met name wanneer ecologische verbreding het platteland hoogwaardiger maakt voor sociale verbreding. Het oppakken van Nieuwe Verbreding betekent een breuk met de succesformule waarmee de Nederlandse landbouw na WO II groot werd. Voor een indruk van de implicaties van verbreding voor de boer onderscheidt de verkenning vier beroepscapaciteiten (Human Capital): Vakmanschap, Professionaliteit, Managementcapaciteit en Ondernemerschap. Ook de implicaties van verbreding voor beroepsondersteunende netwerken (Social Capital) komen aan bod. De uitkomsten in deze studie zijn conceptueel van aard en hebben een hypothetisch karakter. Er worden lijnen uitgezet voor een empirische verkenning op gebiedsniveau.

Conventional gender theories shape to a large extent the outcomes of studies concerning Shona culture, gender relations in agriculture and irrigation. Subsequently, women are depicted as subordinated and passive actors and as victims of patriarchal (family) structures.In Southern Africa including Zimbabwe, little research has been done by perceiving women as strategic social actors who also reproduce and transform everyday life. The present study, then, aims to shed light on the question of how Ndau (Shona) women and men themselves use, transform, and manipulate rules, beliefs and normative/value frames in practice and thereby shape practice and vice versa.Power is an outcome of those processes. To explore everyday village life I have used the concepts of practice, power and discourse. In order to understand the social dynamics in everyday life I have used an actor oriented approach.I have studied everyday life by distinguishing 'fields' which are analysed per chapter as follows:social relations and more in particular kinship and marriage (ch2);the establishing and running of homesteads, where I also explore the allocation of my own place in Manesa village by village head Manesa and the building of my own house of poles, mud and grass (ch 3);agricultural production outside and inside the irrigation scheme and how women shape the value of agricultural produce (ch 4);allocating and holding the land in an irrigation scheme under construction and an existing irrigation scheme (ch 5);politics in Manesa village and Mutema chieftaincy where the woman spirit medium of Makopa emerges as an important arbitrator and power broker (ch 6);spirit and witchcraft beliefs in practice (ch 7).Chapter 8 is a retrospect tying together all the different themes and chapters while exploring the new perspectives which emerged from the study regarding gender, Shona and irrigation.

Aandacht voor onderwijsvernieuwing waarbij vragen van arbeidsmarkt en maatschappij om antwoord vragen

Conventional gender theories shape to a large extent the outcomes of studies concerning Shona culture, gender relations in agriculture and irrigation. Subsequently, women are depicted as subordinated and passive actors and as victims of patriarchal (family) structures.In Southern Africa including Zimbabwe, little research has been done by perceiving women as strategic social actors who also reproduce and transform everyday life. The present study, then, aims to shed light on the question of how Ndau (Shona) women and men themselves use, transform, and manipulate rules, beliefs and normative/value frames in practice and thereby shape practice and vice versa.Power is an outcome of those processes. To explore everyday village life I have used the concepts of practice, power and discourse. In order to understand the social dynamics in everyday life I have used an actor oriented approach.I have studied everyday life by distinguishing 'fields' which are analysed per chapter as follows:social relations and more in particular kinship and marriage (ch2);the establishing and running of homesteads, where I also explore the allocation of my own place in Manesa village by village head Manesa and the building of my own house of poles, mud and grass (ch 3);agricultural production outside and inside the irrigation scheme and how women shape the value of agricultural produce (ch 4);allocating and holding the land in an irrigation scheme under construction and an existing irrigation scheme (ch 5);politics in Manesa village and Mutema chieftaincy where the woman spirit medium of Makopa emerges as an important arbitrator and power broker (ch 6);spirit and witchcraft beliefs in practice (ch 7).Chapter 8 is a retrospect tying together all the different themes and chapters while exploring the new perspectives which emerged from the study regarding gender, Shona and irrigation.