- How can sustainable and just transitions in the sphere of water and agrifood be fostered?
- How do technological change, climate change and (geo)politics shape agrifood and water issues?
- What knowledges, socio-technical innovations and governance arrangements can address current water and agrifood challenges?
The Agrifood, Water and Technologies Academic Team studies societal challenges around water, agriculture and food, as well as the links between them, including how technologies mediate and shape these issues (e.g. irrigation, dams, digital technologies).
The Team draws conceptually on water studies, agrarian studies, political ecology, governance, science and technology studies.
Enhancing the voices of local, often marginalized, actors by focusing on social and governance dimensions of policy and technological change
Distinctive features of our approach include:
- Richness of theoretical angles, which stimulates fresh insights transcending sectoral debates.
- Mix of cutting edge theoretical, conceptual work as well as more action and policy-oriented work.
- Holistic approach to technologies in the field of agrifood and water (and beyond), deeply cognisant of the socio-economic & governance dimensions of technologies. The fact that the International Centre for Frugal Innovation (ICFI) of the Leiden, Delft & Erasmus Universities is anchored in our group, enhances a holistic, inclusive approach to technologies.
- Networks across international organizations, state, private sector and society, spanning Global North & South.
Agrifood and water
The agrifood focus, includes (and goes beyond) land as a natural resource.
It also spans imaginaries of land and water, and the fluid boundaries between those two, in fluvial and coastal areas. Our expertise in realms such as discourse analysis and in-depth and participative fieldwork, adds valuable insights that highlight and enhance local knowledge and its inclusion in policy decisions.
Our agrifood focus encompasses farming, fishing, and coastal and rural livelihoods.
Technologies
The team examines technologies within the sphere of agrifood and water as well as marine ecosystems. These include, amongst others:
- large-scale waterworks
- metrics
- low-tech, frugal and digital technologies, such as digital twins.
Our focus is on the socioeconomic, political and governance aspects of technologies. It includes technologies’ unintended and longer-term implications. It also engages with how users appropriate, tinker with or resist technologies.
Overall, the team aims at a starkly socially embedded, holistic study of agrifood and water as well as key technologies in those spheres, that aims to be groundbreaking conceptually.
We aim to enhance the voice of local (often marginalized) actors, while also being oriented at providing insights to policy and private actors, through adding a mostly subdued attention for social and governance dimensions of policy and technological change.
Agrifood, water and technologies research projects
Agrifood, water and technologies researchers
Dr Farhad MukhtarovAssistant Professor of Governance and Public Policy
Water governance; Water diplomacy
Dr Luisa CortesiAssistant Professor of Water, Disasters and Environmental Justice
Water; Floods; Technologies
Dr Marijn FalingAssistant Professor Policy and Project Evaluation
Agrifood; Policy; Social innovation
Dr Oane VisserAssociate Professor in Agrarian Studies
Food security; Digitalization; Fisheries
Professor Peter KnorringaProfessor of Private Sector and Development
Frugal innovation; Private sector and development
Dr Tsegaye MoredaAssistant Professor of Development Studies/Agrarian, Food and Resource Politics
Land politics and governance; Agrifood
Postdocs and visiting scholars
Dr Christina SathyamalaVisiting scholar
- Dr Vladimir Bogoeski
Visiting scholar
- Dr Ayako Ebata
Visiting scholar
Dr Chi Kim TranVisiting scholar
Agrifood, Water and Technologies PhD researchers
Get in touch!
Dr Oane Visser
Academic Team leader
- Email address
- visser@iss.nl