On December 10, Maximiliaan Menten, research assistant with the University of Amsterdam, gave a presentation as part of our SEICA Open Seminar Series, titled: History of Dutch Water Management: Lessons for Societal Challenges.

He introduced his research on 17th-century Dutch water management, linking stakeholder theory with participation and representation. With examples of dike projects in Bunschoten and along the Lek River, he examines cooperation in Dutch water boards by identifying the different stakeholders and stakeholder relationships.

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Dr. Federico Savini, Associate Professor of Environmental Planning, Institutions and Politics at the University of Amsterdam, gave an enlightening presentation as part of our SEICA Open Seminar Series.

During his presentation ‘Strategic planning for degrowth: what, who, how’ he first unpacked the so called ‘strategic thought’ in degrowth research. This is a research field of degrowth that is particularly concerned with the tactics and processes that bring about degrowth as a wider socio-ecological transition. What are the key challenges? Second, he argued why and how strategic spatial planning can be an important tool in this transition. Dr. Savini illustrated his arguments with the example of the so called ‘doughnut vision’ in Amsterdam. His presentation sparked an inspired conversation between attendees. Is it realistic to believe that ideological change resulting in systems of degrowth can happen?

You can find the presented paper here. The paper incited a response from dr. Yvonne Rydin, which can be found here. Dr. Savini then replied with an article that is available here.

On October 22, dr. Amineh Ghorbani, presented as part of our SEICA Open Seminar Talks. Amineh Ghorbani is an Associate professor of Institutional Modelling and Analysis at the System’s Engineering group. She is also an affiliated researcher of our research group, of the Institutional Grammar Research Initiative, and the Ostrom Workshop.

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On September 24, dr. Nicolas Jager opened the new season of our SEICA Open Seminar Talks. Dr. Jager is Assistant Professor for the governance of sustainability transformations with the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University & Research. He gave a presentation titled ‘Does public participation improve environmental governance and foster collective action? What works, when, and how?’

He discussed a meta-analysis of 305 case studies, which provides insights into how ‘more’ participatory decision-making processes compare against ‘less’ participatory ones in fostering – or hindering – strong environmental governance outputs. The presentation was based on the study “Does stakeholder participation improve environmental governance? Evidence from a meta-analysis of 305 case studies”. Find it here.

On February 27, 2024 as part of our Open Seminar Series, dr. Enrique Santamaría Echeverría from the Erasmus School of Law gave a presentation titled ‘Our common body? Biological Materials, Data and Knowledge Commons for Research & Development.’ He discussed, amongst others, different theories on the (human body) commons, the legal architecture, the imbalance between provider and recipient, commodification, and (health) data altruism. The presentation led to a lively discussion where participants shared additional insights.

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