PhD candidate Vincent Walstra features his research and academic work in various media
It is always a pleasure when a young academic can reach out to the broader public and discuss his/her research's societal relevance and impact. Our own Vincent Walstra has been doing very well on disseminating his work and featuring in various media. This is a list of his recent publications and interviews.
Researching Herenboeren Rotterdam
Researching short food chains in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, brought Vincent to the cooperative farming project called Herenboeren. For over a year, he collaborated with the coordinators of Herenboeren Rotterdam whilst they were setting up their cooperative farm, managed by two-hundred households (see his earlier blog about Vincent’s experiences https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/foodcitizens/news/herenboeren).
As a member of their newsletter committee, he disseminated some of his experiences through the Herenboeren media channels. Below you will find (in Dutch):
• a blog about the concept of Herenboeren, in conversation with Herenboeren Nederland board member Godelieve Spaas – https://rotterdam.herenboeren.nl/2020/05/28/vincents-blog-het-concept-herenboeren/
• an introduction and summary of a network meeting of Herenboeren Rotterdam – https://rotterdam.herenboeren.nl/2020/03/25/4x-bijzondere-samenwerking/
• an interview with Herenboeren Rotterdam farmer Albert, held together with master student Marie Frankefort – https://rotterdam.herenboeren.nl/2020/07/31/in-gesprek-met-de-boer-albert-boersen/
Interview De Kortste Weg
As a fresh academic, Vincent got his first media experience when he was contacted by a journalist working for De Kortste Weg, a short food chain campaign funded by the Zuid-Holland (the Netherlands) provincial government. She interviewed him about his findings on craft food market Rotterdamse Oogstmarkt. For one-and-a-half year he did research at this market, taking the role of visitor, vendor, and market coordinator. He interviewed several vendors, visiting some of them at their farm or workshop. Below you will find a link to the interview (in Dutch):
• ‘’Mensen hebben weinig vertrouwen in de supermarkt’’ – https://www.dekortsteweg.nl/mensen-hebben-weinig-vertrouwen-in-de-supermarkt/
Post-COVID-19 manifesto
As a response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, a group of scientists sent around a manifesto proposing five key policy proposals for a post-COVID-19 development model. It was signed by 174 scientists (amongst whom PI of the ‘Food Citizens?’ project, Cristina Grasseni) before it was shared with the Dutch national government and international media. Vincent got on board during this process, setting up a petition for non-academics to support the manifesto, signed by 4.316. In the following months, the group developed the manifesto into an article published in World Development, below you find a link to the article:
• Büscher et. al. (2020) – Planning for a world beyond COVID-19: Five pillars for post-neoliberal development; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2030485X#!