Research project

Rural History of the Netherlands

The research group New Rural History (in Dutch: de Nieuwe PLAG) aims to stimulate the study of rural history in the Netherlands, particularly its political and cultural dimensions. It will develop a handbook to support researchers who want to work on Dutch rural history and will foster new research to integrate rural history more fully into broader national and international historiographical debates.

Contact: Judith Pollmann
Funding: NWO Spinoza Prize

A black-and-white photograph showing the entrance to a polling station for a land consolidation vote in the Bommelerwaard, the Netherlands. On the left, a sign attached to a brick wall reads 'STEMBUREAU RUILVERKAVELING' (Polling station land consolidation). In the foreground, two elderly men pass each other, one entering and the other leaving the polling station. — Polling station for land consolidation (ruilverkaveling) in the Bommelerwaard, the Netherlands, photographed by Kors van Bennekom, 1980, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, NG-1982-17-31

A promotional poster advocating land consolidation (ruilverkaveling) in the Netherlands. At the centre, a smiling farmer holds two maps comparing fragmented landownership before and after consolidation, illustrating the reorganisation of agricultural parcels. The slogan ‘Ruilverkaveling dient u en ons land’ (‘Land consolidation serves you and our country’) frames the image. — 'Land consolidation serves you and our country', Cultuur Technische Dienst, 1946, Stadsarchief Rotterdam, VIII-1955-0402

Dutch Rural History

In 2025, Judith Pollmann was awarded the Spinoza Prize by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). She decided to use this prize to stimulate the study of the rural history of the Netherlands, with a particular focus on its political and cultural dimensions.

In Dutch history, urban communities have traditionally attracted far more attention than the countryside. As a result, rural areas play only a limited role in the broader narrative of Dutch history. In the ‘canon’ that informs the Dutch school curriculum, for instance, there is a place for the port of Rotterdam, but not for the land consolidation that, between 1950 and 1995, transformed almost the entire Dutch landscape, radically altering the lives of rural dwellers and the ecology of the Netherlands.

Academic rural history in the Netherlands has primarily focused on agricultural and landscape history. Other aspects of historical life outside the cities have certainly been studied extensively at the local level, but these studies are not always in conversation with academic debates. As a result, supra-local comparisons across time and space remain relatively rare. With the funding from the Spinoza Prize, we aim to change this.

Research Group New Rural History

The first step has been the establishment of a research group, New Rural History ‒ in Dutch, the Nieuwe PLAG, which has as its key aim to stimulate the study of rural history in the Netherlands, to discuss new methods and research agendas, and learn from local, national and international examples. It will also develop of a research guide to help researchers find their way in the complex historical landscape of rural institutions.

Through this page, and a new website that is currently under development, we will keep everyone informed about our activities.

A black-and-white photograph showing a sod hut on Wijsterseweg in Ruinen, the Netherlands. In front of the hut stand its four inhabitants ‒ a child, a woman, an elderly man, and an elderly woman ‒ with a pile of sod to the left. — Sod hut, Stoffer Slomp, 1920, Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, SHBO-F-AA 60951

The Historians’ Days 2026

We will launch the Nieuwe PLAG project at the Historicidagen 2026, 27-29 August, in Leiden. We will discuss our plans during two sessions ‘Nieuwe plattelandsgeschiedenis 1: Rondetafelgesprek over de toekomst van de plattelandsgeschiedenis’, with Judith Pollmann, Hans Mol, Hans Piena, Maïka de Keyzer, Arjan Nobel, and Anne Petterson and ‘Nieuwe plattelandsgeschiedenis 2: Luisteren naar stemmen van onderop’ with Anne-Goaitske Breteler, Arjan Nobel, and Anne Petterson.

A painting of a female farmer with four cows on a country road in the rain. She is in a black and blue dress holding a black umbrella on her right shoulder. — A female farmer with cows on a country road in the rain. Anton Mauve, 1848-1888, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, SK-A-3695