Making Strange – Page 4 – A Fresh Look at the Familiar: Policy, Water and More

July 25, 2020 / General Interest

Announcement: Starting a New Job in September 2018

The time has come to make this news public — I am starting a new exciting job as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in September 2018. ISS is located in The Hague although it is part of EUR. My responsibilities will include teaching in “Governance and Development Policy” Major, supervising Ph.D. students, conducting research and research funding acquisition and taking part in university administration. (more…)

April 9, 2022 / General Interest

Adaptive Management: a Possibility or Utopia?

In recent decades, adaptive governance has been advocated for meeting the challenges of unpredictable and uncertain dynamics of Social-ecological Systems (SES) (Folke, 2006; Huitema et al., 2009). Scholars ascribe a multitude of virtues to adaptive governance, such as, for example, the preparedness of populations for disturbances associated with climate change (Pahl-Wostl, 2006). (more…)

July 25, 2020 / Education

Advice from Helen Ingram on Being in Academia for Early and Seasoned Scholars

In 2017, a double special issue of the Journal of the Southwest was published that celebrated the career of Dr. Helen Ingram (pictured) as a scholar, mentor and colleague. The special issue contains a number of essays written by world-class scholars in the U.S. and around the world and is a must-read for anyone interested in the subject of water policy and politics. Here is a recent review published in Water Alternatives about the Special Issue — a nice starting point to know what to read. (more…)

July 25, 2020 / Methods and Frameworks

Scholar Activist or Activist Scholar?

A new chapter on the role of reflexivity, positionality and normativity in using ethnography to study policy translation as a process is now available in the form of proofs. The final version will be published in the book “Translation in World Politics” edited by Tobias Burger and Alejandro Esguerra. (more…)

July 25, 2020 / General Interest

Central European University and Academic Freedom

Last week has been unprecedented in the history of the Central European University (CEU) — it was reported in the most prestigious media outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Financial Times and many others. The reason for such an uproar is the tabled legislation in the Hungarian Parliament which would effectively make the operation of CEU in Budapest impossible.

The way CEU reacted reflects the leadership style of Michael Ignatieff who proved to be politically alert and enterprising, a quality rarely found in academics. In the times when rectors are usually appointed as managers and often come from the private sector, the decision to put Ignatieff in lead reflects a unique position of CEU in the liberal world of universities. It is undoubtedly this understanding of the importance of the “academic freedom” by Ignatieff the academic, that pushed him to react in such a broad and intense manner effectively invoking all available remedies to oppose the draft legislation. The media coverage, the diplomatic pressure from the US Embassy, the global academic movement garnered in support of CEU — (more…)