dr. FM (Michiel) Köhne

Michiel Köhne is Assistant Professor in Anthropology of the politics of Development and works at the Sociology of Development and Change group of Wageningen University.

My areas of expertise are: Anthropology of law, Energy transition, Renewable energy, Nuclear energy, Land conflict, Resistance, Activism, Extraction, Oil Palm, Energy Practices, Certification. I have been working in: Bolivia, Indonesia, Australia and The Netherlands.

I work primarily on how local groups of inhabitants organize themselves through activism or through law when confronted with powerful social actors, such as companies and governments seeking access to their natural resources. I use ethnographic research with a focus on how activism or law are used in these negotiations. I have worked on social mobilizations around shale gas in the Netherlands and Australia and around palm oil plantations in Indonesia. At present I focus on how the energy transition towards renewable energy takes place and the role of nuclear power in this process by analysing local energy practices and political negotiations.

My formal education: LLM at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, 1993), PhD in law at Tilburg University (Tilburg 2000).