Research of the SDC Group

Through our core expertise in development studies, political ecology, anthropology of law and crisis and disaster studies, our mission is to gain and communicate a deeper understanding of these issues generated by global and local structures of power and political-economy, as well as how actors generate forms of agency and practices that enable them to deal with these dynamics and create new opportunities. In this way, we aim to contribute to socially just, economically equitable, sustainable and peaceful solutions to twenty-first century development problems.

It is clear that processes and structures of inequality and marginalization greatly influence the quality of life for many people around the world. In other words, there can be no improvement in the quality of life if development continues to stimulate and engrain processes of inequality and marginalization, and hence it is vital to understand the structures and practices of how these processes come about; how they develop and change; and how they are resisted and responded to through forms of political agency. The SDC group focuses its scientific interest in these issues on core Wageningen themes: livelihoods, agriculture, resources and the living environment. In so doing, the group contributes to WUR’s overall mission ‘to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’ by investigating the question of who benefits from what idea of (the potential of) nature and how this changes over time and across space. Nature here is broadly defined and encompasses nonhuman ecosystems, landscapes and resources across rural and urban spaces.