About the RSO Group

The Rural Sociology Group (RSO) of Wageningen University & Research studies the dynamics of food provisioning, agrarian change, and rural and regional development with an international comparative perspective. Specific attention is paid to the different levels at which transformation processes occur and are shaped, as well as to the different actors, institutions and modes of political organization involved. We study and analyse these transformation processes from a range of critical sociological perspectives (e.g. interpretative/constructivist and micro-sociological approaches, cultural political economy, or governmentality studies), combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. We actively engage in interdisciplinary (including work with natural scientists), multi-method and multi-stakeholder approaches.

PhD research and training is mainly carried out in programs endorsed by the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS).

The Rural Sociology Group provides an important input into the BSc programmes in: International Development Studies (BIN) and Health and Society (BGM), and in the MSc programmes in International Development Studies (MID), Communication, Health & Life Sciences (MHL) – Specialisation Health and Society , Organic Agriculture (MOA), Food Technology (MFT) – specialisation Gastronomy, and Landscape Architecture and Planning (MLP).