Environmental Policy Group - Wageningen UR

Prof. dr. ir. G. Spaargaren

Name and address

Name Gert Spaargaren

Room 2013

Telephone      +31.(0)317.483874 or 484452
Fax               +31.(0)317.483990
Email            Gert.Spaargaren@wur.nl

Position

Professor and Senior Lecturer at the Environmental Policy group (ENP) of Wageningen University.

Background

0.3 Professor on ‘Environmental Policy for Sustainable Lifestyles and Patterns of Consumption. Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University. (2004 - present).
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sociology and Policy, at the Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University (1999 – present).
Endowed Professorship (0.2) at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, on the ‘policy aspects of environmental education’ (1999 – 2003), on behalf of IVN.
PhD in Sociology, Wageningen University
MSc in Sociology (Cum Laude) at the department of sociology, Wageningen University
Curriculum Vitae (as of January 2012)

Research profile

Fields of expertise: sustainable consumption and lifestyles; social theory and the environment; domestic consumption of energy, water and waste-services; sociology of environmental flows; sociological theory.
Coordinator of a number of major national and international research projects implemented in various parts of the world and several EU-countries.
ENP Research theme: Sustainable Consumption and Production
Coordinator – together with Simon Bush – of the research program at ENP

Research impact

Publications

Spaargaren, G., P. Oosterveer and A. Loeber (eds.) (2012) Food in a Sustainable World; Transitions in the consumption, retail and production of food. London: Routledge.
Spaargaren Gert (2011) Theories of Practices: Agency, Technology, and Culture; Exploring the relevance of practice theories for the governance of sustainable consumption practices in the new world-order, Global Environmental Change 21 (3), August 2011
Spaargaren Gert and Peter Oosterveer (2010) Citizen-Consumers as Change Agents in Globalizing Modernity: the Case of Sustainable Consumption. In: Sustainability 2010, 2, 1887 - 1908
Spaargaren, Gert and C.S.A. (Kris) van Koppen (2009), Provider Strategies and the Greening of Consumption Practices; Exploring the role of companies in sustainable consumption. In: H, Lange and L. Meier (Eds.) The New Middle Classes; Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern. Bremen: Springer Verlag, pp. 81 – 100.
Mol, Arthur P.J., David A. Sonnenfeld and Gert Spaargaren (2009) (eds.) The Ecological Modernization Reader: Environmental Reform in Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, pp. 539.
Spaargaren Gert and Arthur P.J. Mol (2008) 'Greening Global Consumption; Redefining Politics and Authority', Global Environmental Change, 18, pp. 350 - 359.
Spaargaren Gert, Arthur P.J. Mol, and Frederick H. Buttel (eds.) (2006). Governing Environmental Flows; Global Challenges to Social Theory. Cambridge Mass. MIT
Complete list of publications at Wageningen University

Research projects

CONTRAST-project: CONsumption TRAnsitions for suSTainability; a research project in collaboration with University of Tilburg, NMP and LEI research institutes, financed by GaMON and KSI-Bsik. (since 2005)
PROVIDE project, a major research project on water and waste(water) infrastructural development in three East-African countries, together with a number of WUR-partners, East-African institutes and universities, (since 2006).
Coordinator (together with Bas Van Vliet) of the KWR-funded project on ‘new roles for Dutch drinking water companies’, 2008-2010
‘Carbon labelling of Food: greening the Canteen’, Wageningen University/ENP together with Restaurant of the Future (WUR), and Unilever, financed by Ministry of ELI, 2010-2011.
Supervision of 16 PhD-researchers since 2000; (8 ongoing, 8 finalized)

Educational tasks

Theories and Themes: Sociology. ENP 22803. Wageningen University (with Peter Oosterveer)
PhD-course ‘Sociological Perspectives on Environmental Change. ENP 32806 (Sense research school). Wageningen University. (with Peter Oosterveer)
Major Works in Contemporary Social Theory. ENP 51306 (with Don Weenink, Peter Oosterveer and Anton Schuurman)
Capita Selecta Environmental Policy ENP 50306/50803 with Van Vliet, Van Koppen and Mol.
Advanced Social Theory. RSO 32806. Together with Don Weenink and others.
Coordinator (together with Don Weenink) of a new BSc minor ‘Social science for life scientists’ from 2012
Sociology of Tourism (together with Machiel Lamers and Sofie Bouteligier)
Environmental Policy and Economics, part I; (together with Edwin van der Werf)
Bachelor Completion Course (together with ETE)
Supervision of MSc and BSc-thesis students Environmental Sciences (MES), Urban Environmental Management (UEM), BCW and IOS. Wageningen University

Other academic memberships and achievements

Coordinator of SENSE core-4 program since 2009.
Board member of WIMEK research school at Wageningen University since 2009.
Member and Chair of International Referee Panels for the National Academy of Science, Finland, Helsinki, 2008; 2009; 2010, 2011, 2012.
Member of the editorial board of NJAS, Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, since 2010
Member of the Belgium Scientific Panel Science for Sustainable Development. PPS, Brussel, 2009
Member of Scientific Advisory Board of EU-funded programme BARenergy; since 2008
Member of the ESRC Review Panel on a ‘Sustainable Behaviour Centre’ in the UK, London, 26 June, 2008
Member of Scientific Advisory Board of UK/Manchester ‘Sustainable Practice Group’ within the ESRC-program on Sustainable Behaviour. Since 2009
Member of the VENI and VIDI selection committees of MAGW, 2010, 2011
Chair of BACs for professors in ‘Reformatorische Wijsbegeerte’, ‘Sustainable Tourism’, ‘Humanistic Philosophy’ and ‘History’ at WUR.
Chair of the international INREF conference on ‘Sciences for development; the challenge of interdisciplinarity’, April 23 – 25, 2012
Member of international advisory board of the UK research project ‘Community-based initiatives in energy saving’ coordinated by prof. Graham Smith of Univ. of Southampton 2011 – 2013.