Research Project, Research Centre, Summer School in Amsterdam

Research project on social capital and well-being of women smallholder farmers in Kenia - Collaborative project of University of Amsterdam with CABE, Kenia

Nicky Pouw (economist, UvA) and Hannington Odame (agricultural economist, CABE) have started a joint research project on the use of women's farmers's social capital in rural Kenia to counter the adversive effects of climate change and men's migration. In August 2011 they completed a base-line survey in Samia district among 380 women farmers. The outcomes will be discussed at a stakeholders workshop in March 2012. Given the huge data gap on women's economic farming activities in rural Kenia, the project aims to collect survey data, complemented by participatory focus groups and interview data annually and build-up a time series. For more information and contact: n.r.m.pouw@uva.nl

New Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Gender and Sexuality founded in Amsterdam

The new interdisciplinary Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS) in the context of the AISSR seeks to provide a forum for synergistic research and teaching at the University of Amsterdam, tapping into the state-of-the-art research that current staff member across disciplines are already engaging in, and generating new collaborations. It builds on the productive and innovative gender studies tradition of interdisciplinarity and is situated institutionally at the heart of the social sciences, primarily sociology, anthropology, political science, social geography, and science and technology studies. It will situate the UvA in an international academic context, enabling new international scholarly collaborations, providing intellectual visibility to current research, attracting new students at all levels, enabling timely interventions in public debates in the Netherlands, Europe, and beyond, and producing a lively intellectual community that integrates research and teaching. For more information see:  http://www.arcgs.uva.nl/arcgs/home.cfm

Summer School on Global Poverty and Inclusive Development, University of Amsterdam, 18-22nd June 2012, with Deepa Narayan and Nicky Pouw

The one-week Summer Institute on Global Poverty & Inclusive Development contributes to the growing worldwide interest among academics and professionals in the causes of poverty and its alleviation.

There is an increasing urgency to understand the conditions of poverty, the dynamics of poverty, and the complexities involved in embarking upon more inclusive development trajectories. With this program, students will become familiar with the Moving out of Poverty Framework developed by Deepa Narayan – an internationally known expert on poverty and author of Voices of the Poor and Moving out of Poverty. The topics will range from the different theoretical and policy approaches to poverty and wellbeing, to the problems of measurement and monitoring, to the mainstream issues of inclusive growth and development, and other more specific issue areas pertaining to, for instance, local governance, social in- and exclusion, and priorities of poor women, men and youth. By alternating theoretical and policy knowledge with training methodological and practical skills, the participant will take out of the program a greater knowledge about how poverty emerges, how the dynamics of poverty and wellbeing can be assessed and monitored, and what are pre-conditions of more inclusive development. For more information and contact: http://www.graduateschoolofsocialsciences.uva.nl/sip/introduction.cfm