PhD Projects

Below an overview is given of the projects of our current PhD-ers.

 

Ajay Bailey, from India

Risk assessment of HIV/AIDS among male labour migrants from Karantaka in Goa, India
I am an anthropologist from Dharwad, India. I have a Masters in Anthropology from University of Pune (India), a M.Sc. in Population Studies from University of Groningen, The Netherlands and a Bachelors in Anthropology , Political science and Economics from Karnatak University , Dharwad.

My project aims to understand the risk assessment of HIV/AIDS and the protection behaviour employed by the married male migrants. I am working with Prof. Hutter and also collaborate with non-governmental organizations in Goa and Population Research Centre, Dharwad. We have recently concluded the fieldwork for the project (in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and a locally informed survey). The project is under the broader research programme of HERA (PRC, Groningen and NIDI, The Hague). The project is funded by the Ubbo Emmius Fellowship and the HERA research programme. 
 

Sarbani Banerjee, from India

Changing lives of Women

I, Sarbani Banerjee hail from India. I have a Maters degree in Sociology from the University of Hyderabad, India and later a Masters in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India. Here in the Netherlands I graduated in Population Studies from the University of Groningen. After my graduation I am presenting continuing on as a PhD researcher with a Ubbo Emmius fellowship in the Population Research Centre, under the auspices of University of Groningen, The Netherlands. My PhD is basically an extension of my Masters Thesis titled "Reproductive Career of women: A comparison of Dutch women and women in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India".
My PhD research is within the broad topic of "Changing lives of Women". It is a cross-cultural study on the impact of higher educational attainment on the changing lives of women centred on the events of union formation and first birth in India and the Netherlands. The changes are observed across generations of daughters and mothers in the same cross-cultural perspective. The research is a good mixture of secondary data analysis, which is further substantiated by In-depth interviews amongst urban high-educated women in Bangalore, Karnataka and the same group of women in Groningen, the Netherlands. Hence the research attempts to understand the cultural strategies that women adopt being in different cultures and trying to achieve their position in the society. It is thus about how women feel the same irrespective of being in different cultures that acts as the constraining and facilitating factor in women’s changing lives.The research project is part of the research programme HERA (HEalthy Reproduction: Research for Action), a collaborative research programme of PRC Groningen and NIDI (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute), The Hague.

 

Rob de Boer, from the Netherlands

Forced collaboration, and the duality of consensus and conflict

Urban development processes are often characterized by an extensive involvement of a broad spectrum of private actors, such as land owners, land users, real estate developers, construction companies, banks, investment funds, et cetera. Some of these private parties ca become exceedingly crucial for the success or failure of an urban development process, that is, no serious intervention can be executed without their consent. Private parties that hold ownership over resources with a high importance for the particular development and a low substitutability can create an unequal power relationship towards the urban government and other private parties involved. In consensus planning it is assumed that voluntary collaboration (that is, a situation in which urban government has the option to choose between mutually competing private parties based on costs, quality or innovative ideas) may result in ‘win-win’ situations. Forced collaboration (that is, a situation in which urban government does not have the option to choose between competing parties, but is forced to collaborate with a private party that holds ownership over irreplaceable resources) may disturb this idealistic picture, and can easily result in ‘win-loose’ situations, or even in extreme ‘loose-loose’ situations.

Case research into urban development processes characterized by forced collaboration, such as the Nieuwe Sleutelprojecten (the ‘New Key Projects’, a collection of station areas redevelopment) and the Vinex-wijken (the ‘Vinex sites’, a collection of new urban housing sites) leads to the conclusion that urban development processes that are characterized by forced collaboration either find stability in consensus (described with the catchphrase: “I will do what you want, if you do what I want”) or stability in conflict (with the catchphrase: “I will not do what you want, if you do not do what I want”). The aim of the research is to provide a reflection on the mechanisms that lie behind the observed dual-stability of urban development processes characterized by forced collaboration 

 

Karen Haandrikman, from the Netherlands

Spatial homogamy. Geographical dimensions of the partner market in the Netherlands.

The objective of my project is to identify the importance of spatial dimensions of the partner market in the Netherlands. Most research on homogamy has focused on educational and occupational characteristics of partners. Studies on mate selection have found that around the world, partners are homogamous regarding age, education, occupation, social origin, religion and geographical origin. We focus on spatial homogamy, which suggests that people live together with a partner who shares their geographical origin. However, by merely demonstrating homogamy, the process of mate selection is not explained. To get a thorough understanding of the process of partner choice, we distinguish opportunities and barriers.  Opportunities to meet people depend on distance, the composition of the population, the spatial distribution of the population, on meeting places, and on preferences. Moreover, partner choice is influenced by barriers through distance, group norms and preferences.

A quantitative spatial model of the partner market, based on the population register (GBA) in combination with the ‘Sociaal Statistisch Bestand’ of Statistics Netherlands will indicate the role of spatial factors in patterns of partner selection. With the model, possible explanations for the existence of spatial barriers in the process of partner choice are to be revealed. To understand the matching mechanisms behind patterns, data from Netherlands Family Fertility Survey 2003 and SSB on meeting places are analysed. To understand preferences of partners themselves, focus group discussions are conducted.

 

Ferry Van Kann, from the Netherlands

Regional exergy planning in Energy Valley and South Limburg

My name is Ferry Van Kann. I am a Dutchman and hold a Master in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning (University of Groningen). I was born in Kerkrade, a city in the province of Limburg. I lived overthere untill I was 18 years old. From that moment I live in the city of Groningen.

My PhD research is within the project: Synergy between Regional Planning and Exergy (SREX). This research is a long-term research focusing on energy and financed by SenterNovem. In this research project we try to understand the relationship between spatial planning and energy. Together with my colleagues at the Univerisity of Groningen, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University we focus on the regional level and the use of the exergy principle. The question is what would happen with spatial designs, spatial structure if exergy becomes a guiding principle? Exergy is simplified the quality of energy (and related to the second law in thermodynamics). Every spatial functions needs in order to function not just energy but exergy. Translated into a principle it means that we are focusing on energy flows and try to combine the demand and supply of different qualities of energy. The chances and limitations from a spatial point of view are taken into account. This all should fit within a framework of regional planning. To get more information on this research you can have a look at the project's website: www.exergieplanning.nl.

 

Michaelis Kavaratzis, from Greece

City Marketing and City Branding in Europe

I was born in Athens, Greece in 1973. I studied Business Administration in the University of Piraeus, Greece and then obtained an MSc in Marketing from the University of Stirling, Scotland. I have worked for five years in Athens, as marketing director of a private school. In 2003 I decided to leave the commercial world and return to the academic setting, in the Urban and Regional Studies Institute of the University of Groningen.

The research project is a comparative study of city marketing and city branding strategies and methods used in four European cities, namely Amsterdam, Budapest, Athens and Berlin. The project investigates the actual methods used and the current understanding of the meaning and potential of marketing and branding in the context of place management. The interaction of city brands with the city’s identity and the effects of city branding on the actual residents of the city are also points of focus of the research. The study has a dual character, as it aims to contribute to the advancement of the theory of city marketing generally and city branding in particular and at the same time provide useful ideas and valuable feed back and comparisons for practitioners.

 

Sierdjan Koster, from the Netherlands

New Firm Formation

Research on New Firm Formation shows two distinct realms. One current of research takes an organizational view and the second focuses on the individuals, the entrepreneurs. This distinction is apparent in the calculation of firm birth rates: the organizational approach considers the current stock of firms to constitute the population at exposure of creating a new firm, whereas the labour market approach relates the number of new firms to the existing pool of labour (entrepreneurship and self-employment). The two approaches differ fundamentally, both in theoretical background and methodological and empirical elaboration.

In many cases, the distinction is clear-cut; most new firms are the result of individual actions and, for example, new outlets of a chain store are clearly the result of organizational decisions. However, there is a group of new firms that combine inputs on the individual level with inputs of organizations. This is most apparent in spin-offs, which are firms that are based on knowledge that comes from existing organizations. Spin-offs can be seen as a mixture group containing both organizational elements and individual inputs. This research addresses the relation between these two spheres of influence in spin-off firms.

 

Jesper van Loon, from the Netherlands

Regional Planning and Energy in the Northern Netherlands and South Limburg 

Within the project ‘Synergy between Regional Planning and Exergy’ (SREX) I am one of five PhD researchers. SREX is a long-term research project focusing on energy and is financed by SenterNovem. The goal is to understand the relationship between spatial planning and energy. We work together with researchers at the Univerisity of Groningen, Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University. By bringing together spatial planning and energy technology, which are two separate worlds of profession, it becomes possible to achieve major improvements in the efficiency of our energy production and consumption. The focus of the research is on the regional scale, for which design principles will be developed eventually (for further explanation see www.exergieplanning.nl). My contribution to the research project involves the translation of new-found spatial structures and designs into spatial policy. This means taking into account the essential conditions under which new spatial structures, as a result of the synergy between spatial planning and energy, can be implemented. Energy can, therefore, be seen as a theme within spatial planning and policy making and shows resemblance with other themes, such as environmental quality and water.

 

Miming Miharja, from Indonesia

Institutional Collective Action in Indonesia Metropolitan Transport Planning: the Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area 

I started my academic career as lecturer assistant at Urban and Regional Department, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)-Indonesia several months after my undergraduate completion in 1993. During 1996-1997, I took my master degree at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds-UK. My master thesis title is “Modelling Urban High Occupancy Vehicle Lane” with case study of Stanningley Road, Leeds-UK. From the time I completed my master program untill mid of 2006, while continue to teach in ITB, I was also involved in many urban and regional planning concultancies in Indonesia, with specific concern on transportation planning. From October 2006, I have started my PhD research at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, Rijkuniversiteit of Groningen. The research topic is Institutional Collective Action in Indonesia Metropolitan Transport Planning: the Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area”. The research seeks understanding on more fragmented metropolitan transport planning phenomenon as an adverse effect of Indonesia new local government-decentralized system. In regard to the established collaborative planning theory as well as other countries experiences, this study aims to underline Indonesia specific characteristics.  

 

M. Mustajab from Indonesia

Infrastructure Investment in Indonesia: Process and Impact

I am a PhD student at the Department of Economic Geography, Faculty of Spatial Sciences under supervision of Prof. Jouke van Dijk and Prof. Piet H. Pellenbarg. Prior coming to Groningen, I’ve been working for National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Republic of Indonesia. I graduated from master degree program Korea Development Institute school of public policy and management, Seoul, South Korea in 2002 and undergraduate program Faculty of Economics Gadjahmada University Indonesia in 1998.

The topic of my research is Infrastructure investment. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of infrastructure investment, this research investigates the decision making process of infrastructure investment, and examines the role of infrastructure investment on economic growth in Indonesia. In the infrastructure investment decision making processes, a number of regional, national and sometimes also international authorities are involved, which all have different tasks, policies and preferences. This complexity of actors is an important aspect of infrastructure investment decision making processes. To gain a better understanding of the determinants of infrastructure investment policy, we will investigate the decision making processes and the interaction between actors by means of an in-depth study using a qualitative approach for a few case studies. In the infrastructure policy making process, there is also a concern about the impact of infrastructure investment on the economy. The quantitative results from the economic output impact analysis would provide a useful framework for the infrastructure investment policy making. Therefore this research also attempts to examine the effect of infrastructure on economic output.

 

Ivo Nienhuis, from the Netherlands

Physical interventions used to be the core business of urban renewal and regeneration projects in the Netherlands. However, nowadays social interventions are more and more in the spotlights. This research is about these social interventions and questions the ways how they contribute towards the collective efficacy of deprived neighbourhoods. In doing so, I embrace the concept of social capital instead of the concept of social cohesion because the neighbourhood loses significance in terms of strong social ties and gains importance in terms of weak social ties. Within the field of spatial/environmental planning, a particularity of this research is the focus on societal participation rather than the ‘NIMBY participation’ of collaborative/communicative planning. Consequently, the contribution of this research lies within the socio-ethical side of spatial/environmental planning and addresses concepts such as social justice and the extent to which social change can be effected by housing corporation and government policies.

 

Inge Noback, from the Netherlands

Regional labour market dynamics and the gender employment gap

The main aim of this project is to get insight in gender specific regional differences in labour market participation and employment. This will be analysed by taking into account gender specific spatial differences in access to jobs and transport facilities for commuting, sex-based occupational segregation, and the sectoral composition of regional economic activities in combination with gender aspects in the location decisions of firms and households. The gender employment gap refers to the less favourable position of women in the labour market. Although the gap has narrowed since 1980, unemployment rates are still higher among females, their share in jobs with a supervisory role and their wages are lower and their access to active labour market policy measures is often lower than for men. Also, a large part of the narrowing of the gender gap in the Netherlands is caused by the creation of a huge new part-time workforce. Studying the gender employment gap at the regional level rather than the national level takes into account the limited spatial range of spatial labour market behaviour. 

 

Beata Nowok, from Poland

Estimation of international migration flows in Europe

The European Union faces an urgent need for comprehensive and comparable statistics on international migration in order to support the development of a common EU migration policy. Yet required migration data are missing. They are, and will continue to be, produced at national level from a wide range of sources and according to various rules. When the data are not there, models can be used to fill in the gaps. The trust in statistical estimation methods is expressed also by the European Commission. The recently adopted Community legislation on migration statistics provides for use of estimation methods for adjusting data to meet the harmonized definition.

The aim of my PhD research is to develop a method to overcome one of the main sources of data incomparability, namely inconsistencies in definitions and measurements of international migration in terms of time dependence. The model will be built on the identified data typology that results from different ways that migration is conceptualized and measured. The impact of different data types on reported volume of migration will be illustrated based on statistics on flows between the EU countries.

 

Aagje Papineau-Salm

I qualified as medical doctor in 1970 and have since then been working in the field of health care in developing countries. First in a rural hospital in Nigeria en since 1979 as adviser/consultant for church-related organisations and the Dutch Government. The last years mainly in Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS. I retired at the end of last year.

During my carrier I have been puzzled and also irritated by the ‘disconnect’ between policy makers and researchers. In the health sector this means that policies made by international organisations and national governments don’t take in account the results of available studies in the field of medical anthropology for example.

At the moment the international debate is about improving health systems with a focus on human resources. It is mainly about numbers, brain-drain etc.

I think that the quality of care given is as much a reason why hospitals and clinics are not functioning well. And that has to do with the attitude of health workers towards their clients.

Why is this often so bad en rude? My assumption is that health workers that are trained in (western) biomedicine find it difficult to accept the ‘traditional’ ideas about health and illness of their clients, which in fact they share in their heart. They find it difficult to bridge the gap.

I’m concentrating on Africa and will probably do my field work in Ghana.

At the moment I’m finishing my research question and conceptual framework.

 

Elda Pardede, from Indonesia

Migration career and employment history

My name is Elda Luciana Pardede. I came from Indonesia. I was born in Pematang Siantar, a city in the province of North Sumatra (a province next to DI Aceh). But I have lived in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia since I was 9 years old.
The topic of PhD research in the University of Groningen is "Migration career and employment history". I would like to find out what is the effect of migration on the job status of Indonesian, and how this effect differs accross different group of individuals.

 

Zhao Pengjun, from China

Compact development and metropolitan growth

I have a Masters degree in urban and regional planning from Peking University (China). 

China’s urban spatial policy has been stick to the ‘containment development model’ for the purpose of more sustainable metropolitan growth since the early 1980s. In the model, intensive and compact land use are emphasized to be the primary principle of urban planning and development. My project aims to examine in what way and to what extend the development of urban form correspond to the political guidelines regarding the concept of ‘compact metropolitan growth’ in the municipality of Beijing, the capital of China. Based on the compact city theory, my research give the empirical case study to examine the compact development policy in Beijing by exploring urban compactness and its consequences at the metropolitan scale (Haidian District), local new town scale (Yizhuang) and street scale (Jiaodaokou Street). GIS mapping and quantitative analysis of the case study areas are used to examine the urban compactness in Beijing. Then the consequences of the compact development is evaluated quantitatively in the perspectives of containability, accessibility, mobility and livability.

 

Mieke Reuser, from the Netherlands

Modelling and forecasting of healthy ageing

With increasing life expectancy it is unsure whether the number of years people live with disability will increase or decrease. Several risk factors and choices made in a people’s life course influence the timing of a transition to disability and the duration of stay in that situation. It turns out that for example, being obese does not significantly increase mortality but probably does affect physical and perhaps also cognitive disability. Smoking on the other hand is much more fatal and therefore shortens the disabled state.

In this PhD research I will focus on the middle and older age population of age 55 and over. Based on longitudinal data from the US Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), individual and cohort biographies can be modelled and shed light on the influence of risk factors on health transitions to mild and severe physical disability, cognitive decline or death. Based on these models one can project individual life courses and at the same time predict the health status of the total elderly population in the future. One useful application for example would be to project the need for long-term care for elderly in the future.

 

Biswamitra Sahu, from India

Identity, Values and Reproductive Health in India and Bangladesh

I am an Indian and hold a Masters in Sociology (University of Hyderabad) and Master of Philosophy in Population Studies (International Institute for Population Sciences). I get my scholarship through HERA (HEalthy Reproduction: Research for Action), a collaborative research programme of PRC Groningen and NIDI (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute), The Hague, for my PhD project.

I have started working at the Population Research Center since September 2004 and the tentative title of the PhD project is “Identity, Values and Reproductive Health in India and Bangladesh”. The research tries to link social identity to reproductive behaviour in a cross-country comparison of India and Bangladesh. The idea is to situate people through identities (being an adherent of religion, being man or women and figuring as religious majority or minority) has implications for their reproductive health decision and practices. These decision and practices explain the differentials in fertility and child mortality indicators. Since I am at the formative phase of PhD and working towards finalization of the proposal this is what I purport to do.

 

Pelin Sarioglu, from Turkey

Entry to home ownership: A Comparison between Turkey and the Netherlands

I was graduated from City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara Turkey. I have a Masters degree from City Planning from METU.

My project in PhD is about housing. The capacity of households (Hh) to make moves of adjustment is the central condition for achieving an efficient housing stock, if this is not achieved; the system eventually leads on the one hand to national waste of resources and on the other to unsatisfactory Hh-residence matchings. As previous works reveal, the reason for this may be the stock which is not sufficiently diversified in terms of dwelling and tenure types, the governments which are incapable of separating the use and the investment values of housing, or the Hhs themselves who are bound up with particular types of tenures.

In this thesis, factors that hypothetically influence the process of entry to homeownership are investigated. In addition, a comparison is made between two countries which are quite distinct with respect to their housing policies: Turkey and The Netherlands. While the housing sector in the former almost solely relies on private sector, the latter is known with its great performance in public housing. Yet, with contemporary developments, both countries seem to move closer to each other in their housing policies. Analysis of this context is possible in Turkey with reference to Household Income and Consumption Expenditures Survey (HICES) raw data of the State Institute of Statistics (SIS) and in the Netherlands with reference to Housing Demand Survey (WBO) of Central Bureau of Statistircs (CBS). It is believed that this thesis is promising to provide valuable information to planners and policy makers for their interventions in the housing stock. 

 

Ganesh Sharnngadharan, from India

Trends in Cause Specific Mortality in India

I am from India. I am a demographer; hold a masters degree in Demography from Kerala University and a masters degree in Population Sciences from the University of Groningen.

The main objective of my research is to study the trends in Cause specific mortality in India.The main contribution of this research would be a national level database on causes specific mortality, which is reconstructed from the available fragmented data. The research is set within the framework of the Epidemiologic Transition theory.

 

Thijs Terpstra, from the Netherlands 

Firm dynamics and embeddedness in the neighbourhood economy 

As of 1 august 2006 he is one of the team of new PhD students at our faculty. His research project is titled: “Firm dynamics and embeddedness in the neighbourhood economy”, and part of the firm demography research program. The promoter of his project is Prof. dr. P.H. Pellenbarg and the co-promotors are dr. W.J. Meester and dr. V.A.J.M. Schutjens (from Utrecht University).

Thijs recieved his Bachelor's degree at the Noordelijke Hogeschool in Leeuwarden in 1999. He worked since then at the City Council of Leeuwarden (the capital of Friesland) in different departments. Since june 2001 he worked as a (city)planner at the Leeuwarden department of ‘Spatial development and organisation’. Next to his (full time) job he started in 2002 working for his Masters degree at our faculty. In june 2006 he received the MSc-degree, and subsequently was selected for the PhD position.

About the project

Research on location patterns of new and growing firms shows that the home neighbourhood of the entrepreneur or the firm hardly loses its atractivity over the firm life course. The main components of this strong ‘keep’factor are location specific capital, place attachment and decision space, concepts that have received only limited attention in economic geography. The role of these ‘keep’factor components in stimulating new firms and keeping succesful firms withion the neighbourhood and their relative weight is even more relevant now that Dutch economic policy and the so-called ‘Large City Policy’(GroteStedenBeleid) advocate the importance of the urban neighbourhood economy. The aim of the research project is to gain insight in the factors that increase the incubator function of urban neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods attachments of succesful firms. The main research question is; which urban neighbourhoods function as succesful local incubator or production milieux for new and growing firms and succeed in attaching succesful firms, and why? In the analyses a quantitative and qualitative approach is combined. Firm dynamics on the neighbourhood level is analyzed by using large scale urban datasets of business registrations. A qualitative analysis focuses on (re)location strategies and neighbourhood attachment of entrepreneurs of immobile and relocated firms within selected cities, sectors and neighbourhoods.

 

Shinji Tsubohara, from Japan

Planning democracy through public participation and political parties

I am from Japan. I received my master's at the Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo, and a doctor of engineering at the Kobe University.

My consistent interest has been in democracy in planning. My consistent methodology has been to analyse local planning history precisely.

I stayed at this faculty from September 2002 to June 2003, as post doctoral, to study the planning history of this city, Groningen. I studied planning in the 1970s, such as Verkeerscirculatieplan (traffic circulation plan), mainly through local newspapers in those days. I found that politicians were deeply involved in planning here. In Japan, bureaucrats have historically created a huge system of regulations for city planning, and planning has almost become a technique of how to manipulate those regulations, without political discussion.

I returned here in April 2005 to study this city furthermore, this time as a PhD-candidate. I have investigated again newspaper articles, collected materials related to political parties and am interviewing those who were involved in planning here. Since the 1970s, the way of integrating public opinion has dramatically changed in Groningen, although planning is still politically decided. In the 1970s, political parties played a central role in bridging the gap between political leaders and the public. This classical system of representative democracy has been replaced by increasing use of public participation particularly since the 1990s. The point is that this seemingly favourable trend does not necessarily lead to more democracy, if we define democracy as responsible governance. The aim of my research is to evaluate this transformation of "mode of democracy" in terms of responsibility, and particularly re-evaluate the role of political parties in planning. So, this is indeed about a local history, but it includes, I believe, universal lessons to achieve democracy in planning. (You can see my interim reports on the web site "http://www.rug.nl/ursi/publications/researchreports".)

 

Sjoerd Zeelenberg, from the Netherlands

Undisclosed power relations in local democracy. Examining coalitions and implications for social justice

In studying urban governance, the presence of governing coalitions is a central topic. Governing coalitions are understood to be forms of cooperation between government bodies in the traditional sense and non-governmental organizations. By combining their resources, coalitions (in whatever shape) create a capacity to act or a governing capacity. That is: projects that otherwise would not have been realized, get done. Coalitions fuse resources from government, the private sector and civil society.

Such coalitions are often acknowledged for empowering their participants. However, empowerment might be selective and arbitrary; only those organizations that hold relevant resources are able to join. By researching key urban renewal projects, this research aims to understanding how informal and ‘hidden’ power relations determine the constitution and access to governing coalitions. The assumption is that governing coalitions might have a one-sided agenda, leading to socially unjust (and maybe predictable) outcomes.

Supervision is done by dr. J.R. Beaumont, prof.dr. G. de Roo and prof.dr. P.H. Pellenbarg. See www.ruimte-rijk.nl and www.rug.nl/frw for detailed information. 

 

Christian Zuidema, from the Netherlands

Urban environmental governance in the European Union; specific issues in generic frames

Currently the influence of European Union (EU) environmental policy with regard to the urban environment is growing significantly. As a result urban environmental governance is increasingly functioning within institutional frameworks strongly influenced by the EU. Consequences of this extending framework differ strongly and are not all clear yet. As is clear, some consequences manifest itself in increasing tensions between the EU dominated policies and local environmental practices. This project aims to argument that a /mismatch between the existing course in EU environmental policy-making and local practices/ lies at the heart of these rising tensions. Based on this argumentation, also consequences of this mismatch and strategies to deal with these consequences will be discussed.