Staff members with discipline Geography
Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.
I have been conducting research on combining the notions of technological change, the evolution of knowledge networks and geography. I have been engaged in developing machine learning techniques to give a better understanding of the interplay of industrial dynamics and micro-forces of knowledge networks (e.g., R&D networks), which brings about innovation and technological change.I am passionate about conducting research on the nexus between ‘geography of innovation’ and ‘data science’. I use newly developed machine learning techniques and alternative data to map and investigate the geography of economic activities, knowledge production, and knowledge relations.







Arjan has a particular interest in topics:
- Flood and water management;
- Water related heritage;
- Interdisciplinary landscape approach;
- European landscapes;
- Interaction between practice and academia.
Living dikes
A NWO financed project led by dr ir Bas Borsje from Twente University. Together with dr. Mans Schepers, I investigate how the history of coastal landscapes can be used for new coastal defence strategies.








for Matlab software of spatial panels and spatial econometric models.

Social enterprises can engage in innovation to shed light on grand challenges that are often too complex to be solved by a single agent or government. Because social enterprises oftentimes emerge from and are embedded in local communities, they have a unique understanding of how grand challenges manifest locally. This enables them to come up with innovative processes, products or services to create social impact. With my research, teaching and collaborative projects I try to make a contribution to learning more about social enterprises and entrepreneurship.
Research
My research has the aim to understand under what conditions social entrepreneurship can thrive, how social entrepreneurs deal with organizational challenges and how they create social impact on a community level. My main lines of research are the following:
1)Comparative (social) entrepreneurship; comparing institutional conditions across spatial contexts to asses why (social) entrepreneurs emerge and thrive in certain locations.
2) Collective and community entrepreneurship
3) Sustainable entrepreneurship education
Example research projects in line no. 1:
-A model of solidarity and social entrepreneurship: how do different forms of solidarity in the population i.e. informal, religious and welfare state solidarity influence regional social entrepreneurship rates? https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2017.217.
-Listening to the Buzz: Firm Creation and Regional Relational Structures as Reflected by Social Media: using Twitter data to tell us something about the innovative milieu of regions and the connection to local entrepreneurship rates: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.206 (project funded by the British Academy / Leverhulme foundation).
Example research projects in line no. 2:
-Social entrepreneurship at the grid edge: how do urban energy communities discover and implement opportunities for the purpose of energy demand reduction? Also, how can these energy communities generate social benefits beyond energy demand reduction? https://www.creds.ac.uk/social-entrepreneurship-at-the-grid-edge/. This project is funded by the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS).
-Social entrepreneurship and place-based change: qualitative research using in-depth interviews with social entrepreneurs who are aiming to reduce inequality in their communities. Purpose of the research is to unpack the change mechanisms that social entrepreneurs use.
Example research project in line no. 3:
Teaching entrepreneurship for sustainability (TES): Erasmus+ funded project on integrating entrepreneurship and sustainability teaching focused on developing a new teaching module. Collaboration with Uppsala (Sweden) and Nord University (Norway).
Teaching
In my teaching I try to create an inclusive learning environment where students’ prior knowledge and capabilities are valued and valuable. By including international and Dutch case studies in my teaching, students are able to connect academic insights to practical examples. The three main courses that I teach are all embedded in the MSc Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Campus Fryslân: Sustainable Organisation: what drives organisations to act sustainably, and how are they different from enterprises? Sustainable Performance: how can we know the social and sustainable impact that sustainable organisations (claim to) make? Research Methods: learning about research design and answering research questions.
Engagement
Rigorous and foundational scientific research into sustainability issues in a broad sense is hugely important, while at the same time we need to spend time talking to entrepreneurs, business and civic leaders to learn about the questions that we need to find solutions for and co-create new knowledge.I participate in thematic events around social entrepreneurship, as a speaker or co-organiser. At the moment I am involved in a collaboration with StichtingVerbindMij to organize a series of events for vulnerable young adults and children around the Sustainable Development Goals – creating awareness and knowledge that might guide them on their way to new careers. The series is planned for the end of 2020 and spring 2021. Follow the progress of this project on Instagram https://instagram.com/conn.act_






Anthropology
Social Impact Assessment
Environment, Social and Governance
International Development
Ethnography
Indigenous Ethnology
Project Management

Agricultural economics
Economics and policy
Rural development
Nature inclusivity









Regional Labour Markets and Skills
Regional Socio-economic Disparities

- experiences of poverty and social exclusion
- coming of age in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
- social & spatial justice
- initiatives and interventions in the neighbourhood
- social infrastructure
- intergenerational poverty
View my research minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlpQR18n2Uc


Health Geography
Older adult mobility experiences

Climate science
Holocene climate and environments
Water quality assessment
Hydrochemistry / Biogeochemistry of wetlands
Ecological refugia of northern wetlands

Qualitative Data Analysis (Atlas.ti) ,
Social Network Analysis (including basics of statistical modelling via ERGM and SAOM)





Target groups: older adults, stroke survivors
Methodology: qualitative research, participatory approach, geographical analyses (GIS)







- institutional transformations
- planning and property market dynamics
- residential property investment
- planning theories


Transport geography
Active and sustainable mobility
Cycling and e-bike mobility
Sustainble city logistics
Research and consulting

Transport & Mobility
Regional Economic Development





- Project researcher for the INTERREG VB project CORA, the follow-up project COM3 and the ERASMUS+ project iSHRINK

Community Development
Cultural Geography
Social Exclusion

Environmental Policy
Well-being
Data analysis



Environmental Governance
Sustainability Transformations
Digital Democratic Innovations
FinTech Innovation and Climate Finance









Before moving to Groningen, I was a postdoctoral researcher at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) Environmental Humanities Laboratory, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment in Stockholm between 2016 and 2020. Previous to that, I held 2014/2015 Mercator-IPC Fellowship on climate change at Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University. I received my master's and Ph.D. degrees in environmental studies from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2014) and my B.Sc. in environmental engineering from Middle East Technical University (2008).
My academic work appeared in edited volumes and journals such as Dialogues in Human Geography, Environmental Science & Policy, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Frontiers in Energy Research, Applied Energy, Energy Research and Social Science, Turkish Studies, Sustainability Science, WIREs Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, Ecological Economics, Capitalism Nature Socialism, Nature Climate Change, New Perspectives on Turkey, and Journal of Political Ecology. Previously, I co-edited the volume Transforming Socio-Natures in Turkey: Landscapes, State and Environmental Movements (together with Onur Inal, Routledge Environmental Humanities Series, 2019).
Currently, I am co-editing a book titled "Urban Movements and Climate Change: Loss, Damage and Radical Adaptation" (together with Marco Armiero and Salvatore Paolo de Rosa, forthcoming from Amsterdam University Press). I also co-edited a recent special issue of Social Text (Duke University Press) titled "Urban Climate Insurgency".
I serve as an editorial board member of Dialogues in Human Geography (SAGE), as an editor for Sustainability Science (Springer) and as an associate editor for open-access journal, Climate Action (Nature Springer).


social impact assessment; social impact management; project induced displacement & resettlement; social licence to operate; social sustainability; extractive industries & society; business & human rights; human rights impact assessment; Indigenous rights; Free, Prior & Informed Consent (FPIC); benefit sharing; community engagement; public participation; avoiding the resource curse; shared value; corporate social responsibility; university social responsibility; sense of place; place attachment; endogenous regional development; rural communities; social aspects of climate change; applied social research; rural sociology; environmental sociology; natural resource sociology; sociology of agriculture & food; human geography; cultural geography.
Other matters to note:
Prof Vanclay was awarded the 2014 Individual Award from the International Association for Impact Assessment for his sustained contribution to the theory and practice of social impact assessment.
Prof Vanclay has been a visiting professor with: the University of Eastern Finland, 2012; the University of Sao Paulo (San Carlos campus), Brazil, 2012; the University of Southern Queensland, 2016; National Taiwan University, 2017; and the North West A&F University, China, 2017.
Prof Vanclay was President of the International Rural Sociology Association from 2000 to 2004. He also has a long affiliation with the International Association for Impact Assessment including past member of its Board of Directors, and various Committee Chair appointments. He was Program Chair for the Tenth World Congress of Rural Sociology (Rio de Janiero, Brazil, 2000).








- Housing
- Housing Market Dynamics
- Urban Inequality
- Social / Spatial Justice
- Welfare States
- Urban governance

