Future-proofing rural areas

Knowledge governance for a future-proof rural area
Change is needed in the rural area to address complex and intertwined challenges. But the necessary changes are struggling to get off the ground. Yet how can administrators, farmers and other stakeholders work better together to bring about the right changes? In this project, we map the collaborations around policy and practice in rural areas and examine what works and what does not work to enable change.

In collaboration with PBL, we conduct a realist evaluation in which we use the 'transformative capacities' framework to examine the capacity for change. Lessons from the first exploratory phase point to the usefulness and necessity of a productive knowledge dynamic (knowledge governance) which enables and promotes knowledge sharing between governments and between governments and farmers on the land. In subsequent phases, we will further explore these knowledge dynamics around concrete cases.