prof. dr. ir. M. van Leeuwen (Mathijs)

Hoogleraar - Centrum voor Internationaal Conflict-Analyse & Management

Leeropdracht: Peace and Conflict Studies

Contactinformatie

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Bezoekadres

Heyendaalseweg 141
6525 AJ NIJMEGEN

Postadres

Postbus 9108
6500 HK NIJMEGEN

Werkdagen maandag, dinsdag, woensdag, donderdag, vrijdag

Mathijs van Leeuwen is ontwikkelingssocioloog, gespecialiseerd in conflict en vredesopbouw in ontwikkelingslanden. Na zijn afstuderen bij Wageningen Universiteit in 1999 werkte hij als onderzoeker bij Clingendael, en voor verschillende NGOs in Kenia, Soedan, Guatemala en Bolivia. In zijn promotieonderzoek (Wageningen Rampenstudies, 2004-2008) onderzocht hij aannames over en praktijken van vredesopbouw door maatschappelijke organisaties en hun ondersteuning door internationale ontwikkelingsorganisaties, met veldwerk in o.a. Burundi en Guatemala.

Sinds 2009 werkt Mathijs bij het Centrum voor Internationaal Conflict - Analyse & Management (CICAM). Zijn onderzoek interesses betreffen landconflicten, post-conflict landhervorming, lokale vredesopbouw, staatsformatie, en de discourses van interveniërende organisaties over conflict en vrede. Veel van zijn onderzoeksprojecten zijn interactief van opzet, en dagen beleidsmakers en medewerkers van ontwikkelingsorganisaties uit om zelf te reflecteren op hun werkzaamheden en onderzoeksbevindingen te vertalen naar beter beleid en interventie.

Mathijs is coördinator van de masterspecialisaties ‘Conflict, Territories and Identities’ en ‘Conflict, Power & Politics’ en geeft de volgende cursussen:
• Conflicting Theories; Applying Theoretical Approaches of Conflicts
• Natural Resources, Conflict & Governance
• Inleiding Conflict Analyse
• Master Thesis supervision

Onderzoeksgroep

Centrum voor Internationaal Conflict - Analyse & Management (CICAM)

Trefwoorden: vredesopbouw, maatschappelijk middenveld, landconflicten, landhervorming, lokaal bestuur, staatsopbouw, discourse, ontwikkelingsbeleid en interventies

Publicaties

Projecten

2022 - 2026 'SYNERGIZING SUSTAINABILITY' - This interactive research project aims to better understand how policy-making for agricultural development in the Sahel results in synergies, as well as frictions, contradictions, and trade-offs between different development goals, such as boosting food production, employment creation, and nurturing climate resilience and ambitions for enhancing governance, equity and justice, and sustainable peace. The project focuses on the complex interactions and contestations between diverse stakeholders at different levels in the policy making process (e.g. EU, bilateral donors, national ministries, civil society, farmers associations, private sector), including the politics and power of discourses on notions like ‘agricultural sustainability’ and ‘peace’. The project is a collaboration between scholars from Conflict Studies, Environmental Governance, and International Relations, and is mainly carried out by a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD researcher.
2018 - 2022 'SECURING TENURE, SUSTAINABLE PEACE? The challenges of localizing land-registration in conflict-affected Burundi and eastern DR Congo' - Through local fieldwork in pilots on new approaches to registration in Burundi and eastern DR Congo, this project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges of local land registration and the recognition of claims in conflict-affected settings. Through knowledge-sharing with practitioners, it generates instruments that help development organizations better map potential outcomes. Meer informatie
2018 - 2019 'GROUNDED LEGITIMACY; Strengthening local land registration in conflict-affected Northern Uganda' - This project explores how the Ugandan state legitimizes itself through decentralized land governance, and how interventions by development organizations supporting local land registration feed into the legitimacy of the Ugandan state and of customary authorities. This is done through ethnographic fieldwork in Acholi and Teso (sub-)regions of Uganda, where state legitimacy is highly contested, and tenure insecurity prevails. Two post-doc research projects explore the dynamics of legitimation, how development interventions feed into these, and how this contrasts with assumptions and normative ideas on legitimate authority underlying projects on political governance. Findings will be shared through developing legitimacy-focused conflict-sensitivity training, including participatory theatre, and dramatized video-clips. Meer informatie
2015 - 2016 'ENHANCING LOCAL PEACE COMMITTEES; Facilitating stakeholder debate on the strategic choices involved in transitional justice in Burundi and DR Congo' - Local Peace Committees (LPCs) have become an important strategy to promote transitional justice in conflict affected contexts. Support by (international) development organisations to LPCs implies strategic choices, including on the kind of justice and type of institutions to be promoted at the local level, and the future role of LPCs. However, so far, choices made tend to reflect the implicit assumptions and preferences of intervening organizations, and it remains difficult to assure the involvement and leadership of local stakeholders. This project explores what these assumptions and preferences are, and how local stakeholders can be better engaged in the strategic choices involved in supporting LPCs. Meer informatie
2014 - 2016 'LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF LAND; Enhancing justice through land governance reform in DR Congo's eastern Kivu Provinces and South Sudan's Greater Equatoria Region' - By ‘looking through the lens of land’, this action research aims to contribute to understanding the land-related justice concerns of local people in DR Congo’s eastern Kivu Provinces and South Sudan’s Greater Equatoria region, and how, through land governance and its reform, state and non-state authorities respond to these. On the basis of those insights the research aims to facilitate debate among major stakeholders on context-specific policy options and intervention strategies. Meer informatie

prof. dr. ir. M. van Leeuwen (Mathijs)

Publicaties

Projecten

Nevenwerkzaamheden