PhD defence W. (Willem) van Eekelen

Dissertation in short:

Since the 1960s, there has been rapid but spatially uneven socio-economic development in much of the rural Global South. This development has contributed to, and is increasingly affected by, climate change. It has also caused a deterioration of the natural resources that rural economies depend on. These resources are primarily soil, water and agricultural biodiversity, and common resources such as forests, grazing lands and fishing grounds. Decisive action is needed to limit further damage, but there is no consensus on the nature of that action. At the two extremes of the spectrum of opinions, ecomodernists aim for technical innovation that enables further growth without causing further damage, while the degrowth movement argues that only degrowth could prevent global calamity.
The world’s rapid but uneven development, the problems it causes and the very different opinions as to how to proceed, serve as the backdrop of the three interrelated narratives presented in this thesis. These narratives cover agricultural production, the management of common resources, and the effects of ICT on rural development. The narratives are based on literature, public databases and my evaluative work in the Global South. This combination helped me to recognise patterns across comparable but messy and complex situations (‘abduction’), which I used to answer two questions:

1. What are the effects of evolving products and practice in the rural Global South, in relation to inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development?
2. How could institutional donors contribute to such development?

The thesis answers these questions in the contexts of Africa and Asia, and with European donors in mind, as these are the continents and donors that my evaluations focused on.