Thomas J. M. MattijssenWageningen University & Research | WUR · Wageningen Economic Research
Thomas J. M. Mattijssen
PhD
Project leader and researcher at Wageningen Economic Research
About
64
Publications
29,885
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1,063
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I'm a socio-environmental scientist focusing on the interfaces between humans and their natural and technological environment.
These interfaces include:
(1) perceptions and views about the environment;
(2) the interactions between humans and their environment in practices;
(3) strategic governance and policy interventions to promote the socio-economic and ecological values of the environment.
Additional affiliations
October 2017 - present
Wageningen Economic Research
Position
- Project Manager
July 2017 - September 2017
April 2014 - May 2017
Education
December 2013 - November 2018
September 2009 - August 2011
September 2005 - August 2009
Publications
Publications (64)
Scholars observe an increased involvement of citizens in green space governance. This paper focuses on green self-governance, in which citizens play a major role in realizing, protecting and/or managing green space. While existing research on green self-governance focuses mostly on specific cases, we aim to contribute towards a large overview via a...
Compact urban development, social demands and austerity measures are increasing pressures on urban greenspace. Meanwhile, active citizens, defined as voluntary individuals or groups who self-organize to contribute to urban green space development, provide ecological and social benefits to urban societies. This has inspired local governments to seek...
This paper focuses on understanding the transformative potential of active citizenship in green space governance. Through an in-depth case study, we show how citizens promoted the redevelopment of a brownfield into a green space, but eventually also contributed towards a broader co-creative shift in local governance. In this process, we highlight h...
Relational values reflect the qualities of the relationships between humans and nature, such as care, social bonding, place attachment and spiritual meanings. In this perspective article, we argue that understanding relational values is vital for nature conservation, and we identify how incorporation of these values may function as leverage points...
In this synthesis article, I discuss the meaning of active citizenship for European nature conservation based on an integrative study of existing literature. Four main knowledge gaps are addressed: (1) a lack of overview on the scope and characteristics of active citizenship across Europe; (2) a lack of systematic evidence on its impacts; (3) a lac...
Green (and blue) spaces receive attention as important components of cities that can help to mitigate the effects of climate change, support biodiversity and improve public health. Green space planning aims to transform cities towards urban sustainability and resilience. In a longitudinal study, representatives from eleven European municipalities t...
In the early 21st century, a new appetite for community forestry is arising in the Netherlands. This development is based on local interests in developing novel ways of engaging with forests, nature areas, and other green spaces.This article studies the characteristics and dynamics of these new forms of community forestry by delocalized communities...
The recently published EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 emphasizes nature’s benefits to humans. In line with wider shifts in nature conservation discourses in many European countries, moving from nature’s intrinsic value towards its instrumental values, the EU strategy strongly focuses on a ‘Natural capital’ view. In this context of a European wid...
This paper presents the results of an exploration into the adoption of biodiversity-friendly practices by the real estate sector, by researching which factors determine companies’ intentions to use nature-inclusive design and construction concepts (NID). NID represents practices in which nature and building are inextricably linked when (re)designin...
The chapter focuses on people’s experiences of natural places and changes in their sense of place through the use of social media. It explores how social media are linked to senses of place and experiences of nature from a social–ecological–technological systems perspective. This is illustrated through four empirical cases representing specific peo...
This perspective paper synthesises the special issue ‘Human-nature connectedness as a leverage point for sustainability transformation’. Based on the articles in this special issue, we aim to foster the operationalisation of the leverage points perspective to shape human-nature relations to enable sustainability transformations. Specifically, we dr...
Initiatieven van burgers en maatschappelijke organisaties kunnen bijdragen aan struc-turele maatschappelijke veranderingen. Dit geldt ook voor een transitie naar een duurzame en natuurinclusieve samenleving. Het gebruik van een Theory of Change biedt aanknopingspunten om hun strategie aan te scherpen. Dit kan de impact van initiatieven van groene b...
Citizens' initiatives and NGOs often aim to green society. They do this at a local level, but often large-scale changes are also pursued, changes we can label “transitions” towards a more nature-friendly society. However, such transitions are not easy to achieve. By drawing up and reflecting on a Theory of Change (ToC), active citizens can develop...
This project was conducted together with local stakeholders in Amsterdam and concerns a search for suitable locations for greening the city with pocket parks or public gardens. Prior research has shown that such little green spaces offer many benefits which far outweigh the costs involved. Urban green plays an important role in reducing the impacts...
To find out what the current role of nature-inclusive building is in the real estate sector and how the sector can be supported to build more nature-inclusive, a survey is conducted among companies in the Dutch real estate sector in 2019. Based on the results, we conclude that there is a positive attitude towards nature-inclusive construction; its...
Metropolitan areas are highly complex systems where a transition towards food security encompasses a systematic change in the whole food chain. Existing decision support tools that have been developed to inform policy-makers are mostly data-driven but hardly consider the activities and preferences of different stakeholders in the food system. The a...
This report is about finding avenues for expanding the monitoring of public engagement with nature. The aim was to obtain a better understanding of this public engagement. The study involved an extensive review of knowledge needs in the literature and various interactions with stakeholders, which then formed the basis for the construction of a dash...
Natuur speelt een belangrijke rol in de leefbaarheid van steden: het draagt bij aan gezondheid en welzijn, het creëert een aangename woonomgeving voor de inwoners en
een positief vestigingsklimaat voor bedrijven. Ook met het oog op biodiversiteit en milieu is de aanwezigheid van voldoende groen in de stad van groot belang, omdat het
bijvoorbeeld he...
Theoretical chapter of the book 'natuurbeleid betwist'
Introductory chapter of the book 'natuurbeleid betwist'
The real estate industry can play a key role in a wider transition to a nature-inclusive living
environment that offers social, economic and ecological resilience. In this research, we look explicitly for a pro-active green contribution from the industry to the liveability and resilience of urban areas. To set such practices in motion, we are looki...
Conservation management can sometimes lead to bitter conflicts. The aim of this project is to get a better understanding of how and why this happens. From an inventory of conservation conflicts, two were selected for further study. The conflict in the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen (a protected area for the abstraction of drinking water) concerned...
Hoe kunnen burgers bijdragen aan een transitie naar een natuurinclusieve samenleving? De afgelopen decennia is veel geïnvesteerd en verbeterd in de bescherming van onze leefomgeving, inclusief natuur, milieu en landschap. Toch vermindert de biodiversiteit nog steeds op veel plekken, zijn milieucondities zoals stikstofdeposities ontoereikend en verr...
Burgers zijn op vele manieren betrokken bij beheer en bescherming van natuur en landschap. Dit kan op lokaal niveau belangrijke ecologische en sociale effecten hebben. Het leidt echter ook tot (nieuwe) vraagstukken over hoe onze natuur het best beschermd kan worden, wie er welke verantwoordelijkheid heeft en neemt, en hoe democratisch dit allemaal...
In this article, we describe the role of social media in public debates and policy-making through a case study of a Dutch nature reserve: Oostvaardersplassen. The management
of this reserve is based on ‘natural processes’ and leads to high mortality rates of large herbivores - which triggers public protests.
In our social media analysis from 2013...
Vermaatschappelijking van natuur is de afgelopen jaren een belangrijk thema geweest in beleid en onderzoek.
Dit rapport biedt een overzicht en analyse van studies naar vermaatschappelijking van natuur die in de
periode 2014 tot en met 2017 voor het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving en het ministerie van Landbouw,
Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit zijn uitge...
Burgers zijn op vele manieren betrokken bij beheer en bescherming van natuur en landschap. Dit kan op lokaal niveau belangrijke ecologische en sociale effecten hebben. Het leidt echter ook tot (nieuwe) vraagstukken over hoe onze natuur het best beschermd kan worden, wie er welke verantwoordelijkheid heeft en neemt, en hoe democratisch dit allemaal...
In this article, we describe the role of social media in public debates and policy-making through a case study of a Dutch nature reserve: Oostvaardersplassen. The management of this reserve is based on ‘natural processes’ and leads to high mortality rates of large herbivores - which triggers public protests.
In our social media analysis from 2013...
Vermaatschappelijking van natuur is al een aantal jaren een centraal thema in het natuurbeleid. Overheden hebben de wens om de actieve betrokkenheid van burgers en bedrijven bij de natuur te vergroten. Ook vanuit de samenleving zelf ontstaan er vele initiatieven rondom natuur en landschap. De aandacht voor vermaatschappelijking van natuur is ook te...
Social media are playing an increasingly important role in public debate. The aim of this analysis is to get a clear picture of how the subject of nature is represented on social media and how this affects the public debate on nature in the Netherlands. A range of software was used to collect social media posts about nature. These posts were then a...
For the Assessment of the Dutch Human Environment we want to review what is known about social activities, initiatives and combination of functions for nature and biodiversity and what they contribute to enhancing biodiversity. In this study we collected data from the available literature and websites. These facts and figures show that most people...
This PhD-thesis focuses on the role and relevance of active citizenship for the governance of green space. Over recent decades, active and autonomously acting citizens have gained a more prominent role in this governance across Western countries. This, however, incurs important debates about how to best protect our green spaces; about the roles and...
Urban green infrastructure (UGI) is a promising concept when developing multifunctional green space systems to address major challenges of urbanisation such as increasing social cohesion, promoting the transition to a green economy, adaptation to climate change and conservation of biodiversity. In response to the European Commission’s Communication...
This study examines the relation between ecological citizen science and social engagement with nature, with a specific focus on the role of research projects in which volunteers take part in inventories of nature. We gathered information from interviews with coordinators of such projects.
Our study shows that ecological citizen science contribute...
An increased involvement of citizens in the management of European green spaces raises questions about its contributions to nature conservation. In this research, we study the effects of different types of active citizenship in green space. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, we look at the benefits of 50 green self-governance practices...
This report deals with the impact of so-called ‘International Cooperative Initiatives on Biodiversity’ (ICIBs); initiatives of private, non-state actors besides, or with, national governments, and their effects on biodiversity conservation and enhancement on the ground.
Urban green infrastructure (UGI) plays an important role in the many urban challenges of the 21st century. This report summarizes and integrates the main findings which are presented in the GREEN SURGE deliverables and scientific papers. With this, our work contributes to important debates around UGI. This includes debates around which benefits are...
This guide aims to provide a tools for navigating through important urban green space governance principles and issues. The guide synthesises results from the European research project GREEN SURGE about the current state-of-art of knowledge and innovative practice of UGI governance (see also: www.greensurge.eu). The guide is aimed at a broad range...
This paper discusses the long-term management or ‘place-keeping’ of urban green space by citizens and highlights enabling and constraining factors that play a crucial role in this continuity. While authorities have historically been in charge of managing public green spaces, there is an increased involvement of citizens in green space management. I...
Het woord burgerinitiatief duikt steeds vaker op. Actieve burgers wachten niet tot de overheid iets voor hen doet, maar nemen zelf het heft in handen als ze groen willen verbeteren of onderhouden. Tegelijkertijd is de vraag naar een bijdrage vanuit de participatiesamenleving terug te zien bij terreinbeherende organisaties, provincies en het ministe...
Active citizens may contribute to the environmental, social, and institutional resilience of cities. This review discusses how citizen initiatives protect biodiversity hotspots, contribute to social cohesion, institutional innovation, and diversity in urban green space management. Challenges related to social inclusiveness,
ecological connectivity...
This study examines practices in which groups of local people (citizens’ initiatives) take the lead in nature
conservation and landscape management projects. In three cases studies the significance of green selfgovernance
was examined by studying knock-on effects: the relations with related practices and the
relations between practices and structur...
Nature policy in the Netherlands has shifted over recent
years. Similarly, the dominant policy discourse has
shifted from ‘creating services for citizens’ to ‘creating
values together with citizens’. In this paper, we analyse
264 green area initiatives by citizens. On basis of our
analysis, we present a typology that highlights ten different
forms...
Active citizens may contribute to the environmental, social, and institutional resilience of cities. This review discusses how citizen initiatives protect biodiversity hotspots, contribute to social cohesion, institutional innovation, and diversity in urban green space management. Challenges related to social inclusiveness, ecological connectivity...
In recent years conservation management in the Netherlands has undergone a transformation and the
dominant policy discourse has shifted from ‘creating services for the public’ to ‘creating value with the
public’. A typology of green citizens’ initiatives was developed based on an analysis of 264 initiatives. For
each type we describe the most impor...
GREEN SURGE Deliverable 5.2 “Advanced approaches and strategies for UGI planning
and implementation”. The contents of this report outline the results of the second
phase of research on green infrastructure planning and implementation in Europe as
part of the EU FP7 project GREEN SURGE (ENV.2013.6.2-5-603567; 2013-2017)
This report describes our investigations of 18 examples of innovative governance arrangements in urban green space management across Europe. In this analyses, we focused on three interrelated research questions: i) What do innovative governance arrangements look like in terms of aims, actors, structure, contexts, dynamics, and which of their elemen...
Het natuurbeleid in Nederland is gekanteld. De Rijksnatuurvisie benadrukt de vermaatschappelijking van
het natuurbeleid en het dominante beleidsdiscours is verschoven van het ‘creëren van diensten voor burgers’
naar het ‘scheppen van waarden met burgers’. Analyse van 264 groene burgerinitiatieven levert een
typologie op van tien soorten burgeriniti...
Description: The contents of this report outline the results of the first phase of research into innovative forms of participatory governance in Europe as part of the EU FP7 project GREEN SURGE (ENV.2013.6.2-5-603567; 2013-2017)
In a time of continuing urbanization, there is an increasing focus on developing attractive and healthy urban environments. Green spaces, ranging from woodlands and parks to allotment gardens and green roofs, provide a range of ecosystem services that contribute to better cities (Lovell and Taylor, 2013). The Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiver...
Participatory planning is becoming increasingly integral to governance. Numerous planning innovations are developed which aim to increase democratic legitimacy and improve decision making. This paper critically reflects on a typical Dutch innovation: the area committee. Based on two individual case studies, we investigate whether area committees re...
The Netherlands were at the forefront of European nature conservation policy until recently. For years, a stable ‘social contract’ around Dutch nature conservation existed. To the surprise of many, this stability suddenly disappeared and Dutch nature policy has taken a dramatic shift with changing discourses on nature conservation, the halting of i...
De afgelopen jaren is het dominante natuurbeleidsverhaal ter discussie komen te staan. Belangrijke coalities van actoren zijn opengebroken en standpunten gepolariseerd. De strijd over dominante natuurbeelden en daaraan gerelateerd over de maatschappelijke inbedding van het natuurbeleid is ontbrand. Framing door actoren speelt daarin een belangrijke...
De afgelopen jaren is gebleken dat veel maatschappelijk debat kan ontstaan over het beheer van in het wild levende dieren. Het ministerie van EZ wil handvatten om mogelijke maatschappelijke discussies rondom faunabeheer tijdig te herkennen. Alterra heeft hiertoe een state of the art studie uitgevoerd van theorievorming rondom ethiek en emoties van...
Discussies over het welzijn van wilde dieren gaan er vaak heftig aan toe. Denk aan de discussies over wintersterfte van grote grazers in de Oostvaardersplassen, de aanpak van de ganzenproblematiek, de orka Morgan en recent nog de bultrug Johannes. Emoties kunnen hierbij hoog oplopen en natuurbeherende organisaties krijgen dan ongezouten kritiek. In...
Recently, Dutch nature policy has witnessed a major shift in which the dominance of the ecologically dominated policy has been heavily criticized. Based on framing theory and content analyses, this article tries to deconstruct these discussions. We distinguish five frames used in the discussions. First of all, the massive support frame suggests the...
Alhoewel het maatschappelijk draagvlak voor het natuurbeleid nog steeds groot is onder de Nederlandse bevolking, zijn hierin recentelijk ook barsten ontstaan. Dit blijkt uit een quick scan naar het draagvlak onder burgers, gebaseerd op de meest recente cijfers over betrokkenheid bij natuurbeheer, enquêtes onder de bevolking en een discourse analyse...
Projects
Projects (10)
Fostering food system transformation by integrating heterogeneous
perspectives in knowledge and innovation within the ERA
Urban green infrastructure has emerged as a concept for innovative green space planning and governance. In 2014, the European research project GREEN SURGE gathered data on the state of affairs in green space planning and governance in 20 European cities, revealing the diversity of European cities and their activities but also commonalities such as struggles to protect green spaces from densification, to combat the effects of climate change or for more inclusive and just decision-making processes.
In 2020, public awareness of environmental challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss has risen, increasing the popularity of urban greening and giving tailwind to concepts such as green infrastructure. Against this background, it could be assumed that green space planning and management is also gaining in importance within the municipal system. However, path dependencies, budget and staff shortages, competing spatial claims, and other constraints may prevent stakeholders responsible for urban greening to gain sufficient public support for translating into real changes on the ground.
By reinvestigating the GREEN SURGE case study cities, we will shed light on the question if and how green space planning and governance have changed. The results from the GREEN SURGE project provide a unique opportunity for such a comparison as this study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth information on green space planning and governance of European urban areas to date. Moreover, we address the deficit of longitudinal studies in planning research.
A team of international researchers contribute to project which is coordinated by Hochschule Geisenheim University, Technische Universität München and Wageningen University.
Duration: 07/2020-06/2021