Dr Rutgerd Boelens from Wageningen University has won the "Thesis Award Competition". The price is being awarded for the best dissertation that appeared at one of the Dutch universities in the field of international development in 2007 or 2008. The prize will be presented on 23 September by the State Secretary Jan Kees de Jager. The prize was established by The Amsterdam Institute for International Development, an initiative of the University of Amsterdam and the Free University Amsterdam.
Rutgerd Boelens received his doctorate with distinction on 11 April 2008. He was supervised by Prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, professor of Rural Sociology at Wageningen University, and Prof. Hans Achterhuis, professor emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Twente.
Dr Boelens' research dealt with the power strategies around the management of irrigation water in the Andes mountains in South America. In this region, an extremely complex, sometimes centuries old but also constantly changing system of water rights prevails, which, moreover, varies from village to village. Attempts by governments, development organisations and powerful industry sectors to control these rights through uniform governmental regulation, market-driven water rights and even participative development projects sometimes lead to open, but often more subtle resistance by farmers wanting to protect their water and water rights.
Boelens determined that these attempts for more control (in the name of the principle that "everyone is equal") fail to appreciate the local context, the history and the specific character of these water rights, and, as such, the fight of the farmers to survive.
Dr Rutgerd Boelens is currently an associate professor of Irrigation and Water Engineering at Wageningen University.