Are you fascinated by sustainability issues created by Dutch import of natural resources and how these came about? You could be our PhD-candidate who analyses the long-term sustainability and wellbeing effects of Dutch import and consumption of plant oils and fats for the food and feed industries and inspire debates about the ongoing agriculture and food transitions. Then apply for this PhD position at the TU/e History Lab, co-supervised by Wageningen University and Research.
How can we explain the developments of the Netherlands' immense effects in global sustainability trade-offs? The huge Dutch imports of raw materials and goods have been causing profound impacts in economic, social, and ecological developments elsewhere on the planet. These trade-offs have historical origins. In this PhD project you will study how from the nineteenth century onwards, scientific knowledge, colonial developments and industrial modernization contributed to the development of transnational production chains of edible oils, fats and protein. These connected the Netherlands food and agriculture with the rest of the world. This historical study analyses the developments and provides perspectives for contemporary initiatives in protein and food transitions.
Your research is embedded in a larger research program
Sustainability Trade-offs in the Netherlands' Entangled Modernisation (STONEM), 1900-2020 at Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe) and Utrecht University (UU), in collaboration with Wageningen University and Research, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and other societal partners.
The STONEM research program will investigate the historical developments of Dutch trade-flows with am mixed method approach combining quantitative data in trend analysis and sustainability monitors with qualitative historical and ethnographic analyses. More about the research approaches, concepts and context of the program can be found on the STONEM webpage.
At TUe you will work in the multidisciplinary environment of the
Technology Innovation and Society (TIS) research group of Eindhoven University of Technology. Your project will connects to ongoing research on global sustainability histories at the
Eindhoven History Lab, transitions studies and development studies at TIS; studies of the protein transition of the
Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group of Wageningen University. Furthermore your project connects to ongoing research on
Deep Transitions in The Netherlands and research of
Utrecht Center for Global Challenges at Utrecht University, that also host a PhD candidate at the
Economic and Social history research group. Together with our societal partners your results become visible in (inter)national policy realms on international trade and sustainable developments.