My field of interest and expertise lies in the changing role of public and private actors, specifically corporate actors, in global environmental and marine governance. My research contributes to understanding how corporate actors increasingly become involved in sustainability transformations, and how this explains governing efforts and effects. I focus in particular on policy concepts and instruments, such as environmental information disclosure mechanisms, social license to operate, ecosystem based management, blue economy and circular economy programs, through which corporate actors are stimulated to become more proactive and reflexive in managing their environmental footprint. Through interdisciplinary research projects and approaches I aim to conceptualize the role of public and private actors by taking into account the economic, social and environmental conditions sectors operate in. Moreover, the aim is to increase insight into system and sector dynamics and lock-ins that prevent corporate actors to move away from business as usual. My research and publications cover a range of marine sectors and issues including international shipping, offshore extractive industry and plastic pollution.

Contact Judith at judith.vanleeuwen(at)wur.nl

https://www.wur.nl/en/Persons/Judith-dr.-J-Judith-van-Leeuwen.htm?subpage=projects

ENP-20806 Environmental Management and Industry

Main trends in environmental management in industry. Central concepts in environmental management, such as pollution prevention, ISO 14001, life-cycle management environmental management strategies, industrial ecology, environmental reporting. Selected theories and models concerning environmental management, in particular the 4-stage model of environmental strategy, the organization theory of Mintzberg, and ecological modernization theory. In addition to explaining these concepts and theories, the course provides practice-oriented training on the basis of case studies, and practical experience on the form of an excursion. Although the course primarily deals with industrial organizations, most of its contents also apply to other types of organization.

https://ssc.wur.nl/Studiegids/Vak/ENP-20806

ENP-37306 Water Governance: Concepts and Practices

Water governance is not just the ability to predict, regulate and control water flows, but more so the ability to manage and regulate the ways in which people and societies interact with water. Water cycles should therefore not be seen just as physical flows, but as hydro-social cycles: comprising of all societal interaction involved in water winning or abstraction, storage, treatment, distribution, use and consumption, collection of waste water, treatment, discharge to open waters or recycling.
This course is meant for Master students (MID, MES, MCL) who want to specialise or major in a water related topic. The course combines social as well as technical water expertise and stimulates students to work from an interdisciplinary angle. The lectures will introduce theories and concepts of water governance and contemporary water debates on various levels. Tutorial's will be geared to discussions of literature in which theories are applied in practices of water governance. Lastly individual paper writing help students to position themselves in contemporary debates around water governance.
While the emphasis of the course is on the way people and societies interact with water, there is a deliberatively wide scope of the course. It ranges from rural to urban, local to global water governance, and from water related laws and institutions to social-technical innovations. Case studies of water governance include waste water and irrigation systems; urban water supply and sanitation; and ground water and river basin management in both Northern (OECD) and Southern (non-OECD) contexts.

https://ssc.wur.nl/Studiegids/Vak/ENP-37306

ENP-39806 Marine Governance

This course is a ENP thesis preparing course for the MAM marine governance specialization. During the course, students will develop a thorough understanding of the state-of-the art in marine governance as well as skills for developing a research plan. Students will be introduced to current issues and debates in marine governance that are discussed in social scientific literature, such as:
- the current processes of regionalization and the development of Ecosystem based management in EU marine policies and Marine Spatial Planning;
- the traceability and the credibility of information for certifying global value chain around aquaculture or wild caught fish;
- the increased proactive role of multi-national corporations in tackling global ocean issues such as the plastic soup, deep-see mining or sustainable shipping;
- participatory governance processes i.e. in fisheries management, coastal and marine cultural heritage, MPA designation and management;
- governing new economic activities and environmental issues in weak institutional settings: the Arctic, deep sea mining, multi-use platforms, tourism.
Students will actively engage with one of these topics in an individual paper in which they elaborate on a problem statement, develop research objective and questions, elaborate on a theoretical framework that will be used in analysing the topic and the set of methods that should be used to gather data on this topic. Weekly tutorials and peer review sessions will support each student in writing their paper.

https://ssc.wur.nl/Studiegids/Vak/ENP-39806