Cees Leeuwis
Biographic Data
| ID | 86556 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cees Leeuwis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cees |
| FAMILY NAME | Leeuwis |
| SIGNATURE | LEEUWIS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1146-9413 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 53 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 246 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Understanding youth engagement in cocoa farming: Motivations, challenges, access to support services and farm performance in central Cameroon
We investigated the motivations of youth in Cameroon to engage in cocoa farming, their challenges, their participation in agricultural programmes, their access to services and their performance, and the factors influencing these. A quantitative approach focused on young cocoa farmers, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the New Generation Programme was used. We surveyed 309 young cocoa farmers selected through a multi-stage stratified sampling…
The technical, economic, and advocacy intermediation functions of farmers’ organisations in Burkina Faso
Although many studies have highlighted the role of farmers’ organisations as intermediaries in agricultural development following the implementation of World Bank reforms, a detailed characterisation of their evolving functions at a country scale is still scarce. This study aims to characterise the landscape and the innovation intermediation functions of farmers’ organisations in Burkina Faso. The results reveal how the evolving institutional con…
Shifting the aquaculture regime toward gender equity? Case studies of women’s entrepreneurial niche innovations in Bangladesh
Efforts to promote women’s participation, benefits, and empowerment in aquaculture entrepreneurship face persistent challenges rooted in patriarchal norms, policy frameworks, and local contexts. This article investigates how women’s entrepreneurship, supported by targeted programs, can help address these entrenched barriers. To do so, we employ the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework, which examines women’s entrepreneurial “niches” in relatio…
Citizen participation in food systems transitions: How inclusive should it be
Rice farmers and floods in Ecuador: The strategic role of social capital in disaster risk reduction and livelihood resilience
Women’s Resistance: An Alternative Perspective to Women’s Participation in Community-Driven Development
Community-Driven Development (CDD) programs compel communities to adopt egalitarian decision-making processes for the duration of the project. However, dominant groups use their power to orchestrate a public performance of social domination and subordinated groups combat social domination via subtle acts of resistance. Rather than conceptualizing social transformation from a holistic perspective that includes subtle acts of resistance and increme…
Examining the legitimacy of inclusive innovation processes: Perspectives from smallholder farmers in Uasin Gishu, Kenya
In recent decades, the concept of inclusive innovation has been used to refer to how innovation can include actors that are considered marginalised from its processes and outcomes. Contrary to the ‘expert-driven’ approaches prevalent in evaluating the legitimacy of such processes, this paper examines the legitimacy of inclusive innovation from the perspective of smallholder farmers with little resource endowments in Uasin Gishu, Kenya, that are t…
An Ethnography of Endogenous Institutional Change in Community-Driven Development
Improving Scaling Performance in Research for Development: Learning from a Realist Evaluation of the Scaling Readiness Approach
Complexity-sensitive decision support approaches (CSDSA) have gained prominence in the research for development (R4D) sector. However, limited attention has been given to critically examining the underlying causal assumptions of CSDSAs and their overall effectiveness in navigating complexity and achieving desired outcomes. Scaling Readiness has emerged as a novel CSDSA that is increasingly applied in R4D programs in low- and middle-income countri…
Climate-smart cocoa in forest landscapes: Lessons from institutional innovations in Ghana
Integrated landscape approaches have been welcomed by scientists and development practitioners as a promising way to address commodity-driven deforestation and associated land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. They present cross-sectoral approaches to manage trade-offs between multiple land uses and environmental and socio-economic objectives through participatory multi-stakeholder planning and negotiation processes. The success of landsc…
The role of culture on pest management innovation; a comparative analysis of two farmer communities in Bangladesh
The Agricultural Innovation System perspective highlights the importance of interaction for learning and innovation, but so far little research is done on the cultural differences of farmers and the effect this has on interaction, knowledge sharing and innovation. We took a cultural perspective to better understand local interaction, knowledge sharing and learning dynamics, and uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Bangladesh where the De…
A state-initiated multi-stakeholder platform as an instrument to build agricultural innovation system capacity: A case study from Ethiopia
The agricultural innovation systems (AIS) in many Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries lack the structural capacities to support smallholder-inclusive innovation. Multi-stakeholder Innovation Platforms (IPs) have been proposed as systemic instruments to improve the functioning and building of the structural capacities of the Innovation System (IS). This article studies the role of state-initiated IPs and multilevel Agriculture Development Partners …
Anticipating gender impacts in scaling innovations for agriculture: Insights from the literature
Of the world’s 570 million farmers, 72% work on two hectares or less, and women’s labor comprises at least 50% (FAO, 2014). Small farms are responsible for 80% of world food production, making them key to addressing looming global food shortages (Lowder et al., 2016). Small farms in developing countries navigate a myriad of challenges, including access to information, quality inputs, capital, markets, and among others, land (FAO, 2014). These cha…
The role of ICT in collective management of public bads: The case of potato late blight in Ethiopia
What is the role of Information and Communication Technology in the collective management of public bads? We study epidemics of late blight in potato as a collective action challenge in Oromia, Ethiopia. As a highly infectious, air-borne disease, potato late blight represents a public bad: it is non-excludable and non-rival. Managing public bads is a major policy challenge in Ethiopia due to structural inefficiencies and resource constraints to f…
Like a fish in water: Habitus adaptation mechanisms of informal tourism entrepreneurs in Thailand
This article investigates possible pathways of habitus change by informal tourism entrepreneurs in Thailand. Bourdieu's concept of habitus is depicted as a person's understanding of the world. Do people adapt their worldview in response to only external stimuli? Through ethnographic fieldwork including participant observations and active semi-structured interviews with 53 participants, this paper identifies a classification of four modes of habit…
Combining experiential and social learning approaches for crop disease management in a smallholder context: A complex socio-ecological problem
Effective management of crop diseases is a key precondition for sustainable crop production and to improve food security globally. However, learning approaches that improve smallholder farmers’ knowledge, perceptions, and practices to deal with crop diseases by fostering social and technical innovations are seldom studied. A study was conducted to examine: (1) how a combination of experiential and social learning approaches influences potato farm…
Farmers’ Perceptions as a Driver of Agricultural Practices: Understanding Soil Fertility Management Practices in Cocoa Agroforestry Systems in Cameroon
In Africa, cocoa yields are low, partly due to soil fertility constraints and poor management. While peoples’ knowledge, aspirations, and abilities are key factors explaining their behaviour, little is known about the rationales that underpin soil fertility management practices (SFMPs) of cocoa farmers. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory survey in two contrasting regions in Cameroon where cocoa is an important crop: the humid forest…
The Hybridity of Inclusive Innovation Narratives Between Theory and Practice: A Framing Analysis
Inclusive innovation remains an under-conceptualised and ambiguous concept despite garnering political and academic interest in recent decades. This paper explores the narratives of inclusive innovation that exist in literature and how these are framed in practice, using a case study of the Kenyan agricultural sector. Findings indicate that while there is significant similarity between the theoretical and empirical framing of the concept, there a…
Options for sustaining solar-powered mosquito trapping systems on Rusinga Island, Western Kenya: A social dilemma analysis
NTR3496
Value Chain Upgrading and the Inclusion of Smallholders in Markets: Reflections on Contributions of Multi-Stakeholder Processes in Dairy Development in Tanzania
Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review
Agricultural production involves the scaling of agricultural innovations such as disease-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, zero-tillage techniques, permaculture cultivation practices based on perennial crops and automated milking systems. Scaling agricultural innovations should take into account complex interactions between biophysical, social, economic and institutional factors. Actual methods of scaling are rather empirical and ba…
The need for reflexive evaluation approaches in development cooperation
Within development cooperation, development issues are increasingly recognized as complex problems requiring new paths towards solving them. In addition to the commonly used two dimensions of complex problems (uncertainty and disagreement), we introduce a third dimension: systemic stability; that is, stability provided by rules, relations and complementary technology. This article reflects on how development evaluation methodologies and especiall…
Deconstructing and unpacking scientific controversies in intensification and sustainability: Why the tensions in concepts and values
Towards a Psychology of Rural Development Processes and Interventions
A psychosocial approach to rural development and development interventions, which we designate as ‘psychology of rural development’ (PsyRD), does not yet exist as an area of research or intervention within the field of psychology or development studies, even though rural development is in part obviously shaped by psychosocial factors. Thus, in this discussion paper, we argue the need for PsyRD, explore how it may provide new insights and tools fo…
Expressing the public value of plant genetic resources by organising novel relationships: The contribution of selected participatory plant breeding and market-based arrangements
Anchoring of innovations: Assessing Dutch efforts to harvest energy from glasshouses
Enhancing the Reflexivity of System Innovation Projects With System Analyses
Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices and related institutions. This article reports on experiences with reflexive process monitoring (RPM)…
Reconceptualizing Participation for Sustainable Rural Development: Towards a Negotiation Approach
In many popular intervention methodologies aimed at stimulating sustainable rural development (in the widest possible sense) the idea of 'participation' is a leading principle. This article will demonstrate that the process in which actors are supposed to participate is often thought of as being a process of planning, decision-making and/or social learning. It will be argued that such an operationalization of development processes is based on inc…
The need for reflexive evaluation approaches in development cooperation
Within development cooperation, development issues are increasingly recognized as complex problems requiring new paths towards solving them. In addition to the commonly used two dimensions of complex problems (uncertainty and disagreement), we introduce a third dimension: systemic stability; that is, stability provided by rules, relations and complementary technology. This article reflects on how development evaluation methodologies and especiall…
Trust and hidden conflict in participatory natural resources management: The case of the Pendjari national park (PNP) in Benin
Engaging women and the poor: Adaptive collaborative governance of community forests in Nepal
Value Chain Upgrading and the Inclusion of Smallholders in Markets: Reflections on Contributions of Multi-Stakeholder Processes in Dairy Development in Tanzania
Does Adaptive Collaborative Forest Governance Affect Poverty? Participatory Action Research in Nepal's Community Forests
Despite recognition of forests’ roles in rural livelihoods, there has been relatively little empirical exploration of community forestry's contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, there has been little study of the interaction of social learning-based approaches to forest governance with poverty alleviation. This article draws on 6 years of research on community forestry in Nepal to explore whether, and how, adaptive collaborative forest g…
Advances in Knowledge Brokering in the Agricultural Sector: Towards Innovation System Facilitation
The process of knowledge brokering in the agricultural sector, where it is generally called agricultural extension, has been studied since the 1950s. While agricultural extension initially employed research push models, it gradually moved towards research pull and collaborative research models. The current agricultural innovation systems perspective goes beyond seeing research as the main input to change and innovation, and recognises that innova…
Competing Claims on Natural Resources: What Role for Science
Giller, K. E., C. Leeuwis, J. A. Andersson, W. Andriesse, A. Brouwer, P. Frost, P. Hebinck, I. Heitkönig, M. K. van Ittersum, N. Koning, R. Ruben, M. Slingerland, H. Udo, T. Veldkamp, C. van de Vijver, M. T. van Wijk, and P. Windmeijer. 2008. Competing claims on natural resources: what role for science?. Ecology and Society 13(2): 34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02595-130234
Deconstructing and unpacking scientific controversies in intensification and sustainability: Why the tensions in concepts and values
Beyond the research–policy interface. Boundary arrangements at research–stakeholder interfaces in the policy debate on biofuel sustainability in Mozambique
Towards a Psychology of Rural Development Processes and Interventions
A psychosocial approach to rural development and development interventions, which we designate as ‘psychology of rural development’ (PsyRD), does not yet exist as an area of research or intervention within the field of psychology or development studies, even though rural development is in part obviously shaped by psychosocial factors. Thus, in this discussion paper, we argue the need for PsyRD, explore how it may provide new insights and tools fo…
The discursive construction of conflict in participatory forest management: The case of the Agoua forest restoration in Benin
The Agoua Forest in Benin was declared a protected area in 1953 and subsequently managed by means of a coercion system, which, however, did not prevent its deforestation. In 2002, a participatory management process was designed to restore this forest. Although the project managers and local communities agreed to a plan at the beginning of the process, the plan was not implemented because conflict arose in the course of the process. In this paper,…
The interface between land use systems research and policy: Multiple arrangements and leverages
Learning about Advocacy: A Case-Study of Challenges, Everyday Practices and Tensions
Advocacy has become an important area of development support. Simultaneously, the interest in learning-oriented monitoring of advocacy programmes has increased. Starting from the premise that learning has sociopolitical dimensions, this article explores how the challenges and contradictions of such monitoring present themselves in Latin American advocacy activities supported by a Danish NGO. Our case-study demonstrates that two largely separate m…
CAMPFIRE and Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Local Communities Bordering Northern Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe
Gandiwa, E., I. M. A. Heitkönig, A. M. Lokhorst, H. H. T. Prins, and C. Leeuwis. 2013. CAMPFIRE and human-wildlife conflicts in local communities bordering northern Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe. Ecology and Society 18(4): 7. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05817-180407
From cohesion to conflict in participatory forest management: The case of Ouémé Supérieur and N'Dali (OSN) forests in Benin
Ex Ante Scale Dynamics Analysis in the Policy Debate on Sustainable Biofuels in Mozambique
Schut, M., C. Leeuwis, and A. van Paassen. 2013. Ex ante scale dynamics analysis in the policy debate on sustainable biofuels in Mozambique. Ecology and Society 18(1): 20. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05310-180120
Action research on alternative land tenure arrangements in Wenchi, Ghana: Learning from ambiguous social dynamics and self-organized institutional innovation
Towards a Sociological Conceptualization of Communication in Extension Science: On Giddens, Habermas and Computer-based Communication Technologies in Dutch Agriculture
Citizen participation in food systems transitions: How inclusive should it be
An Ethnography of Endogenous Institutional Change in Community-Driven Development
Improving Scaling Performance in Research for Development: Learning from a Realist Evaluation of the Scaling Readiness Approach
Complexity-sensitive decision support approaches (CSDSA) have gained prominence in the research for development (R4D) sector. However, limited attention has been given to critically examining the underlying causal assumptions of CSDSAs and their overall effectiveness in navigating complexity and achieving desired outcomes. Scaling Readiness has emerged as a novel CSDSA that is increasingly applied in R4D programs in low- and middle-income countri…
Climate-smart cocoa in forest landscapes: Lessons from institutional innovations in Ghana
Integrated landscape approaches have been welcomed by scientists and development practitioners as a promising way to address commodity-driven deforestation and associated land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. They present cross-sectoral approaches to manage trade-offs between multiple land uses and environmental and socio-economic objectives through participatory multi-stakeholder planning and negotiation processes. The success of landsc…
Planned Technology Development and Local Initiative: Computer-supported Enterprise Comparisons Among Dutch Horticulturists
Towards a Sociological Conceptualization of Communication in Extension Science: On Giddens, Habermas and Computer-based Communication Technologies in Dutch Agriculture
Reconceptualizing Participation for Sustainable Rural Development: Towards a Negotiation Approach
In many popular intervention methodologies aimed at stimulating sustainable rural development (in the widest possible sense) the idea of 'participation' is a leading principle. This article will demonstrate that the process in which actors are supposed to participate is often thought of as being a process of planning, decision-making and/or social learning. It will be argued that such an operationalization of development processes is based on inc…
Communication for Rural Innovation: Rethinking Agricultural Extension
Learning about Advocacy: A Case-Study of Challenges, Everyday Practices and Tensions
Advocacy has become an important area of development support. Simultaneously, the interest in learning-oriented monitoring of advocacy programmes has increased. Starting from the premise that learning has sociopolitical dimensions, this article explores how the challenges and contradictions of such monitoring present themselves in Latin American advocacy activities supported by a Danish NGO. Our case-study demonstrates that two largely separate m…
Action research on alternative land tenure arrangements in Wenchi, Ghana: Learning from ambiguous social dynamics and self-organized institutional innovation
Competing Claims on Natural Resources: What Role for Science
Giller, K. E., C. Leeuwis, J. A. Andersson, W. Andriesse, A. Brouwer, P. Frost, P. Hebinck, I. Heitkönig, M. K. van Ittersum, N. Koning, R. Ruben, M. Slingerland, H. Udo, T. Veldkamp, C. van de Vijver, M. T. van Wijk, and P. Windmeijer. 2008. Competing claims on natural resources: what role for science?. Ecology and Society 13(2): 34. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02595-130234
Establishment and embedding of innovation brokers at different innovation system levels: Insights from the Dutch agricultural sector
Diversity and mobility in households with children orphaned by Aids in Couffo, Benin
This paper characterises children orphaned by AIDS in the Couffo region of Benin. A 2006 census conducted for the research revealed a total of 315 such orphans, aged 0 to 14 years, within 88 households. Seventy-one percent of these children were under the care of their mothers or grandmothers, 68% were fatherless, 58% were between the ages of 7 and 12, and 68% were in primary school. An in-depth study of the orphans' lives, undertaken to compleme…
The interface between land use systems research and policy: Multiple arrangements and leverages
Adaptive management in agricultural innovation systems: The interactions between innovation networks and their environment
Enhancing the Reflexivity of System Innovation Projects With System Analyses
Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices and related institutions. This article reports on experiences with reflexive process monitoring (RPM)…
Rethinking Communication in Innovation Processes: Creating Space for Change in Complex Systems
This paper systematically rethinks the role of communication in innovation processes, starting from largely separate theoretical developments in communication science and innovation studies. Literature review forms the basis of the arguments presented. The paper concludes that innovation is a collective process that involves the contextual re-ordering of relations in multiple social networks. Such re-ordering cannot be usefully understood in term…
Normative contestation in transitions ‘in the making’: Animal welfare concerns and system innovation in pig husbandry
From cohesion to conflict in participatory forest management: The case of Ouémé Supérieur and N'Dali (OSN) forests in Benin
The discursive construction of conflict in participatory forest management: The case of the Agoua forest restoration in Benin
The Agoua Forest in Benin was declared a protected area in 1953 and subsequently managed by means of a coercion system, which, however, did not prevent its deforestation. In 2002, a participatory management process was designed to restore this forest. Although the project managers and local communities agreed to a plan at the beginning of the process, the plan was not implemented because conflict arose in the course of the process. In this paper,…
Evolution of systems approaches to agricultural innovation: Concepts, analysis and interventions
Beyond the research–policy interface. Boundary arrangements at research–stakeholder interfaces in the policy debate on biofuel sustainability in Mozambique
Advances in Knowledge Brokering in the Agricultural Sector: Towards Innovation System Facilitation
The process of knowledge brokering in the agricultural sector, where it is generally called agricultural extension, has been studied since the 1950s. While agricultural extension initially employed research push models, it gradually moved towards research pull and collaborative research models. The current agricultural innovation systems perspective goes beyond seeing research as the main input to change and innovation, and recognises that innova…
Trust and hidden conflict in participatory natural resources management: The case of the Pendjari national park (PNP) in Benin
Anchoring of innovations: Assessing Dutch efforts to harvest energy from glasshouses
New roles of science in society: Different repertoires of knowledge brokering
It has been suggested that in order to address current complex problems, scientists have to take on new roles that link the production and use of knowledge. However, what exactly these new roles mean is often not clearly identified. This paper contributes to this by discussing relevant literature related to different roles of science in society and by presenting the results of a study on the perspectives and activities of knowledge brokering. We …
Unravelling the role of innovation platforms in supporting co-evolution of innovation: Contributions and tensions in a smallholder dairy development programme
Does Adaptive Collaborative Forest Governance Affect Poverty? Participatory Action Research in Nepal's Community Forests
Despite recognition of forests’ roles in rural livelihoods, there has been relatively little empirical exploration of community forestry's contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, there has been little study of the interaction of social learning-based approaches to forest governance with poverty alleviation. This article draws on 6 years of research on community forestry in Nepal to explore whether, and how, adaptive collaborative forest g…
Engaging women and the poor: Adaptive collaborative governance of community forests in Nepal
Business (32 works) · Economics (29 works) · Political science (29 works) · Sociology (28 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Agriculture (20 works) · Geography (20 works) · Economic growth (15 works) · Agricultural Innovations and Practices (13 works) · Environmental resource management (12 works)