Dr. Rutgerd Anne Boelens
Irrigation and Water Engineering Group
Department Environmental Sciences
Wageningen University - The Netherlands
§ Associate Professor / Senior Researcher Irrigation and Water Management
§ Visiting Professor, Catholic University Peru
§ General Coordinator international research and action alliance Justicia Hídrica
§ Consortium Director Concertación/ Andean Countries Water Policy Research & Training Program
§ General Coordinator WALIR / Water Law and Indigenous Rights Program
§ Coordinator NUFFIC Program on Water Policies and IWRM (Andean Region)
§ Research Coordinator NWO-WOTRO Integrated Program “Struggling for Water Security”
§ Research Coordinator NWO-WOTRO Integrated Program “Transnationalizing Water Battles”
§ Consortium Director EU Program ALFA Postgraduate Training on IWRM in Latin America
Tel: +31 (0) 317 484190; e-mail: rutgerd.boelens@wur.nl
EDUCATION
-1985 BSc Land Use Systems, Wageningen University, Netherlands (Cum Laude)
-1990 M.Sc. Tropical Land and Water Use, Wageningen University (Cum Laude)
M.Sc.-theses (6) with Dept. Rural Sociology (Peru); Dept. Irrigation & Water Engineering (Peru); Dept. Irrigation & Water Engineering (Zimbabwe); Dept. Rural Engineering (Spain); Dept. Social Philosophy (Andean Region); Dept. Communication Sciences (Andean Region & Africa).
-2008 Ph.D. Social Sciences - Wageningen University (Cum Laude)
Title: “The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules. Normalization and Resistance in Andean Water Control” (Interdisciplinary thesis: Water Management Studies, Rural Sociology, Gender Studies, Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology, Legal Anthropology, History, Political Sciences. Promotors: Prof. Jan Douwe vd Ploeg & Prof. Hans Achterhuis).
RESEARCH INTERESTS
§ Policies and politics of water reforms, rights and development intervention;
§ Legal pluralism and property rights in irrigation and watershed management;
§ Politics of scale and up-scaling strategies in natural resource governance
§ Water cultures, equity, gender and empowerment in peasant and indigenous water control;
§ Action research, interactive design and interdisciplinary strategies in natural resource development;
§ Social mobilization and struggles over water and natural resources, authority, and policy discourses.
Primary Research Locations: Spain, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile / Andean countries / South America
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND FIELD EXPERIENCE
Educated in Irrigation & Rural Development at Wageningen University, Rutgerd Boelens (MSc and PhD research in Peru, Ecuador, Spain, Zimbabwe) has enjoyed a 20 years world-wide professional career in both social sciences and irrigation and rural engineering. After assignments in Europe in North-South solidarity networks, he worked for many years in the Andean Region as advisor concerning interactive irrigation development; stakeholder platforms for watershed management; institution-strengthening; gender equity; and customary rights. He has extensive experience in coordinating research projects for various universities and organizations, especially in South America.
Since 1998 he is employed by Wageningen University as senior researcher, associate professor, and scientific programs coordinator on water rights, institutional development and the cultural politics of water policies. He developed management and training skills through organizing a number of international congresses, research programs, educational and training programs, and many-years experience with action-research networks on water rights, identity, politics, and legal complexity.
He acted as academic coordinator of the Bolivian Centro AGUA program (Andean Centre of Excellence on Water Management); general coordinator of the program Water Law and Indigenous Rights (WALIR) on contradictions between official and local water rights frameworks in Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, USA and Mexico. He also coordinated the inter-Andean ‘Course on Water, Law, Agronomy and Anthropology’; and the international NUFFIC water policy training programs in the Andean countries.
Currently he is the Consortium Director for the interAndean program Concertación (water policy research and training in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador); Coordinator of two NWO-WOTRO Integrated PhD Programs: “Struggling for Water Security in the Andean countries” and “Globalizing Local Water Battles”, and Consortium Coordinator of the EU-funded ALFA program for Postgraduate Research Training in Latin America. In 2009 he founded the inter-continental research alliance Justicia Hidrica/Water Justice for which he acts as general coordinator; and he was appointed as Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Lima.
He has published a large number of scientific articles dealing with water law and property relations, water reforms and interventions, and their relationship with social mobilization, mediation and struggles over water and authority. In addition he published a number of books on the links among water rights, justice, water cultures, water politics and power, combining social and natural sciences.
SCIENTIFIC RECORD AND BOARDS (1998-2012)
§ Visiting Professor Catholic University Peru, Dept. Social Sciences & Dept. Law (2009 – 2013)
§ Visiting scholar (University of Colorado, USA), and invited speaker at universities and research centers in Europe, Latin America and USA.
§ Consortium Director EU-funded ALFA III program “Latin American Network of Postgraduate Training on IWRM” (Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Spain, Netherlands (2012- 2015).[click]
§ Coordinator NWO-WOTRO Integrated Program “The Transnationalization of Local Water Battles. Water accumulation by agribusinesses in Peru and Ecuador and the politics of corporate social responsibility” (2011- 2015). [click]
§ Coordinator international research and action alliance Justicia Hídrica (Spain, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Nicaragua, Mexico, USA, Colombia, Mozambique, India) (2009-2016). [ www.justiciahidrica.org ] and [ www.pucp.edu.pe/climadecambios/index.php?tmpl=articulo&id=1399 ]
§ Coordinator NWO-WOTRO Integrated Program “Struggling for Water Security. The Defence of Water Rights in Ecuador and Peru” (2008- 2013).[click]
§ Coordinator Research Course “Social landscape and Institutions for Water Governance”, Spain, for: University of Washington School of Law (2012 - ...)
§ Editorial Board Member of the journal Water Alternatives (2008 - now)
§ Member Legal Expert Group of the United Nations World Water Development Report Program (WWDR-WWAP) (2009 – now)
§ Senior member of the WASS Research School (Wageningen School of Social Sciences)
§ Advisor Water-Culture Institute, New Mexico, USA. (www.waterculture.org) (2009 – now)
§ Ambassador, European Citizens’ Initiative “Water is a Human Right” / European Public Services Union (2012)
§ Research associate: WATERLAT Research Network on Water Governance and Citizenship in Latin America (2009 - now)
§ Research associate: Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism (2001 - now)
§ Member: NALACS Netherlands Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2009 – now)
§ Coordinator Res.&Tr. Program “Water Access and Conflicts” NUFFIC-CAMAREN (Ecuador) (2008-2009).
§ Consortium Director Res.&Tr. Program “Concertación” on IWRM Policies (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador) (2006-2011).
§ Consortium Director, Res.&Tr. Program on IWRM Policies, NUFFIC- CBC / Univ. P. Ruiz Gallo (Peru) (2006-2009)
§ Consortium Director, Res.&Tr. Program on IWRM Policies, NUFFIC-CAMAREN (Ecuador) (2005-2007).
§ Course Director, inter-Andean Course on “Water, Law, Agronomy and Anthropology”. (2004-2006 and 2009-2010).
§ Director “Water Law and Indigenous Rights Program” (WALIR). (Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, USA). (2000-2007).[click]
§ Coordinator documentary research project “Tailenders. The Struggle for Water in Times of Neoliberalism” (Spain, Ecuador, India). (2000-2002).
§ Coordinator research projects “Searching for Equity and Justice in Water Management” and “Water Rights and Empowerment” (1997-2002).
§ Academic Coordinator Centre of Excellence “Centro AGUA” / Andean Centre for Water Management, Univ. Mayor San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia (1998 – 2004).
AWARDS (1998-2012)
§ Award Best PhD-thesis at Dutch universities in International Development 2007-2008
§ Cum Laude (‘With Distinction’) granted to BSc-, MSc-, and PhD-titles.
§ Various (12) large grants awarded to realize diverse scientific research and research training projects (e.g., with NWO-WOTRO, NUFFIC, DGIS, EU, etc.)
§ Netherlands universities’ top-6 notification in NWO-WOTRO program “Synergy - Combining Scientific Excellence and Social Impact" (2011)[click]
EDITORSHIP OF BOOK SERIES
§ Editor of 14 book volumes (see publication list)
§ Coord. research publications Justicia Hídrica/ Water Justice [ www.justiciahidrica.org ]
LEAD ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS
§ International Conference-Seminar “Transnational Water Battles. Agribusiness, Virtual Water and Social Justice”, at the Alternative Forum to the 6th World Water Forum, Marseille, 14-17 March 2012 (co-organizer)
§ III International Congress “Justicia Hídrica / WaterJustice”, CBC, Cusco, Peru, 3-5 Nov. 2011 (lead organizer)
§ International Congress “Foro Andino del Agua”, CAN, Lima, Peru, 8-9 Nov. 2011 (co-organizer)
§ II International Congress “Justicia Hídrica / WaterJustice”, CBC, Cusco, Peru, 9-13 Nov. 2010 (lead organizer)
§ International Conference-Seminar “Justicia Hídrica. Acumulación, Conflicto y Acción Civil”, CBC, Cusco, Perú, 22-27 Nov. 2009 (lead organizer)
§ International Conference “Latin American Water Policies And Political Change. Water Governance in a Context of Rights Pluralism, Cultural Diversity and Unequal Power”, 9 Nov. 2009, Wageningen, Netherlands (lead organizer)
§ International Conference “Gestión de Agua y Movilización para la Defensa de la Seguridad Hídrica” – Lima, 20 April 2009 (lead organizer)
§ International Conference “The Unbearable Lightness of NRM policies”, 11 April 2008, Wageningen, The Netherlands (lead organizer, with M. Zwarteveen)
§ International Congress “Legal Pluralism, Water Reforms, and the Politics of Recognition”, Cusco, Peru, Nov. 2006, (lead organizer)
§ International Seminar “Agua, Bien Comun y Usos Privados”, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. Lima, Dec. 2005. (co-organizer)
§ International Conference on “Approaches to Multi-dimensional Water Valuation and Payment for Environmental Services” – Lima, Nov. 2005 (co-organizer)
§ International Seminar “Local management, Collective Rights, and National Water Legislation” – Quito, Oct. 2004 (lead organizer)
§ Kyoto 3rd World Water Forum, Session “Water and Cultural Diversity” – Kyoto, March 2003 (co-organizer)
§ International Seminar “Local Water Rights and National Legislation” – Cochabamba, Bolivia, Jan. 2003 (lead organizer)
§ International Seminar “Water Law and Indigenous Rights” – Wageningen, March 2002 (lead organizer)
§ Panel “Legal Complexity and Water Resources”, in XIIIth International Congres on Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law – Chang Mai April 2002 (co-organizer, with M.Zwarteveen and D. Roth)
§ International Conference “Water management and Social Justice” – Wageningen , Nov. 1999 (lead organizer)
§ International Congress on “Responsible Irrigation Management Transfer” – Riobamba, August 1995 (lead organizer).
SELECTION OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS (for full overview see publication list)
Boelens has written 175 publications, including 15 books and 3 films [click]
Isch, E., F. Peña & R. Boelens (eds.) (2012) Agua, Injusticia y Conflictos.(320 pp.) Cusco: CBC & IEP.
Boelens, Rutgerd, Leontien Cremers, Margreet Zwarteveen (2011). Justicia Hídrica. Acumulación, Conflicto y Acción Social. (475 pp.) Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Fondo Editorial PUCP.[click] and [http://www.iep.org.pe/publicacion/003955]
Boelens, Rutgerd, David Getches, Armando Guevara (2010) Out of the Mainstream: Water Rights, Politics and Identity. (360 pp.) London, Washington D.C.: Earthscan / Routledge.[click] and [http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781849714556/ ]
Boelens, Rutgerd, & Rosario Parra (2009) Aguas Rebeldes. Imágenes de la lucha por el agua y la justicia en los Andes. Un tributo a Julio García. (374 pp.) Quito: ImpreFepp, Lima: IEP.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd (2008) The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules. Normalization and Resistance in Andean Water Control. (600 pp.) Wageningen: Wageningen University.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd & Paul Hoogendam (eds.) (2007) Derechos de Agua y Acción Colectiva. (second ed., 345 pp.). Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. [click] and [http://www.iep.org.pe/publicacion/001185]
Boelens, Rutgerd, David Getches & Armando Guevara (eds) (2006) Agua y Derecho. Políticas Hídricas, Derechos Consuetudinarios e Identidades Locales. (435 pp.). Lima: IEP. [click] and [http://www.iep.org.pe/publicacion/002780]
Urteaga, Patricia & Rutgerd Boelens (eds.)(2006) Derechos Colectivos y Políticas Hídricas en la Región Andina. (225 pp.). Lima : IEP. [click] and [ http://www.iep.org.pe/publicacion/002782]
Boelens, Rutgerd, Moe Chiba and Douglas Nakashima (eds) (2006) Water and Indigenous Peoples. WALIR, UNESCO-LINKS Series (177 pp.). Paris: UNESCO [click]
Roth, Dik, Rutgerd Boelens & Margreet Zwarteveen (eds) (2005) Liquid Relations. Legal pluralism and contested water rights.(352 pp.). New Brunswick/NJ & London: Rutgers University Press. [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd & Paul Hoogendam (eds.) (2002) Water rights and Empowerment, (255 pp.) Assen: Van Gorcum Publishers. [click] and [ www.vangorcum.nl/EN ]
Boelens, Rutgerd & Gloria Dávila (eds.) (1998) Searching for Equity. Conceptions of Justice and Equity in Peasant Irrigation, (in Spanish: Buscando la Equidad. Concepciones sobre Justicia y Equidad en el Riego Campesino),(530p),Assen: Van Gorcum [click] & [ www.vangorcum.nl/EN ]
Arroyo, Aline & Rutgerd Boelens (1997) Mujer campesina e intervención en el riego andino. Sistemas de riego y relaciones de género, caso Licto, Ecuador, (187 pp.). Quito: CAMAREN.
Selection recent journal articles and book chapters
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2012). ‘Local water management in the Andes: interplay of domination, power and collective participation’, in: Water, Cultural Diversity, and Global Environmental Change: Emerging Trends, Sustainable Futures? B.J. Johnston et al. (eds.), pp. 65-75. UNESCO. Springer: Dordrecht, London, New York. [ http://www.springerlink.com/content/x86u6434732871w2/fulltext.pdf ]
Rutgerd Boelens, Mourik Bueno de Mesquita, Antonio Gaybor and Framcisco Peña, (2011) 'Threats to a Sustainable Future. Water Accumulation and Conflict in Latin America', Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Vol.12(1):41-45.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd and Jeroen Vos, (2012).‘The danger of naturalizing water policy concepts. Water productivity and efficiency discourses from field irrigation to virtual water trade’. Journal of Agricultural Water Management 2011, 108:16-26 [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2011). ‘Luchas y Defensas Escondidas. Pluralismo Legal y Cultural como una Práctica de Resistencia Activa y Creativa en la Gestión Local del Agua en los Andes’, Anuario de Estudios Americanos 68(2):673-703.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, Aldo Panfichi, Armando Guevara, (2010) ‘Indigenous water Rights in the Andean countries: struggles over resources and legitimacy’, Journal of Water Law 20: 268-277.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2010a) ‘Water Rights and Rule-making Justice as Fruits of Social Struggle in the Ecuadorian Andes’. In: Social Participation in Water Governance and Management. Critical and Global Perspectives. Kate Berry and Eric Mollard (eds.), pp243-264.London, Sterling VA: Earthscan.
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2010b) ‘Water Rights Politics’. In: The Politics of Water. Kai Wegerich and Jeroen Warner (eds), pp. 161-183. London: Routledge.
Achterhuis, Hans, Rutgerd Boelens & Margreet Zwarteveen, (2010) ‘Water Property Relations and Modern Policy Regimes: Neoliberal Utopia and the Disempowerment of Collective Action’. In: Out of the Mainstream: Water Rights, Politics and Identity. Boelens, Getches & Guevara (eds), pp 27-55. London, Washington DC: Earthscan.
Boelens, Rutgerd, Rocio Bustamante & Thomas Perreault, (2010) ‘Network Strategies and Struggles for Water Control. From Water Wars to Mobilizations for Day-to-Day Water Rights Defence’. In: Out of the Mainstream: Water Rights, Politics and Identity. Boelens, Getches & Guevara (eds), pp 281-306. London, Washington DC: Earthscan.
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2009a) ‘The Politics of Disciplining Water Rights’, Development and Change 40(2):307-331. [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2009b) ‘Aguas Diversas. Derechos de agua y pluralidad legal en las comunidades andinas’, Anuario de Estudios Americanos 66(2): 23 – 55.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2008a) ‘From Universal Recipes To Living Rights: Local and Indigenous Water Rights Confront Public-Private Partnerships in the Andes’, Journal of International Affairs, 61(2):127-144. [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, (2008b) ‘Water Rights Arenas in the Andes. Upscaling the Defense Networks to Localize Water Control’. Water Alternatives 1(1): 48-65.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, Rocio Bustamante, Hugo de Vos, (2007) ‘Legal Pluralism and the Politics of Inclusion.’ In: Community-based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform, Van Koppen et al. (eds.), pp. 96-113. Comprehensive Assessment Series 5. Wallingford, UK and Cambridge MA, USA.
Boelens, Rutgerd and Hugo de Vos, (2006) ‘Water Law and Indigenous Rights in the Andes’, Cultural Survival Quarterly, 29 (4): 18-21.
Vos, Hugo de, Rutgerd Boelens, and Rocio Bustamante, (2006) ‘Formal Law and Local Water Control in the Andean Region: A Fiercely Contested Field’, International Journal of Water Resources Development 22 (1): 37-48. [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, Axel Dourojeanni & Paul Hoogendam, (2005) ‘Improving water allocation for user communities and platforms in the Andes’. In: Water Rights Reform:, B.Bruns, C.Ringler, and R.Meinzen-Dick (eds.), pp. 183 - 215. Washington D.C.: IFPRI.
Boelens, Rutgerd & M. Zwarteveen, (2005) ‘Prices and Politics in Andean Water Reforms’, Development and Change 36(4): 735-758.[click]
Boelens, Rutgerd & Paul H. Gelles, (2005) ‘Cultural Politics, Communal Resistance and Identity in Andean Irrigation Development’, Bulletin of Latin American Research 24(3): 311-327. [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd, Dik Roth & Margreet Zwarteveen, (2005) ‘Legal complexity in the analysis of water resources management’, In: Liquid Relations. D.Roth, R. Boelens & M.Zwarteveen (eds.), Pp.1-20. New Brunswick/New Jersey: Rutgers University Press [click]
Leontien Cremers, Marjolein Ooijevaar, Rutgerd Boelens, (2005) ‘Institutional reform in the Andean irrigation sector: Enabling public water agencies for strengthening local rights and water management’, Natural Resource Forum 29:37-50 [click]
Boelens, Rutgerd & Bernita Doornbos, (2001) ‘The battlefield of water rights. Rule-making amidst conflicting normative frameworks in the Ecuadorian Highlands’. Human Organization, 60(4): 343-355.[click]