This paper is a collaborative effort with Paul Hebinck and Sian Sullivan. It addresses epistemological and (cross-disciplinary) methodological issues, particularly positionality and self-reflexivity on one's position as a researcher. Especially when one works as a professional, this is important, as our case material from Namibia shows. You can read the paper here, and last year…Read more New paper: Science for success—A conflict of interest? Researcher position and reflexivity in socio-ecological research for CBNRM in Namibia.

First of all, my apologies to the non-Dutch speaking followers of my website; somewhat exceptionally I publish a manifesto in Dutch, signed by 170 academics working in the Netherlands, which was published in the newspaper Trouw on 11 April 2020. I hope an English version will be published somewhere soon, which I will then also…Read more New ‘blog post’: A manifesto by Dutch academics about important post-Corona politics in the Netherlands

A new paper about Treesleeper Camp, where I used to work long ago and where I will go back soon (and about which I have written various papers in the past). I wrote it together with my collegues Verina Ingram and Mariska Bijsterbosch. The paper addresses the project's challenges at a local level, and how…Read more New paper: State paternalism and institutional degradation at Treesleeper Eco-camp: Community-based tourism and the loss of sovereignty among Bushmen in Namibia

Check out this new paper here. I wrote  it together with Robert Fletcher, and it is a critique on contemporary platform capitalism, more specifically on how even 'doing good for free' is these days commodified and depoliticised with the main aim to create more big data. I actually have played a Facebook game for this…Read more New paper: Popular Philanthrocapitalism? The Potential and Pitfalls of Online Empowerment in “Free” Nature 2.0 Initiatives

A new blog post about indigenous peoples and how they respond to branding in our contemporary society, with a special focus on tourism. Enjoy!

I have written this blog post together with Catie Gressier and Robert Hitchcock. It is based on our recent (part) special issue in the Journal of Southern African Studies 42(2), about Belonging, Indigeneity, Land and Nature in Southern Africa under Neoliberal Capitalism. A good read for the summer holidays!

This paper was written by Christa van der Wulp and myself. Christa has also done the fieldwork for it. Moreover, it is again part of the special issue in the Journal of Southern African Studies and the last paper that I have contributed to in the special issue. You can read the paper open acces…Read more New publication: Van der Wulp, C. and Koot, S. (2019). Immaterial Indigenous Modernities in the Struggle against Illegal Fencing in the N≠a Jaqna Conservancy, Namibia: Genealogical Ancestry and ‘San-ness’ in a ‘Traditional Community’. Journal of Southern African Studies