Stasja Koot
Stasja Koot is an Assistant Professor at the Sociology of Development and Change group of Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Geography, Environmental Management & Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He worked as a fundraiser for large grants at the Edukans Foundation, a Dutch NGO specialising in educational development projects world-wide. In 2009, he complemented this job by starting a PhD as an external candidate at Tilburg University and the ASCL. In September 2015, he moved to the chair group Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) at Wageningen University & Reseach, the Netherlands. Here he started as a postdoc half of his time in the NWO sponsored research project Crisis Conservation, and as a lecturer for the other half, teaching 3 courses. On 1 January 2019 I became an Assistant Professor in tenure track.
His research and writing revolve around the convergences and dynamics of nature conservation, (sustainable) tourism, development and indigenous people. Empirically, he has explored and studied these mostly in South Africa and Namibia, the latter where he lived and worked in the past. In addition, he plays an active role in two groups of the Centre for Space, Place and Society (CSPS), a collaboration between the three critical Wageningen chair groups Sociology of Development and Change (SDC), Rural Sociology (RSO) and Cultural Geography (GEO), namely Tourism and Political Ecology.
Recent publications:
Koot, S., Grant, J., //Khumûb, M., Fernando, K., Mushavanga, T., Dommerholt, T., Gressier, C., Pienaar, D., /Ui Kunta, S., Puckett, F., Paksi, A., Moeti, S., ≠Oma Tsamkxao, L., Steenkamp, L., Hitchcock, R., Maruyama, J., Gordon R. and Mushavanga, D. (2023). Research codes and contracts do not guarantee equitable research with Indigenous communities. Nature: Ecology and Evolution.
Thakholi, L. and Koot, S. (2023). Black belonging, White belonging: Primitive accumulation in South Africa’s private nature reserves. Antipode 55 (3): 935-957.
Koot, S., Büscher, B. and Thakholi, L. (2022). The new green apartheid? Race, capital and logics of enclosure in South Africa’s wildlife economy. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.
Koot, S. (2021). Enjoying extinction: Philanthrocapitalism, jouissance, and ‘excessive environmentourism’ in the South African rhino poaching crisis. Journal of Political Ecology 28 (1): 804-822.
Koot, S. and Fletcher, R. (2021). Donors on tour: Philanthrotourism in Africa. Annals of Tourism Research 89.