Gert Spaargaren

Gert Spaargaren (Aalsmeer, Netherlands, February 1954) is a Dutch academic. Spaargaren is currently an environmental policy professor for sustainability and patterns of consumption at Wageningen University, Netherlands. He is a member of the Environmental Policy Group.
Career
In 1973 Spaargaren attended the Herman Wesselink College in Amstelveen, and studied the science of plant diseases at Wageningen University until 1977. Spaargaren was a research assistant and regular staff member at the department of sociology at Wageningen University in 1973. In 1983 he earned a PhD in sociology from Wageningen. The same year, Spaargaren served as a project researcher at Oecumenisch Studie en Actiecentrum Investeringen and at Pax Christi, Utrecht, in Amsterdam.
Between 1999 and 2003, Spaargaren held a professorship at Tilburg University, teaching policy of environmental education. In 1999 he completed his dissertation on the ecological modernization of production and consumption at Wageningen University. He has been Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sociology and Policy at the Environmental Policy Group since 1999. He has been teaching environmental policy for sustainable lifestyles and patterns of consumption at Wageningen since 2004, and has been on the Chair of a Dutch national network of social science researchers in the environmental field. In 2005 Spaargaren became the interim coordinator of the Research Methodology Group in the social sciences department at Wageningen. Spaargaren is the co-organizer of regional congresses for the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Environment and Society.
Teaching specialties
Spaargaren has taught and/or organized many courses on environmental science and sociology at Wageningen University. Courses he has taught include Environment and Society, Sustainable Technology Development, and Theories and Themes in Sociology and Economics. He has completed a number of research projects and supervised numerous Phd projects. Spaargaren finalized such projects as Country Coordinator for international EU research project on Transport and Risk Communication He was the project coordinator of the international EU research project on citizenship involvement in the ecological modernization of household-related public utility sectors in the EU. Spaargaren was a member of several panels and organizations. He has had visiting professorships at universities in Finland, Brussel, Paris, and Colorado. Spaargaren has participated as guest lecturerer at universities around the globe. He has contributed to dozens of publications throughout his career.
Spaargaren is married with two children and currently lives in the Netherlands.

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