HS
Hydrological Sciences

Kirsty Holstead

Kirsty is a postdoctoral researcher in the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. In her current role she investigates how to transition water management practices in the Netherlands by storing more water and using alternative sources. More broadly, she is committed to academically robust and societally relevant research and action to support the transformation to a more sustainable society. Kirsty is interested in the role of citizen collectives and governments in sustainability. Questions that animate her and her work are: what is the role of communities and practitioners in transition? What does addressing environmental concerns involve for them? What do they need, or how do they themselves need to change? And what are the outcomes? She answers these questions in water management, climate change, energy and agriculture, drawing on theories and concepts across environmental governance and public administration. She completed her PhD at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. From a community and practitioner perspective, she explored how citizens are involved in water service. She has an MSc in Environmental Management and an MA(Hons) in Political Science (from St Andrews and Edinburgh). If you would like to find out more, start a conversation or explore opportunities to collaborate, please get in touch at kirsty.holstead@wur.nl. Find a complete publication list on her Google Scholar page.

What are water walks, and how can you use them as a research method to gather social science research data?

December 5, 2024
What are water walks, and how can you use them as a research method to gather social science research data?
Image credit: pasja1000 on pixabay.com

While doing my PhD, which explored community water governance in Scotland, I interviewed participants to understand their work and views concerning communities.  I quickly found that I wanted and needed to leave my and their offices to have these conversations. The setting restricted the conversation, making it difficult to connect with what they told me, and sometimes to move beyond expected answ ...[Read More]