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Dr J.J. (Jannes) Willems

Assistant professor in Urban Planning
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
GPIO : Urban Planning
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
  • Room number: C4.15
Postal address
  • Postbus 15629
    1001 NC Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Jannes Willems is an assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Amsterdam. His research is motivated by a desire to explain how urban environmental planners and water managers are preparing cities and regions to cope with climate change through the creation of new water infrastructures, and their impact on communities and ecosystems. Jannes researches how and why infrastructures enable sustainability transformations, focusing on the techno-politics of infrastructure provision: a low-salience, yet highly complex policy domain with profound implications on cities and regions. He has worked in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams and conducted empirical fieldwork in Western-European cities.

    Jannes teaches in the bachelor programmes Human Geography & Planning and Future Planet Studies, and the master programme Urban and Regional Planning. He is one of the editors of the Dutch professional magazine Rooilijn and the European online platform In Planning. He also co-hosts the Dutch podcast Onder Planologen.

    Previously, he was affiliated with Erasmus University Rotterdam as a postdoctoral researcher (Department of Public Administration & Sociology). He was involved in the European Interreg project BEGIN and the KIMA research programme Marker Wadden. In 2019, he has started with Jitske van Popering a NWO SURF research into the platforms Amsterdam Rainproof and Water Sensitive Rotterdam. Jannes defended his dissertation in at the University of Groningen (Department of Spatial Planning & Environment) in 2018. His dissertation entailed institutional change in the Dutch waterway sector, in the light of replacing major ageing infrastructure assets.

    Jannes obtained his Research Master in Regional Studies (cum laude) and his Bachelor Environmental & Infrastructure Planning at the University of Groningen. In 2015, he was a 'visiting student' at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (Environmental Policymaking & Planning group). During his master, he conducted fieldwork in Brazil as part of a research project of the Federal Universidade de Pará.

    Expertise and research fields

    • Spatial planning, water infrastructure, climate adaptation, institutional analysis, infrastructure planning and management

    Relevant links

  • Research

    Current research projects

    • Growing Effective & Equitable Nature-based Solutions through Inclusive Climate Actions (GREEN-INC) (role: PI; 2024-2017; with Prof Maria Kaika and Dr Mendel Giezen), funded by the Driving Urban Transitions-partnership (formerly JPI Urban Europe);
    • Urban Blue Justice (role: co-I; 2023-2028; with Dr Hebe Verrest and Dr Karen Paiva Henrique);
    • Port of Amsterdam-Ways of Water (with Dr Elisabeth Krueger, Prof Maria Kaika and Prof Annemarie van Wezel);
    • Urban Food Commons (with Dr Ciska Ulug and Ying-Tzu Lin).

    Research methods

    Qualitative methods: interviews, focusgroups, workshops, participatory observation

    Research grants & honours

    2023 Driving Urban Transitions partnership grant (€1.5M): GREEN-INC (a European consortium with 6 universities and 5 local partners)
    2023 Centre for Urban Studies seed grant (€10k): "Extended urbanization in the Bolivian Amazon"
    2022 Centre for Urban Studies seed grant (€5k): “Urban Food Commons”
    2020 Contract research with three infrastructure providers (€110k): “Invitational Asset Management: improving participation in the renewal and renovation of infrastructure assets”
    2019 NWO VerDuS SURF Pop Up grant (€50k): “The New Normal: Mainstreaming urban climate adaptation in Amsterdam and Rotterdam” 

  • Teaching & PhD Supervision

    Courses

    • Bachelor Human Geography & Planning: Introduction to Spatial Planning, Urban Dynamics: Amsterdam in context, and SPIEC – seminar.
    • Bachelor Future Planet Studies: Introduction Spatial Planning, Food and the City, and bachelor thesis supervision.
    • Master Urban and Regional Planning: Climate-Proof Development of Cities

    PhD supervision

    • Fernando Schrupp Rivero: “Earthworks in the Bolivian Amazonia: Vivir Bien, Flood Mitigation, and the Ichilo-Mamoré Waterway” (with Prof Maria Kaika)
  • Publications

    2023

    • Kuitert, L., Willems, J., & Volker, L. (2023). Value integration in multi-functional urban projects: a value driven perspective on sustainability transitions. Construction Management and Economics. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2264969
    • Willems, J. J., Kuitert, L., & Van Buuren, A. (2023). Policy integration in urban living labs: Delivering multi-functional blue-green infrastructure in Antwerp, Dordrecht, and Gothenburg. Environmental Policy and Governance, 33(3), 258-271. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2028
    • Willems, J. J., van Popering-Verkerk, J., & van Eck, L. (2023). How boundary objects facilitate local climate adaptation networks: the cases of Amsterdam Rainproof and Water Sensitive Rotterdam. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 66(7), 1513-1532. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2030686 [details]

    2022

    • Willems, J. J., & Giezen, M. (2022). Understanding the institutional work of boundary objects in climate-proofing cities: The case of Amsterdam Rainproof. Urban Climate, 44, Article 101222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101222 [details]
    • Willems, J. J., Ellen, M., Veerbeek, W., Ashley, R., & van Buuren, A. (2022). Policy transfer in urban water management: evidence from ten BEGIN cities. In T. Bolognesi, F. Silva Pinto, & M. Farrelly (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Urban Water Governance (Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003057574-22

    2021

    • Brorström, S., & Willems, J. (2021). Getting integrative urban regeneration strategies done: Insights from Antwerp and Gothenburg. International Review of Administrative Sciences. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523211029122
    • IJff, S., Veraart, J., Willems, J. J., Duijn, M., van den Berg, N., & Stouten, M. (2021). Innovatieve governance voor Building with Nature: Lessen uit het Marker Wadden-project. Landschap, 2021(1).
    • Willems, J. J., Duijn, M., IJff, S., Veraart, J., Nuesink, N., Ellen, G-J., & van Buuren, A. (2021). The lifecycle of public value creation: eroding public values in the Dutch Marker Wadden project. Public Money & Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2021.1896557
    • Willems, J. J., Kenyon, A., Sharp, L., & Molenveld, A. (2021). How actors are (dis)integrating policy agendas for multi-functional blue and green infrastructure projects on the ground. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 23(1), 84. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2020.1798750

    2020

    2019

    2018

    • Willems, J. J. (2018). Beyond maintenance: Emerging discourses on waterway renewal in the Netherlands. Transport Policy, 72, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.09.011
    • Willems, J. J., Busscher, T., Woltjer, J., & Arts, J. (2018). Co-creating value through renewing waterway networks: A transaction-cost perspective. Journal of Transport Geography, 69, 26-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.04.011
    • Willems, J. J., Busscher, T., Woltjer, J., & Arts, J. (2018). Planning for Waterway Renewal: Balancing Institutional Reproduction and Institutional Change. Planning Theory and Practice, 19(5), 678-697. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2018.1542504
    • Willems, J. J., Busscher, T., van den Brink, M., & Arts, J. (2018). Anticipating water infrastructure renewal: A framing perspective on organizational learning in public agencies. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(6), 1088-1108. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654417733993

    2017

    • Gilliard, L., Wenner, F., Lamker, C. W., Van den Berghe, K., & Willems, J. J. (2017). Potentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking for Planning: Debates during the 11th AESOP Young Academics Conference. DISP, 53(3), 94-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2017.1380439

    2016

    2022

    • Willems, J. J., Klanker, G., de Boer, H., Saïd, M., & de Graaff, T. (2022). Meerwaarde uit vervangings- en renovatieprojecten. O.T.A.R., 103(4), 42-45.

    2021

    2020

    2018

    2017

    2016

    2023

    Media appearance

    2018

    • Willems, J. J. (2018). Navigating waterway renewal: Actor-centred institutional perspectives on the planning of ageing waterways in the Netherlands. University of Groningen.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
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