Dr.ir. Jacqueline Vel

Position:
  • Post doc researcher
Expertise:
  • Indonesia
  • Agrarian law
  • Biofuel politics
  • Socio-legal studies
  • Sumba
  • Rural development


Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 8834
E-Mail: j.a.c.vel@law.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid, Instituut voor Metajuridica, Recht en bestuur ontwikkelingslanden/VVI
Office Address: Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw
Steenschuur 25
2311 ES Leiden
Room number B320


Post-doctoral researcher

Jacqueline Vel is researcher and coordinator of the KNAW and NWO funded program “Jarak: the commoditization of an alternative biofuel crop (jatropha curcas) in Indonesia”. It is an interdisciplinary program combining the fields of law, history, anthropology, political ecology and plant science (agronomy).  It consists of 6 PhD or post-doc projects, with Dutch and Indonesian researchers. Apart from coordinating the program Jacqueline works on developing a common analytical framework for JARAK, and developing a socio-legal niche in global value chain research. JARAK is part of the program ‘Agriculture beyond Food’.

Since 2008 Jacqueline was also researcher in the program 'Access to Justice in Indonesia', working on further developing a conceptual framework for studying access to justice for the poor and conducting a case study on access to justice for the poor in land disputes with fieldwork in Sumba. She was guest editor of the special issue of the Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal.

Sumba has been  Jacqueline’s continuous field work site, from 1984 when she first worked there, until the most recent visit in November 2010. In 2008 she published about 20 years observations on Sumbanese type of network politics and the political transformations in one of Indonesia’s most ‘traditional’ islands: “Uma Politics: an ethnography of democratization in West Sumba, Indonesia, 1986-2006”

Jacqueline joined the VVI  in 2006 as post-doctoral fellow in the INDIRA program that focused on the changes in the legal system in Indonesia since the demise of Soeharto's authoritarian regime in 1998, and in particular on the question whether and why land tenure security for common people in rural and urban areas in Indonesia has changed in this period.

In 2006 Jacqueline was research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean studies (KITLV) in the program "The state of authority in post-1998 Indonesia".

Previously she was assistant professor in Development Sociology and Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam. Her masters degree (ir.) was in agricultural economics at Wageningen University, where she also earned her PhD in 1994 at the department of agricultural law with the dissertation "The Uma-economy: indigenous economics and development work in Lawonda, Sumba (eastern Indonesia)" under supervision of prof. F. von Benda-Beckmann. This book has recently been translated in Bahasa Indonesia and the translation “Ekonomi-Uma” was launched in April 2010 in Jakarta and in November 2010 in Sumba.

Apartfrom this academic work, Jacqueline obtained professional experience as development worker and researcher on Sumba (Indonesia) from 1984-1990, and as policy advisor for the Dutch donor agency ICCO, South Asia desk.

Key words: Indonesia, agrarian law, biofuel politics, socio-legal studies, Sumba, rural development.
 

Publications 2012

Peer Reviewed Article
McCarthy, J.F. & Vel, J.A.C. & Afiff, S., Trajectories of land acquisition and enclosure: development schemes, virtual land grabs, and green acquisitions in Indonesia’s Outer Islands. Journal of Peasant Studies (The), 39 (2), pp. 521-549.

Publications 2011

Book chapter
Vel, J.A.C. & Makambombu, S. (2011) Akses terhadap keadilan dalam sengketa tanah: Bagaimana ketidaksetaraan sosial membentuk resolusi konflik di Sumba [Access to Justice in Land conflicts: how social inequalities shape conflict resolution in Sumba]. In: Berenschot, W.J., Bedner, A.W., Riyadi Laggut-Terre, E., Novirianti, D. (Eds.), Akses terhadap keadilan: Perjuangan masyarakat miskin dan kurang beruntung untuk menuntut hak di Indonesia [Access to Justice: the Struggle of Indonesia's Poor to Claim their Rights] (Seri Socio-Legal Indonesia), pp. 53-71. Jakarta: HuMa Jakarta; Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University; KITLV; Epistema Institute. 

Article in Newspaper 
Vel, J.A.C. (2011) Eiland Sumba is helemaal geen spiegel voor het Westen. Trouw

Working Paper
A Framework for studying developments in the jatrohpa sector - paper for JARAK workshop in Leiden 29-30 March 2011. JARAK Working paper 1

Blog
Suraya Afiff, Jacqueline Vel, Huub Löffler and Cora Govers (2011) "Agriculture beyond Food", The Broker Blogs 6 December 2011, http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/A-new-agriculture-for-food-security/Agriculture-Beyond-Food  

Publications 2010

Peer reviewed articles
Vel, Jacqueline A.C and Stepanus Makambombu, Access to Agrarian Justice in Sumba, Eastern Indonesia, Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal  (LGD) 15 (2010). 

Vel, Jacqueline A.C. Policy Research on Access to Justice in Indonesia: A review of World Bank and UNDP reports, Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal (LGD) 15 (2010). 

Bedner, Adriaan W. and Jacqueline A.C. Vel,  An analytical framework for empirical research on Access to Justice, Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal (LGD) 15 (2010).

Book chapter
Vel, J.A.C. and Stepanus Makambombu,  ‘Penggunaan hukum adat terkait tanah pada masa kini di Sumba, Nusa Tenggara Timur’, in Myrna Safitri and Tristam Noeiliono (eds)  Hukum Agraria dan Masyarakat di Indonesia, Jakarta: HuMa/KITLV Jakarta/ Van Vollenhoven Institute (Seri Sosio-Legal Indonesia). Pp 213-47. 

Books
Vel, J.A.C., Ekonomi Uma: Penerapan adat dalam dinamika ekonomi berbasis kekerabatan. Jakarta: HuMa/KITLV Jakarta/Van Vollenhoven Institute (Seri Sosio-Legal Indonesia). (translation of dissertation+ new introduction)

Reports and working papers
Vel, Jacqueline A.C., ‘Researching Access to Justice in Indonesia: A review of World Bank and UNDP reports. Access to Justice in Indonesia Working Papers, Van Vollenhoven Institute Leiden University. http://media.leidenuniv.nl/legacy/review-of-reports-jacqueline-vel.pdf 

Vel, Jacqueline A.C and  Stepanus Makambombu, ‘Access in Land Disputes Arising in the Context of Commercialization of Agriculture in Sumba (Nusa Tenggara Timur). Access to Justice in Indonesia Working Papers, Van Vollenhoven Institute Leiden University. http://media.leidenuniv.nl/legacy/a2jworkingpaper-jacqueline-en-stephanus.pdf

Ancillary Positions

Member Coordinating Committee Agriculture beyond Food

Last Modified: 20-04-2012