Joks Janssen appointed Professor of Practice 'Broad Prosperity in the Region'
Tilburg University has appointed Dr. Joks Janssen, MSc, as Professor of Practice for ‘Broad Prosperity in the Region’, effective January 1, 2021. Janssen works for knowledge institution Het PON & Telos as a senior advisor and researcher in the field of sustainable regional development. He will conduct his activities at the Department of Public Governance of the Tilburg School of Economics and Management (TiSEM). He will also act as a coordinator for the recently established ‘Broad Prosperity in the Region’ Academic Collaborative Center, a joint initiative of Tilburg University and Het PON & Telos.
Broad prosperity is internationally perceived as a better way to map the quality of life in a society than if only such traditional indicators as gross domestic product (GDP) are used. Broad prosperity is a kind of GDP-plus: in addition to economic parameters, ecological and social aspects of our life are included in the equation. The broad prosperity perspective is increasingly resonating with executives and policy makers at national and regional levels. In recent years, work has already been done in the field of broad prosperity monitoring. In his research, Joks Janssen wants to upgrade broad prosperity from a mere measuring instrument to an assessment framework for regional policy.
Contribution to research
With his expertise and experience in the field of spatial planning, Janssen will focus mainly on environmental policy. Environmental plans determine how our daily living environment is designed and organized so they are directly connected to our quality of life. How can a policy for the physical living environment (housing, infrastructure, environment, nature, cultural heritage, and water) and the associated major spatial tasks, such as housing, the energy transition, and the transition to circular agriculture, contribute to the strengthening of broad prosperity in regions? Attention will be paid to the region-specific functioning of the environmental policy and its administrative design.
Contribution to education
Janssen’s teaching activities will focus on the intersection of theory and practice. On the one hand, he will provide students with knowledge on how broad prosperity can serve as a framework and system to monitor sustainable regional development and, on the other hand, teach them how policy interventions can be researched and assessed. As part of the Academic Collaborative Center, Janssen will teach guest lectures in the Governance Lab and in Bachelor’s and Master’s programs of Public Governance.
Professor of Practice
The Professor of Practice is a position for an innovative business leader or entrepreneur working in an internationally oriented company. In this way, Tilburg University wants to reinforce its impact on society and continue to strengthen its ties with practice. The size of the appointment is 0.2 FTE.
Joks Janssen, MSc, PhD (The Netherlands, 1975) trained as an engineer and architect at Eindhoven University of Technology. He wrote his PhD thesis on planning history and earned a cum laude PhD from Tilburg University in 2005. Janssen has broad experience and expertise in the field of regional and other spatial development. He worked, among other things, as the director of the provincial BrabantKennis think tank and as a Professor by special appointment of Spatial Planning and Cultural History at Wageningen University. In addition to his professional activities, he holds various management positions in the field of urban planning, culture, and heritage.
Noot voor de pers
For more information, please contact press officer Annemeike Tan, +31 13 4662596, persvoorlichters@tilburguniversity.edu or Joks Janssen, e-mail: J.Janssen@hetpon.nl, phone +31 13 535 1535.
