dr. Eva Wolf

Bio

Dr. Eva E. A. Wolf is an assistant-professor at the Tilburg University who specializes in policy confllicts. In her current research she studies how and why spatial planning conflicts escalate to the judicial arena. This research is part of the Bindend Besturen Brabant project. Her research indicates that by setting in stone policies early in the decision-making process, rather than embrace conflict as a natural and possibly productive part of policy-making, conflict can actually increase and turn destructive.

Expertise

Eva has analyzed different policy conflicts, ranging from conflicts on intensive livestock farming, to conflicts on wind turbine and highway construction. For her PhD-thesis at the University of Antwerp she investigated how policy conflicts escalate from a substantive, to a procedural and, finally, a relational dimension through a case-study of the contested Oosterweelconnection highway ("Oosterweelverbinding") in Belgium.

She wrote academic articles on the topics of conflict escalation and on how to govern conflict constructively, as well as a popular science book in Dutch titled "De waarde van weerstand" (see here). 

Courses

• Policy Analysis in Public Administration
• Master's Thesis Public Governance (12EC)

Collaboration

Eva places a high value on making academic work count in practice. She works together with the Province of North-Brabant through the Bindend Besturen Brabant program, and regularly delivers lectures, essays and speeches to practitioner-audiences, such as the RVO, NP-RES, Energy Regions, and civil servants working in municipalities, provinces and the national government in both the Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders). 

Recent publications

1. Bindend besturen

   Wolf, E., Zouridis, S., & Herkes, F. J. (2022). Bindend besturen. Binnenlands bestuur, 43(23).

2. De waarde van weerstand voor de Regiodeals - Bijdrage voor Regiodeal …

   Wolf, E. (Author). (2022). De waarde van weerstand voor de Regiodeals: Bijdrage voor Regiodeal Labs (video). Digital or Visual Products

3. Ontbindend en bindend besturen van de omgeving - Juridisering in de p…

   Wolf, E., Zouridis, S., & Herkes, F. J. (2022). Ontbindend en bindend besturen van de omgeving: Juridisering in de praktijk van omgevingsbesluitvorming. Boom Bestuurskunde. https://www.boomdenhaag.nl/webshop/ontbindend-en-bindend-besturen-van-de-omgeving

4. Dismissing the" vocal minority" - How policy conflict escalates when …

   Wolf, E. (2021). Dismissing the" vocal minority": How policy conflict escalates when policymakers label resisting citizens. Policy Studies Journal, 49(2), 640-663.

5. Fatal remedies - How dealing with policy conflict can backfire in a c…

   Wolf, E., & Van Dooren, W. (2021). Fatal remedies: How dealing with policy conflict can backfire in a context of trust‐erosion. Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration , 34(4), 1097-1114.