- Sustainable development, environmental governance and socio-ecological systems; - Social sustainability, multi-level governance, social innovation; - Protected areas, nature-society interactions; planning with nature; conservation geographies; - Sustainable tourism and ecotourism; heritage; - Urban food systems, urban/peri-urban gardening and farming, land grabbing, guerrilla gardening; - Socio-institutional spatial theory, human geography; local-regional development; ecological planning; - Institutional analysis, economic sociology, political ecology; - Advanced capitalist countries and global south countries: European Union, Latin America.

Supervision of PhD projects
- Reflexive planning and adaptive landscapes: a complexity theory perspective on the usage of spatial concepts for the emerging leisure economy in urban regions (by Stefan Hartman, 2011-…; supervision with G. Roo)
- Governing socio-ecological systems in the face of disasters: Experiences from Europe, Latin America and Oceania (by Melanie Bakema, Ubbo Emmius Fund, April 2013-…; supervision with P. MacCann)
- Tourism in the Wadden Region within an international comparative perspective (by Jasper Heslinga, March 2013-…; supervision with G. Roo)
- The rise of the 'leisure economy' in Fryslân (by Jasper Meekes, March 2013-…; supervision with G. Roo)
- Spatial planning for innovative territories: sustainability through governance of socio-ecological systems in the Huetar North Region, Costa Rica (by Karina Castro, ERASMUS Mundus PEACE scholarship, August 2013-…; supervision with J. Woltjer)
- Large scale investments and participatory approaches in land management in Santiago del Estero, Argentina (by Nienke Busscher, RFF PhD fellowship, September 2013-…; supervision with J. Woltjer).

PhD supervision committees
Socially innovative forms of urban disaster reconstruction; the potential of social capital in building resilience to future natural disasters. A political ecology perspective. The post-Katrina New Orleans case (by Angeliki Paidakaki, FWO PhD fellowship, 2012-2016; supervisor F. Moulaert, KU Leuven).

Supervision of Master theses
1. Partnerships between the corporate sector and local communities in protected areas: the Gunung Halimun Salak National Park case (Hermadi Carna, 2011-2012).
2. Managing small islands in a context of vulnerability: lessons learned from Greece, The Philippines and Indonesia (Achmad Murman, 2011-2012).
3. The building of community capacity in rural areas through the implementation of a system of rice intensification. The Tasikmalaya Regency case (Wahyu Widiyatmanto, 2011-2012).
4. Analysis of the adaptive capacity in water management of the agrarian sector in the Ebro River Basin, Spain (Ainara Casajus Vallés, 2011-2012).
5. The role of social innovation Low carbon rural economy in Scotland (Agnes Kovacs, 2012-2013).
6. Urban Farming for poverty alleviation and ecological sustainability: a case-study in Surabaya, Indonesia (Sofyan Mashudi, 2012-2013).
7. Towards adapative forest governance according to social-ecological systems resilience: The Mount Pancar Nature Tourism Park case-study (Sahat July Tirta Dewi, 2012-2013).
8. Governance and state rescaling in Indonesian protected areas: The Djuanda Grand Forest Park Case (Muhamad Idrus, 2012-2013).
9. Examining ecotourism development in a disaster-prone conservation area: The Merapi Hazardous case-study (Marwedhi Nurratyo, 2012-2013).
10. The potential of integrating nature conservation into coastal zone management (Carla Kuhmann, 2012-2013).
11. Green renovation: Socio-ecological practices and the transformation of urban landscapes in Groningen and London (Stephanie Nuria Spijker, 2013-2014)
12. Starting from an analysis of ecotourism development in Shark Bay, what can the Drentsche As learn from the successful practice in the Shark Bay, and vice-versa? A systemic approach to ecotourism development (Julia E. Polman, 2013-2014)