Project title

Towards a sustainable, harmonious, and open bonum commune

Research question

How can the concept of a sustainable, harmonious and open "bonum commune" help us to frame a narrative about ecology and belonging?

Project description

The Ecology and Belonging project is about how people feel connected to nature and to each other at the same time. It looks at how we interact with the environment while also feeling like we belong in our communities.

Tanja van Hummel’s previous research looked at how religious beliefs influence the climate-related debates in the Netherlands, especially around farming, nature, and nitrogen.

She found that dairy farmers in the north-east of Twente feel a strong connection to their land and culture. They really love the area and consider it their home. On the other hand, dairy farmers in the Food Valley don’t feel as strongly connected to the landscape but are clearer about their views on farming and how they care for nature.

The research also showed that farmers in north-east Twente live by values from Catholic Social Teaching. They emphasize the interconnectedness of their community, both shaping and being shaped by it. Mutual support and communal solidarity shapes the bonum commune, a society in which people can flourish. To support this system, they prefer a relationship with the state based on the principle of subsidiarity (the principle that decisions should be made at the most local level possible, with higher authorities stepping in only when necessary).

In this project, Tanja will research whether we can extend the principle of bonum commune to a sustainable bonum commune that includes both a flourishing environment and community.

Selected publications