Maja Van Der Velden

• van der Velden, Maja (2021). ‘I felt a new connection between my fingers and brain’: a thematic analysis of student reflections on the use of pen and paper during lectures. Teaching in Higher Education.  ISSN 1356-2517. . doi: 10.1080/13562517.2020.1863347 Show summary

  This paper presents an analysis of a hundred and one handwritten essays by master students in Informatics. The students reflected on their experiences of working with pen and paper for reading and writing as a mandatory assignment for the duration of a five-week intensive course. Taking an inductive approach, reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify patterns of meaning across the full dataset. The essays elicited insightful student reflections on learning, knowing, and being. One overarching theme, New connections, and four sub-theses were identified: Handwriting as note making, Being present for learning, Freedom to think, and Materiality of reading and writing. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the affordances of paper and laptops in the lecture room, based on a student-centred approach, and reflects on how student perspectives can be implemented during lectures.

• Oteng-Ababio, Martin & van der Velden, Maja (2020). Connectivity in Chaotic Urban Spaces: Mapping Informal Mobile Phone Market Clusters in Accra, Ghana. Journal of Asian and African Studies.  ISSN 0021-9096. . doi: 10.1177/0021909620960147 Show summary

  This article investigates the proliferation of informal mobile phone markets and contributes to the understanding of the changing urban economic geographies in Africa. It enriches comparative research by modestly bringing new theoretical ideas to bear, and explores how the spatial geography of mobile phone markets mediates urban governance. We argue that regardless of where in Accra mobile phone markets emerge, the same kind of processes and activities develop, and this recognition contrasts other works, which either focus on the city as a whole or on specific sites. Using key informant interviews, augmented with cognitive mapping, we observe the geography of mobile phone repairs and sales, intersecting socio- economic factors, and a collaborative culture among participants. Ultimately, our article touches upon the issues of power and agency by elucidating the relational dynamics between the informal operators and city authorities.

• Oteng-Ababio, Martin; van der Velden, Maja & Taylor, Mark Beaumont (2020). Building Policy Coherence for Sound Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management in a Developing Country. The Journal of environment & development.  ISSN 1070-4965.  29 . doi: 10.1177/1070496519898218 Show summary

  This article explores the compatibility of Ghana’s e-waste policy (Act 917) in the country’s socioeconomic context. Our article starts with two main questions based on our empirical engagements with the act which, contextually, mimics the extended producer responsibility. First, we question the pessimistic imaginaries about the e-waste industry that seeks its outright trade ban or promotes a single version of recycling. Second, we query if the underlying assumptions and basic mechanisms of extended producer responsibility can create the enabling environment to actualize sound e-waste management. Based on prevailing context, the imaginaries appear socially peripheral, isolated, and powerless, and we call for a broader, unbiased, in-depth, critical systems thinking for understanding the complexities and multidimensional nature of the waste electrical and electronic equipment industry. We suggest that it is by fostering the positive synergies across sectors and among policies that environmentally sound e-waste policy outcomes can be achievable.

• Taylor, Mark Beaumont & Van Der Velden, Maja (2019). Resistance to Regulation: Failing Sustainability in Product Lifecycles. Sustainability.  ISSN 2071-1050.  11(22) . doi: 10.3390/su11226526 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  International policy and law have long sought to ensure that states regulate the negative impacts of production processes on people and the planet. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 targets sustainable production and consumption; international conventions, such as the Basel Convention, or the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the International Labour Organisation Conventions, all seek to regulate toxic or labour-related impacts associated with industrial production. However, there is ample evidence that such impacts continue. At a time of increasing pressure to develop sustainable systems of production and consumption, we asked whether the existing legal frameworks are appropriate to the task of regulating for sustainability in consumer products. Drawing on research conducted into sustainability in the mobile phone lifecycle, this paper examines the regulatory ecology of hotspots of unsustainability in the product lifecycle of electronics. This paper finds that the interaction of regulatory disjunctures, business models, design of technology, and marginalisation combine to ensure that our systems of production and consumption are predisposed to resist regulation aimed at sustainability.

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• Maitre-Ekern, Eléonore; Taylor, Mark Beaumont & van der Velden, Maja (2020). Towards a Sustainable Circular Economy: SMART Reform Proposals. Show summary

  The European Union (EU) has developed ambitious strategies to transform the economy, but it is happening too slowly and not uniformly. There is need to set up a smart regulatory mix governing products sold in the EU, designed to achieve coherence and reduce fragmentation of the existing framework pertaining to products and waste, consumer protection, and trade rules. Moreover, CE policies must be developed for the purpose of limiting environmental and social impacts throughout the life cycle of products, extending product lifetime notably through repair and reuse activities and shaping more sustainable consumption behaviours. The new Circular Economy Action Plan released in March 2020 offers great prospects for developing a policy framework for sustainable production and consumption , but the real challenge will lie in developing specific measures to transform objectives into effective legislation.

• van der Velden, Maja (2020). Apple uses trademark law to strengthen its monopoly on repair. repair.eu. . doi: https://repair.eu/news/apple-uses-trademark-law-to-strengthen-its-monopoly-on-repair/
• Oteng-Ababio, Martin & van der Velden, Maja (2019). “Welcome to Sodom” – Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Standplaats Wereld.
• Oteng-Ababio, Martin & van der Velden, Maja (2019). 'Welcome to Sodom' - Six myths about electronic waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Blogging for Sustainability.
• Taylor, Mark Beaumont & van der Velden, Maja (2019). Resisting Regulation: Failing sustainability in product lifecycles.
• van der Velden, Maja (2019). Fixing the World One Thing at the Time: Community Repair and the Circular Economy.

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