Ben Valkenburg: a tribute

Abstract

TributeBen Valkenburg: a tribute 'Mister, are you a drifter?' 'Mister, are you a drifter?' two ten year old boys ask a man in his early 50s. They have often seen him wandering around their area, and his appearance intrigued them. Always in a hat, with a fat cigar in his mouth, a pockmarked face, black jeans and heavy boots. The question has given the boys a lot to think about and to deliberate. The man, visibly delighted, answered 'no, I'm not a drifter, I'm Ben and I live round here'.This actually happened a few years ago to Ben Valkenburg, until early 2012 a member of the Transfer Editorial Committee who also worked at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Ben Valkenburg died on 13 October last year at the age of 61. He was a remarkable person as a man, an academic, a colleague, a friend, and as a member of the Transfer Editorial Committee. He was a child of the '60s who enjoyed a lot of earthly pleasures in life, but equally well enjoyed 'feeling good about feeling bad'. Ben had a good sense of humour, was very patient and was razor-sharp in analysing questions and getting straight to the nub of the matter. He did this on a personal level, in analysing political and social processes, and also in linking theory and practice. He was able to explain complex social scientific theories to the kids next door, but also to analyse everyday actions and translate them into conceptual frameworks and theories, giving one-off, contextual factors a wider value.Despite the fact that Ben Valkenburg had a lovely house, was happily married to his wife Anita and was in many ways a home-bird, in other ways he really did seem like a drifter. He refused to be governed by other people's demands and values, in everyday life, at the university and in the trade union movement. He was always active in many different areas at once, and his mind certainly would not be pinned down or pigeon-holed, but he took a holistic view, in his academic thinking and actions and in his political and personal mindset. Ben spent years carrying out research in the union movement, but also spent many years away from it, all because of views and approaches that he did or did not agree with. He also had a permanent love-hate relationship with Utrecht University. For years this university gave him the opportunity, as a member of a specific, distinct research group and department, to conduct action research in which science and practice were treated as equals in an emancipatory way. At the same time, however, this research group was constantly fighting for survival and had to stand its ground in an academic environment where empirical analytical thinking dominated, many people did not accept pluriformity in academic approaches as taken for granted, and there was a massive focus on mono-disciplinarity. In the period from 2005 to 2006 the research group was disbanded as part of a reorganization and Utrecht University became a smaller and smaller part of Ben's life. Since then he increasingly sought inspiration and enjoyment outside the university.In the followi...