Jos van der Lans

Last updated
Josephus Johannes Maria (Jos) van der Lans
Jos van der Lans.jpg
Member of Parliament
In office
1999–2007
Personal details
Born (1954-04-02) 2 April 1954 (age 64)
Breda, Netherlands
Political party GreenLeft
Residence Amsterdam
Alma mater Catholic University Nijmegen
Website josvdlans.nl

Josephus Johannes Maria (Jos) van der Lans (born 2 April 1954, in Breda) is a cultural psychologist, journalist and writer. Between 1999 and 2007 he was member of the Dutch Senate for GreenLeft

Breda City and municipality in North Brabant, Netherlands

Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa.

Cultural psychology is the study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.

Journalist person who collects, writes and distributes news and other information

A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information to the public. A journalist's work is called journalism. A journalist can work with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, and by cooperating with other journalists, produce journals that span many topics. For example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics.

Contents

Background

Van der Lans has a Catholic background. Between 1960 and 1967 he attended a Catholic primary school in Amsterdam (until 1964) and The Hague. Between 1967 and 1973 he attended a Catholic secondary school in The Hague. He attended the atheneum and specialized in sciences. Between 1973 and 1981 he studied psychology at the Catholic University Nijmegen. In 1977 he received his candidate's exam (roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree) and in 1981 he received his doctoral exam (roughly equivalent to a master's degree. Van der Lans specialized in cultural psychology and Psychology of religion. He also took additional courses in communication studies and education studies. He wrote his doctoral thesis about "Youth Culture, Provo and the Youth Movement" . Between 1979 and 1981 he attended courses to become a teacher in civics and science education. Between 1977 and 1981 he worked as a student-assistant on the faculty of social sciences at different departments. Between 1977 and 1983 he worked as a journalist for the quarterly magazine Psychologie & Maatschappij (Psychology and Society).

Amsterdam Capital city of the Netherlands and municipality

Amsterdam is the capital city and most populous municipality of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 854,047 within the city proper, 1,357,675 in the urban area and 2,410,960 in the metropolitan area. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country but is not its capital, which is Haarlem. The Amsterdam metropolitan area comprises much of the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, which has a population of approximately 8.1 million.

The Hague City and municipality in South Holland, Netherlands

The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands and the capital of the province of South Holland. It is also the seat of government of the Netherlands.

Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs is the highest variant in the secondary educational system of the Netherlands, attended by approximately a fifth of all Dutch high school students. After leaving primary or elementary school students are enrolled in different types of secondary schools, according to their academic ability. The course is a six-year course and successful completion allows the candidate admission to Dutch universities. The VWO is therefore a matriculation exam.

As a student Van der Lans was active in the student movement and in university politics. Between 1975 and 1977 he was chair of the Nijmegen Student Union and between 1977 and 1978 he was the student member of the board of the subfaculty of psychology. In 1978 Van der Lans joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands, which he left in 1986 because internal struggles had caused the decline of the party. [1]

Communist Party of the Netherlands communist party

The Communist Party of the Netherlands was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party in 1991, forming the centre-left GreenLeft. Members opposed to the merger founded the New Communist Party of the Netherlands.

Journalist and Writer

Since 1981 Van der Lans started to work as journalist. First as a freelancer for the magazine Jeugd en Samenleving (Youth and Society). Between 1982 and 1987 he was editor of the magazine Marge, the monthly journal for social work. Between 1983 and 1984 he was part-time teacher in psychology at the Advanced School in Nijmegen. Between 1987 he was assistant editor in chief and later editor in chief of the Welzijnseweekblad, the weekly magazine for social work and the Tijdschrift voor de Sociale Sector, another journal on social work. Between 1987 and 1995 he wrote for De Helling (The Slope), the quarterly of the think tanks of the political parties CPN, the Pacifist Socialist Party and the Political Party of Radicals. [1] These parties merged in 1989 to form GreenLeft, which Van der Lans joined. De Helling became the quarterly of the think tank of this party. In this period Van der Lans was also active in civil society. He was a member of the Board of the Catholic Youth Organization, Catholic Service Institute for Life Forming. He also was a member of the board of the De Helling.

A freelancer or freelance worker, is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance workers are sometimes represented by a company or a temporary agency that resells freelance labor to clients; others work independently or use professional associations or websites to get work.

Social work academic discipline and profession

Social work is an academic discipline and profession that concerns itself with individuals, families, groups and communities in an effort to enhance social functioning and overall well-being. Social functioning refers to the way in which people perform their social roles, and the structural institutions that are provided to sustain them. Social work applies social sciences, such as sociology, psychology, political science, public health, community development, law, and economics, to engage with client systems, conduct assessments, and develop interventions to solve social and personal problems; and create social change. Social work practice is often divided into micro-work, which involves working directly with individuals or small groups; and macro-work, which involves working with communities, and within social policy, to create change on a larger scale.

Nijmegen City and municipality in Gelderland, Netherlands

Nijmegen is a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland, on the Waal river close to the German border.

Between 1990 and 1991 Van der Lans was full-time freelancer with his own advice bureau, which worked in the (semi-)public sector. Between 1991 and 1994 he worked for De Volkskrant, a major centre-left daily as editor of the opinion & discussion page "Forum". He also worked for the Tijdschrift voor de Sociale Sector and other magazines in the semi-public sector. In 1993 he left De Volkskrant and worked De Groene Amsterdammer, a left wing weekly (between 1993 and 1999) and for Vrij Nederland, another leftwing weekly (between 2001 and 2004). At Vrij Nederland he edited the opinion & discussion page "Burning Issues". He also had a column in the Tijdschrift voor sociale vraagstukken (since 1994) and the weekly magazine for parents J/M (between 1997 and 1999). He continued to be active for de Helling as an editor. Between 1995 and 2000 he also was a member of the board of the GreenLeft think tank.

The public sector is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises.

<i>de Volkskrant</i> Dutch newspaper

de Volkskrant is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.

De Groene Amsterdammer is an independent Dutch weekly news magazine published in Amsterdam and distributed throughout the Netherlands. It is conventionally considered to be one of the four major weeklies, alongside HP/De Tijd, Vrij Nederland and Elsevier.

In 2005 Van der Lans wrote Koning Burger (King Citizen) a critical analysis of the relationship between government and citizen. [2] It was followed by Ontregelen (De-regulate) on the position of professionals in the (semi-)public sector. [3] Van der Lans continues to work as a freelancer. He writes several columns: for the magazine of Aedes (the federation of public housing agencies), for DANS (the magazine of the centre for amateur dancing) and the GreenLeft magazine.

Public housing residential properties owned by a government

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local.

Furthermore, he is the member of several boards in the semi-public sector, such as organisation advise bureau De Beuk, HVO Querido, a foundation for social work, the Foundation for the interest of homeless people in Amsterdam ("Stichting Belangenbehartiging Amsterdamse Dak- en Thuislozen"), the Foundation Culture at 't IJ and his own foundation EROPAF! (RIGHT AT IT!), an initiative based around his vision on the role of professionals and citizens in the public sector.

Member of the Senate

Between 1999 and 2007 Van der Lans was a member of the GreenLeft parliamentary party in the Dutch Senate. He spoke on a range of issues: transport, public works and water management; housing, spatial planning and the environment; culture and economic affairs. Between 2003 and 2007 he chaired the parliamentary committee on Transport, Public Works and Water Management. He voted against his own parliamentary party on the parliamentary approval of the marriage between Willem-Alexander en Máxima Zorreguieta out of republican sentiments. [4]

Political and social ideas

Van der Lans mainly writes on the welfare state and specifically the role of social work and public housing agencies. He is primarily interested in the relationship between government, citizens and professionals in the public sector.

Since 1994 Van der Lans has pled, together with Paul Kuypers in their Modern Paternalisme (Modern Paternalisme), against the culture of non-interference in social work. [5] Social workers should intervene actively in the life of their clients without becoming moralist (as in the 1950s) or overly persistent (as in the 1970s). [6] According to Van der Lans this culture of non-intervention is a result of the larger scale of social work and the increased respect for privacy of citizens. [6] Professionals such as teachers, policemen and social workers, should according to Van der Lans be freed from the increased bureaucracy in the public sector. In the eyes of Van der Lans, the increased bureaucracy is a result of the larger demand of the transparency in the civil service from the politics. [7] When professionals free themselves from bureaucracy they can orient themselves to their work on the "front lines of society". [3] They should interfere in the life of their clients with a "right at it"-mentality. [7]

Van der Lans is very critical of the role of citizens in the public sector. In his eyes citizens act as "kings": they expect government to solve their problems immediately. [2] The government reacts as servant: politicians claim to want to listen to citizens. [2] According to Van der Lans these relations have changed radically: before the politicians were the "kings" and the citizens servants. [8] Van der Lans denies that there is a problem of representation in politics: never has politics tried to respond so strongly to the demands of citizens. This has shown the weakness of government however, which cannot deal with all the demands of all the citizens in the short term. [8]

Private life

Van der Lans co-habits. He has four children, two of which are foster children.

Publications

This is a selection of Van der Lans' publications [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 ARCHIEF VAN JOS VAN DER LANS - POLITICUS op josvdlans.nl
  2. 1 2 3 KONING BURGER on josvdlans.nl
  3. 1 2 ONTREGELEN on josvdlans.nl
  4. ↑ profile on parlement.com
  5. ↑ Naar een modern paternalisme on josvdlans.nl
  6. 1 2 Bemoeien werkt on josvdlans.nl
  7. 1 2 Hilhorst, Pieter "Verlamde professionals" in De Volkskrant 8-3-2008. Reproduced josvdlans.nl
  8. 1 2 Koper, A., "Leve de overheid, weg met de burger" in De Volkskrant 11-11-2005. Reproduced at josvdlans.nl
  9. ↑ For a full list see Overview of books on josvdlans.nl
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