ABOUT EDWIN…

Dr. Edwin Rap

My name is Edwin Rap and I am an academic trainer, freelance researcher and creative entrepreneur.

As a young boy, I asked many questions out of curiosity; trying to understand people and their behaviour.

As a student, I volunteered to visit elderly people and learned about their varied life histories.

This curious nature developed my skills of attentive listening, observation, and asking questions — all of which now help me to undertake and teach research. I am keen to train interdisciplinary groups in such research skills.

Through my training as engineer and anthropologist in the interdisciplinary field of water management at the Wageningen University, I have learned to combine my technical and social science backgrounds and qualitative with quantitative research methods.

In training & advice, my aim is to think together with you about how to approach your theme in an original and challenging way. In this manner, I give personal and constructive feedback on your methodological design or policy proposal and the underlying assumptions.

As a trainer, I can draw on lively examples from my own research experiences in different parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America & Europe and the literature.

As a coach in scientific writing and analysis, I build on a publication record in high quality journals in different languages.

As a freelance researcher, I continue to do field work. Currently I am writing up recent anthropological fieldwork in Portugal/Spain, funded by the American Wenner-Gren Foundation, but also earlier findings from Egypt, India, Brazil, Mexico, and my native country the Netherlands.

PhD Researcher Marijn van Es:

“Nice that it is very interactive, Edwin asking questions to us during the lecture. He really tried to keep everyone engaged during the sessions, and it worked. Very valuable and useful course for my qualitative research project, a must for everyone who will conduct qualitative research. Made me feel excited about my own qualitative project”.

Thinking and writing on research

Research Adventures…

This short scene takes place in a local cantina in Western Mexico. For my PhD I followed water managers in everyday water distribution. Besides the expected scenes in the office and along the canals, similar parties became unexpectedly important in the everyday decision making about water flows. This is where male bonding, singing songs together, and the mutual exchange of stories & favours occur.

Jokingly, these men would say they are ‘echando agua’, which means putting water in a canal, but the simultaneous hand gesture they made also suggests a double meaning: throwing back beers. This offers a perspective on those informal moments that office workers spend at a coffee machine - where we hear revealing stories, which are never told in meetings. It provides valuable insights into how an organization functions.

Why?

Via Rap[id] I offer interdisciplinary services in qualitative research, academic training and expert advice on international water governance and natural resources management.

Rap[id] is a literal translation of my family name and evokes water flows in acceleration. Using this name makes me smile, because it does not always apply to me. This website, for example, took me ages, yet here it is. Perhaps perseverance is a truer characteristic of mine. However, as the Italian expression goes: Se non è vero, è bene trovato (if it’s not true, it is still well conceived). You can read about other connotations of this name throughout this website.

Our culture celebrates speed and success as personal merits. Aesop’s fable of the hare and the tortoise goes against this idea, as my PhD study on water policy making argued. Instead of running, the tortoise starts off in a moderate pace, yet explores and finds the right route to finally finishes before the speeding hare. Walking allows the tortoise to flexibly respond to changing circumstances: experiment, make connections, imagine solutions, repurpose designs, meditate surprises, try new paths and approach obstacles as gifts.

“If acceleration is the problem, then resonance may well be the solution”, Hartmut Rosa writes. I find ‘resonance’ by walking, talking, singing, laughing, and dancing, as the icons throughout this website show. When resonance flows through learning activities, their quality and impact increases. What resonates slows down our ‘felt time’, but multiplies the memories you make and lessons you learn.

[The brackets in Rap[id] stand for ‘reflection’: something you do in qualitative research by memo writing. NUDIST, an early qualitative analysis software, recognized these brackets as memos. Frequent use left this mark on my everyday routine of writing field notes. Telling and visualizing such research experiences, helps me to transmit the craft of qualitative research].

Icons & logo

The icons used here and throughout this website symbolize Rap[id]’s creative philosophy for training, research, and advice.

They stand for: speed, water, flow, music, humour, observation, imagination, reflection, iteration, and the collective unconscious.

Olivier Rijcken is the illustrator of these icons and the Rap[id] logo.

GET TO KNOW ME

Urban gardens bring joy

In my free time,

I love walking, making music, singing, reading, dancing, gardening and practicing languages.

From my home town Utrecht I started walking to Santiago de Compostela in stages. I am now in the Pyrenees.

During Covid, I created an urban façade garden in my street, through which I rediscovered my ‘green fingers’. To me gardening is humanizing the public space and and promoting connection. This is my naive green agenda.

Lately, I have started volunteering in Dutch conversation classes with people from the whole world. Sparks of joy and resonance resulting from all of these activities shine through in my trainings.

Curriculum Vitae

Want to know more about Edwin’s professional experience?

You can do that, request a copy of his CV and more by hitting the button below: