Director Maarten Hajer

Since October 2008, professor Maarten Hajer has been the director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, employing a staff of around 250 people.

Maarten Hajer is professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam since 1998. The Dutch Cabinet appointed him as Director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL – Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving) in 2008. He continues his professorship part time.

As director of the Environmental Assessment Agency Hajer is responsible for the strategic assessments and policy evaluations to facilitate political deliberation and decision making, ranging from environment, nature, land use to water and transport. While primarily focused on the Dutch political decision making PBL is also active for international bodies, such as the European Commission, OECD and UNEP.

Hajer is the author of over ten books and many articles and contributions to books. Best known are The Politics of Environmental Discourse (Oxford, 1995); Living with Nature (Oxford 1999; eds. with Frank Fischer); In Search of New Public Domain (Rotterdam, 2001, with Arnold Reijndorp); Deliberative Policy Analysis – Understanding Governance in the Network Society (Cambridge, 2003, editor together with Hendrik Wagenaar). His most recent book is Authoritative Governance: Policy Making in the Age of Mediatization which appeared at Oxford University Press in 2009.

Hajer holds MA degrees in Urban and Regional Planning (UvA, 1987), Political Science (UvA, 1988); as well as a D.Phil. in Politics (University of Oxford, 1993). During the 1990s he worked as researcher at the Leyden Institute for Law and Public Policy (1991- 1993); as 'wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter' with Ulrich Beck at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich (1993-1996); and as senior researcher at the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), The Hague (1996-1998) after which he was appointed Chair at the UvA. He fulfilled many societal roles such as member of the VROMraad, the advisory board to the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Hague, jury member for the International Spinoza Price in philosophy, the EO Weijersprijsvraag in landscape architecture and EUROPAN, the European price for architects under 35.