Project Owners – Utrecht University

OWNERS is a 5-year research project (2017-2022) funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant awarded to Dr. Borja Martinović at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. The project examines collective psychological ownership (CPO) - a sense that a territory belongs to one's ethnic group.

Ownership claims in Western Europe

Ownership claims in settler societies

Ownership claims in conflict regions

Who we are

We are a group of researchers at Utrecht University, Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, working on the OWNERS project. The core research team consists of Borja Martinović (Principal Investigator), Tom Nijs (PhD student working on Project 1), Wybren Nooitgedagt (PhD student working on Project 2), and Nora Storz (PhD student working on Project 3). Our research interests are in the field of migration and intergroup relations and we are all part of the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER). The wider team includes collaborators in the nine countries that are covered by the OWNERS project.

See all team members

THE OWNERS PROJECT IS:

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Conducted at

News

PhD Thesis Defense – Nora Storz

Nora Storz defended her dissertation entitled “’This land is ours – but is it also theirs?’ Collective ownership beliefs and […]

PhD Thesis defense – Wybren Nooitgedagt

On the 3rd of June 2022, Wybren defended his dissertation ‘Whose land is it? Perceived ownership and territorial compensation in […]

PhD Thesis defense – Tom Nijs

Tom Nijs defended his dissertation entitled ‘This place is ours: Collective psychological ownership and its social consequences’ at the Utrecht […]

Presentation at EASP meeting “Deeply Divided Societies”

In November 2022, Kaja Warnke presented her Master thesis “Ownership and Reconciliation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A person-centered approach” during […]

Keynote speech at the ECSR conference by Borja Martinović

Borja Martinović delivered a keynote speech on 6 July 2022 at the annual meeting of the European Consortium for Sociological […]

Interview on Radio Swammerdam

Tom Nijs was interviewed (in Dutch) in the Amsterdam radio show Radio Swammerdam to tell about his dissertation. You can […]

Keynote speech at the Annual Meeting of Croatian Psychologists

Borja Martinovic delivered a keynote speech on 11 November 2021 at the 28th Annual Meeting of Croatian Psychologists. The title […]

New publication in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

The article entitled “Collective psychological ownership and territorial compensation in Australia and South Africa”, written by Wybren Nooitgedagt, Borja Martinović, […]

New publication in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations

The article entitled “Autochthony and investment as bases for territorial ownership in intergroup conflicts: The case of Indigenous and non-Indigenous […]

An article has been accepted for publication

Our article entitled “Can ‘we’ share the contested territory with ‘them’? Shared territorial ownership perceptions and reconciliation intentions in Kosovo”, […]