Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
Achieving universal primary education is both promoted as a global development goal and as a priority for the Tanzanian government. To reach this goal, the government is committed to making primary...Show moreAchieving universal primary education is both promoted as a global development goal and as a priority for the Tanzanian government. To reach this goal, the government is committed to making primary education accessible for as many children as possible by making it both compulsory and free of charge. Nevertheless, there is still a problem with absenteeism in Tanzania. This ethnographic research explores the range of factors and reasons, besides tuition fees, that influence children's absenteeism through a case study of three primary schools in rural northern Tanzania. It analysesthe collaboration between these three schools and the Dutch-Tanzanian NGO Kamitei Foundation in addressing this issue. Based on interviews with teachers, parents, and pupils themselves, the main argument of this thesis is that the different roles that children have within rural households have consequences for their level of attendance. These household activities differ according to gender, and to the extent of how indispensable the children are within their household. Moreover, I found that differences in classroom pedagogy and in schools' policies of dealing with absenteeism also influenced the rate of absenteeism among pupils. Based on my findings, I argue that punishment or ignorance by the teachers as a response to not being present at school is one of the main factors that makes absence recurring, which makes it hard to reduce it. The Kamitei Foundation and the schools try to reach a consensus on this issue by working together to offer good quality education, even though it can be hard to reach the same level of understanding.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
The thesis is based on empirical fieldwork that investigated a disaster-induced relocation project in eastern Indonesia. Choosing an actor-focused approach that followed development brokers of a...Show moreThe thesis is based on empirical fieldwork that investigated a disaster-induced relocation project in eastern Indonesia. Choosing an actor-focused approach that followed development brokers of a Christian NGO in the course of the project, enabled the author to expose multiple conflicting interests and agendas between and within government, the NGO and the 'host-community'. In this complex and contested discursive arena, brokers were strategically translating and shifting interests to create common realities and alliances from heterogeneous networks. By adapting and transforming objectives of the 'good governance' discourse, they were able to unify groups and win over supporters, despite the poor implementation of the project. How these translations competed with interpretations of other actors and how they influenced the brokers' positioning towards the goverment was of particular interest within this research. Applying visual methods has shed light on the performative and emotional dimensions of these translation processes. The ethnographic film 'Fighting for Nothing to Happen', which is the main part of the thesis, is accompanied by the multi-media pdf file that employs different interacting media and provides historical, political and socioeconomic background to selected sequences of the film. The different media inform and contest each other in a rhizomatic structure that produces a multi-layered and comprehensive understanding of the complexity of brokerage and development in Indonesia.Show less
