Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
open access
When a person or an institution has the ability to act upon what they believe is the best possible situation - or at least a relatively good set of circumstances - through changing real-life...Show moreWhen a person or an institution has the ability to act upon what they believe is the best possible situation - or at least a relatively good set of circumstances - through changing real-life livelihoods, they engage with the politics of desirability. That means that they are positioned within the political playing field of actors with different degrees of power to act upon what they believe is desirable. This thesis is an attempt to discover truths about the political relationship between government - and the act of governance - and those whom are influenced yet not fully involved with the processes that influence them. The analysis builds upon two types of cases: one concerns general descriptions of regimes’ governance, rationales, techniques and ideologies; and the other concerns government responses to contestations to its governance. Each case is shortly analysed in regards to the concept of desirability. After presentations and short discussions of the cases, I present two different dimensions of critiques on government’s dealing with the matter of desirability: contingent issues, that can be found explicitly in the cases, but can vary amongst regimes; and inherent limits, which are present, by definition, in every attempt at governance from outside. The latter critiques come down to problematising the core asset of government in the political realm of desirability. That core asset is its position of power, in which it is able to act upon its own conception of ‘what is desirable’ without involving conceptions and lived experience of the people most influenced by the government action; but also in which it cannot overcome its limits - deriving straight from the asset - to do justice to the open-ended, ethical question of desirability.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
The global ideas and outlooks on immigration policies become more and more contentious. This has resulted in immigration approach that oscillates between ‘legality’ and ‘illegality’ based on...Show moreThe global ideas and outlooks on immigration policies become more and more contentious. This has resulted in immigration approach that oscillates between ‘legality’ and ‘illegality’ based on administrative structures like the possession of papers or otherwise. Hence, to survive, those who are considered ‘illegal’ function within informal spaces, that is out of the state’s reach. The role of humanitarian projects and processes like undocumented centers have taken a bigger role as they can operate within the informal spaces. My paper investigates the role of Rotterdam Undocumented Center as a part of the growing humanitarian approach to ‘illegal’ migrants. This investigation is done through analyzing policies the organization enacts and turns to practice in an attempt to navigate this informal space. Analysis of ethnographic data has shown that the approaches shift and differ based on conditions, and circumstances which have been outlined within the essay.Show less
