Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
This research explores the embodied and enskilled experience of cold water swimming, utilizing methods such as 'swim-along' interviews, participant observation, and task groups. While initial aims...Show moreThis research explores the embodied and enskilled experience of cold water swimming, utilizing methods such as 'swim-along' interviews, participant observation, and task groups. While initial aims to compare gender differences were limited by participant demographics, findings reveal that the embodiment of cold water swimming is deeply connected to the natural environment and offers significant physical and mental health benefits. Additionally, it examines the concept of community within cold water swimming groups in the UK and the Netherlands. These communities are characterized by shared experiences, support, and non-judgmental attitudes, fostering strong bonds among participants. Within these groups, the research aimed to delve into the gender composition and group interaction. It additionally considered how cold water swimming integrates into participants’ lifestyles, noting the positive impacts on personhood and lifestyle development. Overall, the study provides an extensive portrayal of cold water swimming.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This master's thesis investigates the various interpretations of environmental changes by different groups in the Coastal District of Shama, Southern Ghana. The local environment is undergoing...Show moreThis master's thesis investigates the various interpretations of environmental changes by different groups in the Coastal District of Shama, Southern Ghana. The local environment is undergoing significant transformations, which have a profound impact on the social life of the district's inhabitants. This work analyzes the diverse interpretations and discourses surrounding these environmental changes through the concept of "moral ecologies." The thesis explores how different groups, such as gold miners, fishermen, and politicians, either alter the environment or attempt to impede such alterations to achieve specific economic or social objectives. However, these environmental changes often jeopardize the livelihoods of other groups. In this complex web of relations between human and non-human elements in the district, different actors hold distinct perceptions of who is responsible for environmental changes. These varying understandings are often morally charged, as individuals blame and judge those they perceive as responsible for threatening their social group's way of life. Such moral assessments can motivate actors to resist actions that are perceived as harmful to the natural environment, leading to protests and conflicts, among other forms of action.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This ethnographic research examines how people who are required to integrate under the Dutch civic integration policy (inburgering) feel at home in the Netherlands. The inburgering policy reflects...Show moreThis ethnographic research examines how people who are required to integrate under the Dutch civic integration policy (inburgering) feel at home in the Netherlands. The inburgering policy reflects the trend towards the culturalization of citizenship, through which citizenship must be “earned” by demonstrating loyalty and belonging to the Netherlands (van Houdt et al 2011; Duyvendak et al. 2010). Based on qualitative research methods such as interviewing and observation, I explore how inburgeraars navigate their ways of belonging in Dutch society. I approach the study of belonging by making use of the analytical framework by Gammeltoft (2018) to distinguish three modes and three assumptions of belonging and employ the framework by Duyvendak et al (2010) on culturalization of citizenship to explore the relationship between culturalization and belonging. Based on my research results, I propose a fourth mode of belonging called existential belonging. This research offers a perspective on migrant belonging through the influence of policy decisions.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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In the context of the climate and economic crises, calls for the decarbonisation of human activities are ever more present. However, if climate adaptation and mitigation strategies do not consider...Show moreIn the context of the climate and economic crises, calls for the decarbonisation of human activities are ever more present. However, if climate adaptation and mitigation strategies do not consider existing and persisting inequalities, they may aggravate them. This is particularly true of renewable energy projects concerning First Peoples in Canada who are engaged in processes of cultural, linguistic, territorial, and identity reappropriation, affirmation, and self-determination. This research sought to explore through multimodal ethnographic means the lived realities and perspectives of Innus living in Sept-Îles and Uashat Mak Mani Utenam on Quebec’s North Shore as I aimed to understand the extent to which partnerships between Innu First Nation communities and non-Indigenous industrial developers for sustainability projects uphold environmental justice and a decolonisation of climate action. This research provides insights about the decolonisation of climate action research and the socio-cultural challenges of the Anthropocene. It also engages a critical reflection on the complexity of enacting a decolonial approach as a non-Indigenous researcher with a limited timeframe for collaboration. Through a systemic and intersectional lens provided by the concept of environmental justice, we understand how industrial renewable energy partnerships with Innu communities, tainted by corruption, economically benefit a minority of actors and do not address the socio-cultural needs of Innus living in their community or in the off-reserve urban milieu. In turn, small and local entrepreneurial partnerships could have positive social impact and foster the sharing of Indigenous and non-Indigenous expertise, practices and values. Additionally, it is apparent that the Nutshimit is a place and space for Innus to find a sense of belonging by following their ancestors’ paths inland, undergo a healing process from multigenerational traumas from colonial assimilation, and engage in a reappropriation and affirmation of Innu culture (aitun) and language (aimun).Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The topic of identity, nationalism, ethnic conflict, in the Balkans have been extensively researched. However, with the ever-growing use of social media for political discourse, and to inform the...Show moreThe topic of identity, nationalism, ethnic conflict, in the Balkans have been extensively researched. However, with the ever-growing use of social media for political discourse, and to inform the public, not much has been researched on how the nationalist tendencies that led to the wars of the 1990s have been incorporated by Balkan users online. Through a combined online and offline research approach that employed ethnographic methods for each, this research sought to compare the influences of nationalist political discourse and how reconciliation is approached. The offline research conducted focused on the everyday symbolic and material reality after the war in Bosnia, and how reconciliation is felt by my interlocutors there. The online research was done by observing a particular Subreddit called r/Balkans_irl, where users create nationalist content that is viewed by some as reclaiming their identities through irony, and as offensive toxic humor by others. This research is significant due to the importance the Western Balkans have gained geopolitically over recent years, particularly after of the war in Ukraine. Despite the negative attitude the EU rightfully has towards its domestic nationalist sentiments, it is important to understand why nationalism has been such a focal point in the region rather than simply trying to get rid of it.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
Against a backdrop of complex dynamics of deterioration in compliance with children's rights, a broken youth care system, and the increasing need for youth care in the Netherlands, this research...Show moreAgainst a backdrop of complex dynamics of deterioration in compliance with children's rights, a broken youth care system, and the increasing need for youth care in the Netherlands, this research examines how young people’s voices are hindered in Dutch youth care. It draws on insights obtained through participant observation, interviews, filmmaking, and a survey among both youth care professionals in North Holland and young people throughout the Netherlands. The resulting film and article argue that youth care allows considerable room for ambiguity, which produces significant inequality for young people. Youth care policy and practice, shaped by paternalistic values and discursive notions of youth and care, are maintained by disavowal that works through invisibility. The disavowal involves turning a blind eye to children's voices and, hence, children’s rights, leaving 'the best interests of the child' being held captive by the interests of the state. It suggests that correcting power by foregrounding young people's autonomy and complying with children’s rights, hence recognising young people as autonomous human beings, is the starting point for rethinking and rebuilding humane Dutch youth care.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
This study researches conventional farmers' resentment towards the nitrogen policies in the context of Zeeland (a Dutch region in the South-West of the Netherlands). Since 2019, when the Raad van...Show moreThis study researches conventional farmers' resentment towards the nitrogen policies in the context of Zeeland (a Dutch region in the South-West of the Netherlands). Since 2019, when the Raad van State decided that the current policies on Plan Handling Nitrogen (Plan Aanpak Stikstof, PAS) where insufficient in protecting Dutch nature reserves from biodiversity loss, strict regulations were opposed on the agricultural sector by the government. From that moment the already dormant crisis became ignited, because many farmers strongly resisted these regulations in what became known as ‘the farmers protests’. To be able to understand farmers' resentment both in its diversity and in its depth, this thesis focusses on farmers' cosmovisions in relation to blaming narratives and notions of dignity. Each showing a different element of what resentment entails. The research shows how conventional farmers are resentful towards the nitrogen policies, because their perspectives of the world, structured through their cosmovisions, are fundamentally different from the perspectives underlaying the nitrogen policies. Because of this, they blame others, which are to a lesser degree, affected by the policies, such as big industries, but mostly the actors that inflicted this experience on them. At the same time they feel a denial of their dignity, as they feel unrecognized as fulfilling an essential role in society.Understanding these three aspects is vital for understanding the deeply felt emotions that are at play in farmers’ lives during the nitrogen crisis. The aim of this research is to bring nuance in the polarized discussion around nitrogen. While facing many (societal and ecological) future crises, both in the Netherlands and on a larger scale, I argue that research on which convictions and beliefs form resentment, can be the only basis from which relevant policies should be constructed.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Ecofeminist debate around ‘women as closer to nature’ centers the intersection between gender and climate. This assumption is put as unreliable, however ethnographic findings reveal that women of...Show moreEcofeminist debate around ‘women as closer to nature’ centers the intersection between gender and climate. This assumption is put as unreliable, however ethnographic findings reveal that women of the Greek island Corfu redefine ‘closeness to nature’ through the practice of herbalism. This study shows a nuanced depiction of the relationship between women and the natural environment, by revaluating notions of care and labor. Through ethnographic methods based on participant observation, in-depth interviews and filming, data is obtained. The data shows that the women of Corfu use herbalism as a means to be independent from their demanding role as caregivers; traditional knowledge is based on connections with past generations that refer to survival skills; herbalism teaches how mainstream society can live more sustainable. Concluding, herbalism is more than a practice. In the context of Corfu, herbalism critiques capitalist economies and creates a sustainable relationship with the natural environment. Through redefining labor and performing care as herbalist practice, lived experiences refine discussions on ‘women as closer to nature’.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Academic freedom is a core value of Western higher education, with freedom of speech and research being its main pillars. When it comes to Palestinian rights, however, these principles are often...Show moreAcademic freedom is a core value of Western higher education, with freedom of speech and research being its main pillars. When it comes to Palestinian rights, however, these principles are often applied selectively or fail to materialize at all. By conducting qualitative ethnographic research on and in collaboration with Palestinian advocacy groups in the Netherlands, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of how and why anti-Zionist dissent is often silenced in the context of Dutch academia. This multimodal research focuses on one particular event of academic censorship that resulted in the cancelation of a panel discussion organized by “Students for Palestine” (SfP). The visual output shows my main interlocutors gradually reconstructing what happened through a decolonial lens; they bear upon colonial and orientalist practices in order to deconstruct this specific incident. I then elaborate on these practices in this article, in order to provide a deeper understanding of what laid the foundation of this censorship case. I do this by looking at the impact that orientalist and neoliberalist practices have on the institutional censorship of Palestine. The written output also more accurately discusses the aftermath of this event, that is the way the student group resisted this discrimination case by means of an academic boycott. Moreover, both the visual and text portions of this thesis offer a thorough analysis of what it means for minoritized and racialized voices to be silenced and delegitimized, and how censoring attempts affect Palestinian identity. Finally, the article provides a reflexive analysis that is meant to gauge the extent to which internalized sentiments of fear and paranoia within the movement at large influenced my own ability to gain access and trust throughout the realization of this study.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The global climate crisis shows the need to take measures to reduce our emissions. With agriculture taking up more than half of the land in The Netherlands, policies to achieve this primarily focus...Show moreThe global climate crisis shows the need to take measures to reduce our emissions. With agriculture taking up more than half of the land in The Netherlands, policies to achieve this primarily focus on the agrarian sector. Consequently, the uncertainty for farmers’ future practices led to big national farmers’ protests, followed by a national win for the farmers’ party on a provincial level. With farming deeply rooted in culture and place, acknowledging the need to look at the social side of the issue is vital for establishing a sustainable agricultural system. This research uses visual ethnography’s strengths, giving insight into a sustainable practice in the Anthropocene and providing a new view of human-environment relationships. It does so by looking at a Dutch agroforestry farmer who acknowledges an inherent connection between humans and non-humans within his practices. Moreover, the motivation for his practices lies in his ideologies, prioritising non-human nature over humanity. These perspectives can help us find a way to overcome the agrarian crisis in The Netherlands by producing an alternate view on human-environment relationships. It overall inspires us to think that when we care for the non-human, we will ultimately take care of ourselves.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The interest towards music of Turkey in Europe is growing in the last decade under the emerging genre of “Neo-Anatolian” music in relation to migrants from Turkey living in Germany. Even though...Show moreThe interest towards music of Turkey in Europe is growing in the last decade under the emerging genre of “Neo-Anatolian” music in relation to migrants from Turkey living in Germany. Even though migration studies have always put the conditions of guest workers from Turkey living in Germany under the magnifying glass, there hasn’t been much research regarding the relationship between the sense of nostalgia, material culture and music among new-wave migrants. This research was set out to bridge this gap. The research was conducted from January 2023 until March 2023 with new-wave migrants from Turkey living in Berlin by employing structured observation, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and music elicitation interviews as methods. With the findings of the fieldwork and in relation to the existing literature, the research project concludes that nostalgia in relation to music is experienced to construct a relationship between the self and personal history, nostalgia became a commodified experience in the music scene with the revival of gazinos and the emergence of the arabesque genre among the new wave migrants and musical objects may help us to reconstruct certain memories and provide a material dimension to our personal history.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Despite having been the most influential Jewish population in the world, seventy-eight years after the Shoah Jewish life in the Netherlands remains ambiguous. For Dutch Jews, especially those non-...Show moreDespite having been the most influential Jewish population in the world, seventy-eight years after the Shoah Jewish life in the Netherlands remains ambiguous. For Dutch Jews, especially those non- religious, a post-war memorialisation of genocide overwhelmingly determines what it means to be Jewish today. This Dutch post-war reality materializes in the omnipresence of Jewish death (monuments, memorials, and museums) and the absence of Jewish life (shops, bakeries, and restaurants) in Dutch public spaces which contributes to the invisibility of Jewish contemporary life, vitality and joy. This has led to a generational search for ways to reclaim, co-construct and make space for contemporary Dutch Jewish identity and life. This research is an expression of such a search, where it simultaneously explores and constructs a future-oriented rethinking of being and doing Jewish in a Dutch contemporary context. It does so by using ‘future-memory work’ as a methodological tool to explore what it could mean to be Jewish in the Netherlands today, making sense of a contemporary Jewish experience in relation to the past and the future. The study is an auto- ethnographic film project in which unaffiliated (not a member of a practising community) millennial Dutch Jews from Amsterdam, the Dutch city that had the largest Jewish population before the second world war, embark on a collaborative open-ended search for Jewish identity and community to learn about and beyond their families’ past.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Exploring the countryside has been a phenomenon in the United Kingdom for many decades. In contemporary discourse, challenges to who frequents these landscapes have risen. Indeed, ethnic minorities...Show moreExploring the countryside has been a phenomenon in the United Kingdom for many decades. In contemporary discourse, challenges to who frequents these landscapes have risen. Indeed, ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the UK outdoors communities. As stories of human’s relation to nature are foremost told from Eurocentric, white, and male perspectives, this thesis centres Black women and women of colour who are members of the women’s outdoors organisation Bristol Steppin Sistas (BSS). Operating as a safe space for black women and women of colour, the organisation organises multiple walks a month to get local women to explore rural landscapes in the UK’s South West region. This ethnographic research comprises two complimentary elements: a 30 min.-long film, and an article, which examine the role walking and talking in nature plays in the daily lives of black British women. It uses data gathered from interlocutor observation of BSS members, semi-structured sit-down interviews, and un-structured walk-along interviews with three members of the group, during two months of fieldwork. This article has the dual purpose of making theoretical arguments and discussing methodological considerations in reference to the film. In doing so, three key themes emerge: (1) BSS challenges racial and gender stigmas around exploring British nature, (2) the group provides a safe space for its members to gain a sense of belonging, strengthening their individual identities, (3) Black British women living in urban areas need the outdoors to lessen anxieties and better physical health. By claiming space in the South West UK’s countryside, BSS provides an indispensable community for black women and women of colour living in the hectic urban environment of Bristol.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
This research focuses on the analysis of the forms of human-environment relationship that characterize different communities in the coastal area of North Jakarta, and on how these might be...Show moreThis research focuses on the analysis of the forms of human-environment relationship that characterize different communities in the coastal area of North Jakarta, and on how these might be connected to inequalities between local communities. In North Jakarta, relationship with the environment is strongly affected by the presence of environmental issues, namely sea level rise, land subsidence, and chronic floods, which force local communities to come to terms with the surrounding waters on a daily basis, developing different experiences and perceptions of the environment. Moreover, such different experiences and perceptions are connected to political struggles related to the protection of the Jakarta bay ecosystem, the livelihood of fishing communities, and mitigation projects such as the construction of a giant seawall and of reclaimed islands off the coast of the city. The research population includes residents of four different neighbouring districts located along the coast of the Indonesian capital. Despite being so close to each other, these are very different areas, home to fish markets, fishing settlements and industries, luxurious residential areas, shining malls and exclusive leisure spaces. These districts are inhabited by very different communities in terms of social class, income, lifestyle, occupation, and ethnicity. Therefore, they are an ideal field to observe diverse forms of human-environment relationship, and to test to what extent could these be related to the above-mentioned inequalities and to different ontologies of the environment.Show less
