The overwhelming majority of the more than five and a half million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East without their civil documents. Particularly in a refugee context, it...Show moreThe overwhelming majority of the more than five and a half million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries in the Middle East without their civil documents. Particularly in a refugee context, it is crucial for the standard of living for Syrian refugees and eventual return to Syria to be adequately documented. Complex civil registration systems in the host countries, however, often prevent Syrian refugees from obtaining civil documentation, thereby expanding the problem of the lack and loss of civil documentation of Syrian refugees. This thesis examines the different civil registration systems and their consequences for Syrian refugees in Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon through an in-depth analysis focusing on legal status, marriage and birth registration. This thesis argues that the difference in implemented civil registration systems is determined by each host country’s social, political, and economic situation before and during the Syrian refugee influx and the extent to which the Syrian refugees have impacted the country, positively and negatively. In Turkey, the government has adopted a temporary protection regime, which includes refugee-sensitive civil registration systems. However, in Lebanon and to a lesser extent Jordan, Syrian refugees are still facing many challenges trying to obtain civil documentation due to the complex civil registration systems. As the eight years of hosting refugees has turned out more harmful than beneficial for the host countries, discussions on the return of Syrian refugees has increasingly become louder. However, a lot of change is still required to ensure that Syrian refugees are adequately documented.Show less
This thesis examines how British prime ministers have de-Europeanized the national identity through their discourse before and after the Brexit referendum – or in other words – how they turned away...Show moreThis thesis examines how British prime ministers have de-Europeanized the national identity through their discourse before and after the Brexit referendum – or in other words – how they turned away from the EU by using language. The research is conducted through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of 25 speeches and statements by David Cameron and Theresa May. The timeframe begins when Cameron promised a referendum on EU membership in January 2013, and ends in October 2017, more than a year after the yes-vote. The analysis reveals that British discourse on common security threats was not gradually de-Europeanized, but internationalised by May by constructing the UK as ‘Global Britain’. Language on migrants from the EU to the UK was already de-Europeanized before the Brexit referendum, and did not change significantly after the referendum. In fact, it gradually normalised after Cameron’s General Election victory in 2015. This study also reveals that both prime ministers could ‘cherry pick’ identities, meaning that they could choose between constructing a national, European, or even global identity to their liking per policy area.Show less
Tanzania has for some reason always been an important partner in development cooperation for the Netherlands. The African country has always followed its own peculiar development path, being ruled...Show moreTanzania has for some reason always been an important partner in development cooperation for the Netherlands. The African country has always followed its own peculiar development path, being ruled by the same socialist president for over 20 years. Despite the fact that Tanzania was ruled as a one party state, for some reason the way the country was governed seemed to have had some sort of significant appeal to the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. Did they try to work and cooperate alongside the Tanzanian government or did they let him continue his experiment as long as stability was ensured? Did the Dutch state care so much for Tanzania because they believed in Ujamaa, or at least parts of it? By combining these questions the thesis will show how Netherlands reacted to the economic effects of Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa policy.Show less
Grote culturele veranderingen brengen ook grote religieuse veranderingen. Dionysos groeide van een angstaanjagende natuurgod uit tot het middelpunt van sociale beschaving en persoonlijk genot. Wat...Show moreGrote culturele veranderingen brengen ook grote religieuse veranderingen. Dionysos groeide van een angstaanjagende natuurgod uit tot het middelpunt van sociale beschaving en persoonlijk genot. Wat zat hier achter?Show less
The European Union (EU) has played a vital role in the creation of the globalized world known today. Through the many challenges and setbacks the union has experienced the past decades it has...Show moreThe European Union (EU) has played a vital role in the creation of the globalized world known today. Through the many challenges and setbacks the union has experienced the past decades it has demonstrated how unification and cooperation has become increasingly important. This study argues how in this process of globalized consolidation solidarity plays a vital role. Communities such as the EU rely to a large extent on all its member states involved willing to be solidary. The aim of this study has been to find justification for demonstrating solidarity during the refugee crisis of 2015/2016. This has been done by examining Dutch media and interviewing Dutch government officials. Upon examination of the sources, it became clear that the failures of the most important EU asylum regulations were due to a lack of solidarity. The theory of intergovernmentalism demonstrated how states preferred applying their own national regulations instead of following the supra-national EU policies. By applying the theories of instrumental and normative solidarity this study was able to grasp an idea of what is vital to improve in order to increase solidarity in the union. Focusing on the self-interest of the member states within the union is vital in order to stimulate solidarity. The member state should be well informed of why it is beneficial to be part of the EU. In addition, the union should focus on further developing a European identity among its residents in order to improve the feeling of solidary.Show less
Already during Antiquity, Egypt was famous for its royal mortuary monuments. During the millennia that have passed since the construction of these monuments, the meaning given to them by their...Show moreAlready during Antiquity, Egypt was famous for its royal mortuary monuments. During the millennia that have passed since the construction of these monuments, the meaning given to them by their spectators has altered several times. This study focusses on the interpretation and reuse of the Theban New Kingdom mortuary temples, the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Old Kingdom pyramids at the Giza Plateau during the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. Aim of this study is to show how these monuments were interpreted and reused by two different groups of spectators, namely the Graeco-Roman tourists, who came to see these monuments, and the native Egyptians, who lived in the vicinity of these buildings. Moreover, the ways in which the meaning given to these mortuary monuments during the Pharaonic Period survived into the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, are discussed.Show less
Al jaren is er vanuit verschillende hoeken kritiek op het Nederlandse nieuwsecosysteem. Er verdwijnen titels en media hebben niet meer de capaciteit om nieuwsgebeurtenissen vanuit verschillende...Show moreAl jaren is er vanuit verschillende hoeken kritiek op het Nederlandse nieuwsecosysteem. Er verdwijnen titels en media hebben niet meer de capaciteit om nieuwsgebeurtenissen vanuit verschillende perspectieven te belichten. Dit blijkt des te meer in lokale nieuwsecosystemen. Dit is een gevaar voor de lokale democratie, omdat een divers nieuwsaanbod belangrijk is om iedere bevolkingsgroep een stem te geven. Verschillende organisaties en instituten richten zich daarom op het behoud van diversiteit in de media en stimuleren media die de diversiteit kunnen vergroten. In het terugbrengen van die diversiteit worden vaak alternatieve media als oplossing genoemd. Zij kunnen nieuwe perspectieven bieden en divers nieuws aanbieden. Daar is echter niet iedereen het over eens. Deze scriptie probeert een bijdrage te leveren aan dit debat door te onderzoeken of een medialandschap met meer alternatieve media ook een diverser nieuwsaanbod heeft. De onderzoeksvraag van deze scriptie is als volgt: ‘In welke mate staat het aandeel van alternatieve media binnen lokale medialandschappen in de grootste steden van Nederland in relatie tot de inhoudelijke diversiteit in deze landschappen?’. Deze scriptie vindt plaats binnen het kader van een onderzoek van het Stimuleringsfonds voor de Journalistiek naar de nieuwsecosystemen in de vier grote steden van Nederland. In dit vervolg worden data gebruikt die in drie steden, Amsterdam, Den Haag en Utrecht, verzameld zijn. Ten eerste wordt gezocht naar de steden met het minste en juist grootste aandeel van alternatieve media. Daarna worden deze steden vergeleken op het gebied van diversiteit aan de hand van vier indicatoren: genres, onderwerpen, bronnen en herkomst van online berichten. Tenslotte worden ook alternatieve media met traditionele media op deze punten vergeleken. Als maat voor diversiteit is de Herfindahl-Hirschman index gebruikt. De uitkomsten voor dit onderzoek worden geduid met behulp van een theoretisch kader dat bestaat uit theorieën over het democratisch belang van journalistieke diversiteit en theorieën die uitleggen wat media pluriformiteit en diversiteit zijn of zou moeten zijn. Ook de concepten traditionele/alternatieve media, gatekeeping en churnalism komen aan bod. Utrecht blijkt het grootste aandeel berichten van alternatieve media te hebben, Amsterdam juist het minste. De data wijzen uit dat het nieuwsaanbod in Utrecht echter niet diverser is. Slechts de diversiteit op het gebied van genres lijkt enigszins groter. Het grootste verschil blijkt uit de originaliteit van de berichten. Dit komt ook naar voren bij de vergelijken tussen de twee mediasoorten. Bijna een kwart van de berichten in Utrecht is niet origineel. In Amsterdam zijn alle berichten origineel. Alternatieve media lijken het nieuwsecosysteem niet diverser te maken. Dit onderzoek toont echter geen causaal verband aan. Vervolgonderzoek dat een causaal verband tussen de aanwezigheid van alternatieve media en de diversiteit van het nieuwsaanbod kan leggen is daarom gewenst.Show less
This thesis examines the relationship between pornography and post-Soviet nostalgia in post-2000 Russian cinema, analysing the extent to which the two phenomena are depicted and interact with one...Show moreThis thesis examines the relationship between pornography and post-Soviet nostalgia in post-2000 Russian cinema, analysing the extent to which the two phenomena are depicted and interact with one another. Through formal film analysis of three case studies, this thesis seeks to demonstrate that in addition to the multi-faceted depiction of post-Soviet nostalgia, sex has far from vanished from Russian film screens and often carries symbolic connotations.Show less
Although the period of colonial rule by the Netherlands and Portugal is a thing of the past, there is a plenitude of ‘overseas cultural heritage’ (OCH) around the world, referring to unmoveable...Show moreAlthough the period of colonial rule by the Netherlands and Portugal is a thing of the past, there is a plenitude of ‘overseas cultural heritage’ (OCH) around the world, referring to unmoveable heritage sites that were created under the colonial influence or former presence of nation states on a territory that is not part of these states today. Policy regarding OCH offers complex challenges and possibilities to present-day governments as the heritage is at the crossroads of the cultural and political involvement of both the former colonized and colonizer and thus bridges the colonial past into the current postcolonial reality. Nevertheless, research analysing and comparing OCH policy of former colonial powers at several levels of governance is rare. This thesis builds on, and adds to, the existing research by conducting a multidisciplinary (policy analysis and heritage definition analysis) and multilateral (bilateral and multilateral) comparative analysis of the OCH-policy of the Netherlands and Portugal. At core is the research question: what policy strategy have the Dutch and Portuguese governments developed concerning their OCH in the past century at both bilateral and multilateral level of governance, and to what extent are the policy strategies comparable? To answer this main research question, the thesis conducts a multidisciplinary analysis that combines a policy analysis of the OCH-policy of the Netherlands and Portugal at bilateral and multilateral level of governance at UNESCO, with the examination of the heritage definition at the heart of the existing policy, the latter by examining how the policy deals with the challenging commonality of OCH. The research enabled to map the differences and commonalities of the Dutch and Portuguese OCH-policy strategies.Show less
The main topic of this thesis is compliance with EU directives with a special focus on the issue of timely and correct transposition in the Netherlands. In a broader scope, the issue of...Show moreThe main topic of this thesis is compliance with EU directives with a special focus on the issue of timely and correct transposition in the Netherlands. In a broader scope, the issue of transposition has been extensively covered by the literature on compliance. However, this research adopts a new approach in which possible links between transposition performance and the degree of legal misfit are explored. Doing so, this thesis aims to answer the following research question: To what extent does legal misfit influence the transposition performance of the Netherlands? Based on the literature study the following hypothesis was introduced: The higher the degree of legal misfit the higher the impact on transposition performance. This hypothesis is tested through three directives of the Area of Freedom Security and Justice. This is done by conducting qualitative research that is based on a four-fold classification model that determines the degree of legal misfit of the directives based on the number and extent of the required amendments to the national legal framework. The findings of the analysis of the directives show no direct evidence that unambiguously support the hypothesis. As the hypothesis is rejected, it is concluded that legal misfit only influences the transposition performance of Member States to a limited extent and that the extent is hard to determine.Show less
Turkey has applied to be member of the European Community already in 1987. Up to this day however, it has not joined and the negotiations have come to a halt. The debate about whether Turkey should...Show moreTurkey has applied to be member of the European Community already in 1987. Up to this day however, it has not joined and the negotiations have come to a halt. The debate about whether Turkey should join the European Union and whether it is compatible with its community has been highly politicised over the last years. The discussion usually revolves around whether Turkey is Eu- ropean enough to be a part of the Union, whether it fulfils all the fundamental criteria to join on an economic, political and social level as well as whether Turkey’s membership would bring about a form of cultural clash. The discourse around the topic and the language employed by policy makers has so far not been as well researched. This paper therefore explores the following research questi- on: “What is the role of an ‘othering’ discourse in the Turkey EU membership negotiations?”. It explores the theoretical framework of Othering and how it connects to the concept of Orientalism. Building on how Europe historically defines itself against an Other, both sides will be analysed on their language. Using methods of critical discourse analysis, the language of Turkish and EU insti- tutional policy makers is examined. Based on this research, tentative conclusions are drawn about the underlying meaning of speeches and remarks and how they fit into the framework of Othering.Show less
The argument presented in this thesis is that constructivist theory offers a useful tool to interpret the effect that CW use has on the international community. It is the social identities and the...Show moreThe argument presented in this thesis is that constructivist theory offers a useful tool to interpret the effect that CW use has on the international community. It is the social identities and the strong prohibitive norm when it comes to the use of CW that construes a reality in which narratives of justification are produced when it comes to the use of force. This moral reality cannot be explained solely rationally, but has roots in decades of social interaction, which makes that violations of norms concerning CWs are put higher on the international agenda than other violations. The relevance of this study lies in the reflection on constructivism as a theoretical tool, but also in its aim to contribute to a broader understanding of how certain types of harm raise more attention in international politics: what causes the international community to be concerned about norm violation? As obvious as the answer of ‘inhumane practices’ seems, it is just a small percentage of suffering that becomes an international concern. The following puzzle has led to the research question: how can we explain the international community’s particular concern about violations of the norm on the prohibition of chemical weapons by using constructivist theory?Show less
