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)
closed access
This thesis foregrounds what an ethnographer can learn from unexpected waiting. In particular, it looks at the ways analogue photography can help navigate a research project that is perpetually...Show moreThis thesis foregrounds what an ethnographer can learn from unexpected waiting. In particular, it looks at the ways analogue photography can help navigate a research project that is perpetually deferred. Before entering the field, the preliminary focus of this research was on the organised Heem days. Heem is a young initiative that aspires to evoke interfaith encounter through gardening and making art on designated Heem days. The intention of this research was to research the interfaith encounter between participants through gardening together and making art. When entering the field, the Heem days were repeatedly delayed. At the end of the fieldwork period, no Heem days had taken place. This period of waiting created a space and necessity to pay attention to the slow process and everyday aspects of Heem, through the people and place. Analogue photography was an adequate method to study this waiting process. Due to the limited number of photos that can be made, it stimulates the researcher to be in the moment and preselect what is important and what not. Through the concepts of waiting, everyday and analogue photography, this study explores the purchase of waiting for ethnography. The key finding of this study is that also in the (unexpected) process of waiting for something to happen in the field, a lot of valuable information can be found. Furthermore, analogue photography can teach us to slow down and look at our field – and personal lives – with new eyes. The research has a multimodal output that consists both of a textual part and an ethnographic photobook. The first reflects on the unexpected process of waiting for the organized days of Heem to happen, using the concepts waiting, everyday and analogue photography. The ethnographic photobook expresses the process of waiting at Heem, including the place, the mundane happenings and objects and the people of and around Heem. The photobook ends with photos of an organised Heem day that I participated in after fieldwork to also show what Heem was preparing for.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The type of waves that arrive in Scheveningen are often considered mediocre from an international surfing perspective. Even though water-temperatures can drop to 4 degrees during the coldest months...Show moreThe type of waves that arrive in Scheveningen are often considered mediocre from an international surfing perspective. Even though water-temperatures can drop to 4 degrees during the coldest months, there is a quickly growing community of surfing enthusiasts who enter the water year-round. By using visual-ethnographic methodologies during fieldwork such as observational and participative methods, combined with several semi-structured interviews, this study explores how different aspects of surfing such as the uncertainty of waves, the experience of surfing, stoke, and the never-ending search for the ever-changing perfect wave, contribute to the mindset, dedication and closeness among surfing enthusiasts in Scheveningen. The following thesis consists of both a textual component and an ethnographic film of 30 minutes. The written part analyzes various concepts related to the experience of surfing, and moreover how the appeal and experience of surfing relate to the mentality and mindset of surfers, both within and outside of the water. The natural component of surfing is explored, as surfing is not merely conducted in nature, but with nature, and the experience of surfing is formed partly because of the elements that one is engaging with. Types of weather, the moon, the wind, the tide and countless other natural circumstances, such as the dependency of waves and forecasting are all deemed important to understand for surfers in Scheveningen and often become part of the everyday life of surfing enthusiasts. I moreover examine concepts such as experience, forming of identity, and the importance of stoke through comparing my own research with the academic discourse surrounding culture and surfing. The documentary film provides audiovisual means to help understand the experience of different surfing conditions that can occur within Scheveningen through the following of four participants, the researcher herself included. It portrays various people experiencing different kinds of stoke through both surfing and surf-related activities. Through both observational, participatory and sensorial aspects, the documentary-film is created to compliment the written thesis. The key finding of this research is that the aforementioned uncertainty and never-ending search for the ever-changing perfect wave has an impact on the mindset of surfing enthusiasts in and around Scheveningen, creating higher levels of stoke, causing them to continue surfing on a daily basis, whether through surfing or by preparing for the next swell.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Together with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, something else started spreading just as fast as the novel coronavirus: misinformation and disinformation. An infodemic was born, and groups...Show moreTogether with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, something else started spreading just as fast as the novel coronavirus: misinformation and disinformation. An infodemic was born, and groups and pages focused on Covid-19 related conspiracy theories started popping up all over the internet. In this digital ethnography, I examine the online community of Dutch-speaking truth seekers, who claim that the corona restrictions are a first step towards a dystopian, global, totalitarian regime. The resulting thesis consists of an ethnographic video essay and a written text. Through the combination of a reflexive voiceover, screen recordings, interview fragments, found footage and screenshots, the film explores both the thoughts and experiences of my research participants being part of this community, as well as those of me doing this research. Focusing on the themes of truth, community and freedom, the written part examines the individual and social dynamics behind the rapid growth of this community. My findings are in line with earlier research on conspiracy belief and suggest that the appeal of the Dutch-speaking truth seeker community is threefold. It answers a desire to reduce the complexity of a chaotic reality, it provides social support in a world where many experience a lack of a sense of community, and it gives a sense of control in uncertain times.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, a Scandinavian saying, illustrating how one could live with and through weather, that is, how to weather. This visual ethnographic...Show more“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, a Scandinavian saying, illustrating how one could live with and through weather, that is, how to weather. This visual ethnographic research was a way for me to live with and through the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that it brought in my own country, the Netherlands. I have done fieldwork for almost three months at natural (outdoor) playground Het Woeste Westen (The Wuthering West), a place in Amsterdam where children can play with and in nature both ‘freely’ as ‘semi-organized’ with adult supervision. The study explores how children think of outdoor play as full of opportunities unavailable at home, what children do in the outdoors, and how their experiences shape their thinking about play and their relation to the material world. I have used audiovisual recordings, non-participating observations with interaction and visual elicitations. The result is a thesis in both written as ethnographic film form. The text includes both descriptions of observational video footage as written field notes, and transcribed video footage. The film aims at showing what I have seen and what I have been told by protagonists. My key research finding is that children weather by using the elements in their outdoor play. I argue that weather creates the world that they are in, which impacts how they play. Examples of this are moving more in winter weather to stay warm, jumping and sliding in mud as a fun activity and making fires to get warm and dry after a cold and rainy day.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
By considering food making as a way to reenact diasporic memories and cultural identity among Indo-Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands, this project elaborates on the mutually constitutive...Show moreBy considering food making as a way to reenact diasporic memories and cultural identity among Indo-Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands, this project elaborates on the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and food, and on cooking as a performative way to generate and transmit knowledge. The research yielded a textual output, combining academic and creative writing, a short film, and a series of ceramics. While the text builds on the parallel between material culture theories and ethnographic fieldwork, the film explores the relationship between people and objects in a non-linear way. With the production of Surinamese traditional food in ceramic, furthermore, findings about embodied knowledge were transposed in physical form. The research points toward the potential allocated to materials to trigger the recollection of individual and collective histories, aligning with a non-anthropocentric, non-objectivist anthropological approach.Show less
