Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This thesis explores the relationship between humans and non-humans within a sea turtle conservation organization in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Through eleven weeks of in-depth visual ethnographic...Show moreThis thesis explores the relationship between humans and non-humans within a sea turtle conservation organization in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Through eleven weeks of in-depth visual ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate the influence these human/non-human relationships have on scientific knowledge production. The output of this research consists of an ethnographic film ‘The Turtle Team’ and this article. This research underscores the necessity of adopting transdisciplinary methodologies in which non-humans are integrated, which is crucial in the era of the Anthropocene. It provides a nuanced understanding of how human/non-human relationships shape the production of scientific knowledge in this team of conservationists and emphasizes the interwovenness of humans and non-humans. This research contributes to the existing literature on the Anthropocene and the nature-culture debate and I argue that the interwovenness of humans and non-humans should be discussed more within scientific research, especially in conservation biology.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The world of football is constantly changing and is now a global industry with employers, employees, investors, and consumers, and the football shirt can be seen as the commodity par excellence of...Show moreThe world of football is constantly changing and is now a global industry with employers, employees, investors, and consumers, and the football shirt can be seen as the commodity par excellence of this industry. However, both in professional and amateur football, the football shirt and other elements of football material culture, acquire meanings and value that exceed the consumeristic and capitalistic dynamics. Through Photo and Video Elicitation Interviews and Oral and Life History Interviews, the participants of this research project, who are six members of the Liberi Nantes amateur football club based in Rome, Italy, demonstrate how the club’ shirt is more than just a football shirt as it is something that reinforces their sense of belonging towards each other and towards the team, how this shirt becomes a lens through which it is possible to think about broader issues and questions such as migration flows and the movement of people, how elements of football material culture become the glue that connects the world of amateur football to the one of professional football, and how amateurs’ perspectives and opinions become interesting prompts for further discussions and reflections about the recent economic and financial changes in this sport and about a possible switch towards a non-Eurocentric football.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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Within anthropological studies about climate activists (Cassegård & Thörn, 2018; Haugestad et al., 2021; Knops, 2023; Spyrou et al., 2022; Weij, 2022, i.a.), the way they imagine the future is...Show moreWithin anthropological studies about climate activists (Cassegård & Thörn, 2018; Haugestad et al., 2021; Knops, 2023; Spyrou et al., 2022; Weij, 2022, i.a.), the way they imagine the future is often overlooked (Haugestad et al., 2021), even though this imagined future could be seen as the incentive for their actions. Taking this into account, the main objective of this article is to explore the imagined future of young climate activists in the Netherlands and the effect that the imagined future had on their lives in the present. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands among climate activists connected to the Extinction Rebellion movement. Through visual ethnography, in-depth interviews, experimental ethnography, participant observation and a reflective group video elicitation interview, I researched the present-day experiences of the activists from a future-focused approach. In doing so I answered my main research question: How does the imagined future of young climate activists affect their lives in the present? My main finding is that to the activists, the imagined future is intimately present in their lives, intertwined with their present experiences regarding their worldview, their affect, and the way they organize and devote their lives. With this research I hope to create more understanding of the experiences and motives of climate activists.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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In the Lebanese 17 October Revolution in 2019, protestors occupied The Egg, a ruinous landmark of Lebanon’s modern past. The Egg hosted many events like grassroots movements, dance raves, and...Show moreIn the Lebanese 17 October Revolution in 2019, protestors occupied The Egg, a ruinous landmark of Lebanon’s modern past. The Egg hosted many events like grassroots movements, dance raves, and cultural gatherings within months of protests against Lebanon’s degrading economic and political circumstances. The thesis argues that localized, sensorial notions of the past are disregarded in general historicist and anthropological accounts of the Global North. Framing the history of the Egg as a minor literature, as proposed by Deleuze and Guattari (1983), the thesis aims to highlight the agency of Lebanese people in co-constructing experiential narratives as powerful alternatives to hegemonic historical narratives in postcolonial context. Borrowing Naeff’s (2018) argument, which posits that time is necessarily related to space(s), I examines people’s experiences of time-space (i.e., chronotopes) with regard to the Egg. I draws on three interventions that I did with local artists to illustrate the potential of chronotopes: (1) a spacelicitation, or walking interview in and around the Egg together with a local photographer; (2) a performance inside the Egg with an opera singer; (3) a sound interpretation of the Egg with a music producer. This thesis is one of the first to combine a collaborative and multimodal ethnographic approach to study chronotopes. In line with Blommaert’s (2015) definition of polyphony, I argue that the study of multiple chronotopes of the Egg can provide a polyphonic historical account that is an alternative to traditional historicist narratives, because it gives way to the multiple sensibilities and voices that history contains of.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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Bonaire became part of the Netherlands as a special municipality on the 10th of October 2010. Since this institutional change, Bonaire has experienced an influx of Dutch immigrants, leading to...Show moreBonaire became part of the Netherlands as a special municipality on the 10th of October 2010. Since this institutional change, Bonaire has experienced an influx of Dutch immigrants, leading to significant transformations on the island which has sparked debates about the loss of Bonairian authenticity. This thesis explores these cultural differences through the concept of acoustemology, as proposed by Steven Feld. The perception of noise and sound is culturally dependent. This division between noise and sound contains a hierarchy of sounds, that is parallel to the hierarchy in the dominant meaning-making process that comes from a European Dutch hegemony on the island. What is considered noise on Bonaire is shaped through a Western lens. This implies that immigrants who relocate to Bonaire unknowingly bring their cultural perspectives on noise and sound with them. However, they do this unknowingly, which is the result of what Gloria Wekker calls white innocence. Drawing on two months of fieldwork, this research explains these connections through the lived experiences of several Bonairian Locals. Their realities from the base of the practice of soundscaping that is used to illustrate how perspectives on sound may differ between cultures. These soundscapes were placed on a map to contextualise Bonaire as an interconnected space. The research adopts a multimodal approach in another way, featuring an ethnographic film that highlights the issues faced by local participants and explores the evolving relationship between them and the European Dutch researcher, employing visual ethnographic methods. The study employs self-reflexivity to analyse this dynamic. The argument made is that an understanding of the local Bonairian lived experience can be obtained through the lens of analysing sound and this understanding is essential in the building of relationships between Bonairian locals and Dutch immigrants.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This thesis explores the communication and behaviour of people with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) in social situations. Drawing mainly from three narratives spreading from first on-set to long...Show moreThis thesis explores the communication and behaviour of people with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) in social situations. Drawing mainly from three narratives spreading from first on-set to long-term living with IBD and a mother whose son has IBD. Furthermore I will also use vignettes from my own IBD-life. Through these narratives this thesis will follow how medical symptoms are unwillingly transposed into social situations, through which people with IBD become aware of how they should present themselves as healthy, while being sick, to prevent stigma and taboos. Also how social expectations of how an illness looks, makes people with IBD aware they do not have any physical traits, yet paradoxical feel the need to perform sick. The focus thereby lies on the behaviour and thoughts of people with IBD. By using Goffman’s (1990[1959]) dramaturgical approach as an analytic tool to dismantle social situations and communication, this thesis reveals the loyalty and continuity of the performances to a healthy self-presentation, juxtaposed by the search for a mental or physical back stages where they can be loyal to their illness experiences. I suggest that through these performances of healthy and sick self, people with IBD develop a deep awareness of social expectations that are put on them by others and themselves. Through which people with IBD become entangled in a bootstrap of social awareness.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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Birds are very prominent parts of nature; if you pay attention, you can hear them in many places all year round. This article describes bird identification activities as arts of noticing,...Show moreBirds are very prominent parts of nature; if you pay attention, you can hear them in many places all year round. This article describes bird identification activities as arts of noticing, particular ways of seeing things - in this case, bird species - that remain invisible to others. Through qualitative research methods and audio-visual methods, this study explores how different practices of bird identification at the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, the Netherlands, shape how bird identifiers perceive, conceive, and value local ecologies. Different bird identifiers have a different idea of what nature is or could be - especially within the Dutch context, where people often say that “real” nature does not exist. Therefore, studying how bird identifiers conceptualise local ecologies is essential for understanding how they see themselves concerning non-human entities and how they interact with and treat the nonhuman. By discussing how bird identification practices shape embodied encounters with nature through skilled vision and listening, this study examines how particular conceptions of Dutch socio-ecological systems and subsequent pro-environmental behaviour arise from a specific art of noticing, i.e., bird identification. Apart from a written output, this study also consists of an audio-visual part. While in the written part of my thesis, I mainly focus on academic literature, applied research methods, and the results arising from those methods, my audio-visual output will focus on how bird identifiers are birding. I.e. in the audio-visual section of this thesis, I aim to show rather than write about how (professional) bird identifiers carry out bird identification and how their ways of seeing birds establish their conceptions and perceptions of local ecologiesShow less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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For more than twenty years, we have familiarised ourselves with the notion of the Anthropocene as the definition for the (ecological) epoch we currently live in. It acknowledges the irrevocable...Show moreFor more than twenty years, we have familiarised ourselves with the notion of the Anthropocene as the definition for the (ecological) epoch we currently live in. It acknowledges the irrevocable human influence we try to cope with on the planet. This thesis touches upon contemporary human-nature relationships within the Anthropocene as something under pressure and in a continuous flow of revision. After four months of fieldwork at the Hatertse and Overasseltse fens, semi-structured interviews were conducted, interdisciplinary footage was recorded and sensory walks were performed to study such relations. Thereafter, methodological reflection became the main focus. Based on sensorial anthropology and methodological literature, this thesis scrutinizes the sensory walk as the main ethnographic methodology. It shows how other methods contribute to the epistemological value of this method, discusses the interactive website and mapping as visualization possibilities (the interactive website “Voices in Nature” was developed following this research), and explores the human and nonhuman concepts of pathways, crowdedness, noise and wind as environmental and anthropogenic factors that were distilled from the walks, proving its ethnographic value. As a methodological reflection, this thesis will demonstrate the potential the sensory walk contains for visual anthropological research now and in the future. It will also show how it fits the interdisciplinary approach this research aspires to, contributing to methodological literature on the more-than-human world.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This thesis explores the manifestations of neoliberalism in governing practices and its impact on care and careworkers in the Dutch care system. Through a literature analysis, we explore the...Show moreThis thesis explores the manifestations of neoliberalism in governing practices and its impact on care and careworkers in the Dutch care system. Through a literature analysis, we explore the arrival of neoliberalism and how it established in Dutch politics. On the basis of a mixed methods approach, with special attention to visual methods. This research studies how neoliberal governing practices as a response to an ageing population, such as the implementation of market-competition and deregulation in order to achieve cost-efficiency, have fragmentized care practices on multiple levels. This fragmentation has led to a decay of the relational space that is essential to care as an inherently intimate practice. Consequently, careworkers have rang the emergency bell, declaring a “care infarct”.Show less
