Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
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)
open access
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)
open access
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)
open access
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)
open access
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)
open access
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
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
This thesis embarks on a journey of birthing women in the Netherlands and their experiences with the contentious and divided birthing system that claims to be women centred. The thesis carries on to
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
This ethnographic research takes an in-depth look at the identities of refugees (and other border-crossers), refugee communities and politics of belonging. Through the ethnographic method of...Show moreThis ethnographic research takes an in-depth look at the identities of refugees (and other border-crossers), refugee communities and politics of belonging. Through the ethnographic method of narrative approach, it explores the perceptions of refugees on their identity, communities and work and shows how these affect and are affected by politics of belonging. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and informal interviews in the geographic area of Athens and Piraeus, Greece, I explore contested refugee narratives about refugee identity, refugee communities and work. I use “refugee communities” and “work”, as the main lens through which to discuss what protects, supports or helps them outside and aside of the humanitarian and the asylum system. I discuss the terms of “refugee” and “refugee community”, showing the complex ways people and theory make sense of them. The main argument of my analysis is that, dealing with the so called “refugee crisis”, also means examining our perceptions on the contested narratives around refugee identities and making the choice to “stay close” to people, who already make up part of our societies.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
This thesis is a visual and reflexive auto-ethnographic exploration of the meaning of happiness on Curaçao. Through in-depth interviews and go-alongs, the researcher investigates how personal...Show moreThis thesis is a visual and reflexive auto-ethnographic exploration of the meaning of happiness on Curaçao. Through in-depth interviews and go-alongs, the researcher investigates how personal experience, social relationships, and cultural context intersect and shape individual conceptions and experiences of happiness. Additionally, by means of an auto-ethnographic diary the researcher reflects on how she emerged herself in and reflected on her interlocutors’ approaches to finding this happiness. The thesis also includes an audiovisual component which functions as a complimentary constitute to introduce the viewer to the researcher and interlocutors. In this film, the most significant part of each interview in accordance with the research question is depicted, as well as auto-ethnographic reflections of the researcher before and after her fieldwork period. The interviews revealed a triad of concepts - setting, values and mindset - as central to the life philosophies and conceptions of happiness among the interlocutors. The main auto- ethnographic findings from the diary are that the researcher has gradually started to value more eudemonic forms of happiness during her fieldwork. However, the limited auto-ethnographic data available from the research diary hampers considerably the ability to develop more comprehensive anthropological insights. Lastly, the researcher concludes with a methodological argumentation on the significance of using auto-ethnography as a relevant method for researching happiness, and reflects on the strengths and pitfalls of her own execution in this approach.Show less
