Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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The thesis discusses the role of vulnerable households in the energy transition. These households do not have the resources and are at risk of energy poverty, yet they often live in houses that...Show moreThe thesis discusses the role of vulnerable households in the energy transition. These households do not have the resources and are at risk of energy poverty, yet they often live in houses that need the most investments. This thesis looks at this dilemma up close, asking how responsibility for the energy transition is parsed, and what kind of misfits and frictions this creates.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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In this case study I investigate a unit of six people in the Woondiversiteit: a community in which Dutch students and Syrian status holders are living together. This paper attempts to show how...Show moreIn this case study I investigate a unit of six people in the Woondiversiteit: a community in which Dutch students and Syrian status holders are living together. This paper attempts to show how mutual social support, language learning and cultural learning have emerged within the informal context of this living community. It will be argued that this way of living creates opportunities for intergroup contact which results in positive effects of cross-cultural interaction, such as the reduction of prejudices and the development of family-like relations. These relationships being, on the one hand, ones that stimulate the willingness to contribute to supporting status-holders to integrate in Dutch society, and on the other hand to generate an understanding amongst the Dutch students of the condition that these status holders find themselves in and to learn new ways of being and interacting. This research consists partly of an observational film that shows these interactions. Visual ethnography as part of participant observation has been used as the principal method, to create a deeper understanding of relational learning within this community. I will discuss the different roles which the camera has played in these processes and as a medium of investigation.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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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)
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In this visual ethnographic research is explored what processes enabled embodiment of traumatic experiences through performed text and dance. The main method of observational cinema enabled to...Show moreIn this visual ethnographic research is explored what processes enabled embodiment of traumatic experiences through performed text and dance. The main method of observational cinema enabled to follow the creation process for the performance of Birds in embodying emotions and trauma of the main character that are based on the personal experiences of the choreographer and director of the performance, Dalton Jansen. Exploring and building the narrative of traumatic experiences of the main character of Birds enabled further steps into embodying the emotions and narrative connected to the traumatic experience by the performers through performed text and dance. By analysing performed text and dance separately insights are found in how they each enabled to express trauma and emotions in different ways. However, the connection exercises and space-holding for trauma at the beginning of the creative process, formed the base that enabled the embodiment in the performers.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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Despite the remaining importance of academic achievement and successful study completion of all students, little is known about the impact of the campus environment on students beyond the study...Show moreDespite the remaining importance of academic achievement and successful study completion of all students, little is known about the impact of the campus environment on students beyond the study programme, on their social and institutional belonging, which also contribute to academic success. Therefore, this thesis explores two themes. One, how students of Leiden University experience feeling “at home” or alienated in their campus environment in the age of the growing student mobility, within and across borders, and the role study associations and (D&I-supported) student-led networks play in this. Two, the role diversity awareness (practices and projects) play in students feeling “at home” or alienated at the university, by looking at the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) policy in practice, particularly as seen from the students’ perspectives.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
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This research explores the link between social stratification, spatial segregation, capital allocation, agency and power. Poelenburg and Oude Westen, two ‘deprived’ neighborhoods in the Netherlands...Show moreThis research explores the link between social stratification, spatial segregation, capital allocation, agency and power. Poelenburg and Oude Westen, two ‘deprived’ neighborhoods in the Netherlands, are the stage of this research. The article follows the analysis of social stratification as a structure in which people are hierarchized along the lines of their social role in that structure. This hierarchy causes for unequal resource allocation, spatial segregation and stigmatization. This is shown in a lack of cultural, social, economic and symbolic capital by the residents in both neighborhoods. However, the findings of this research show how institutional actors in each neighborhood are creating a framework of opportunities for the youth. Consequently, the youth become active agents in accumulating capital by countering the assumed habitus of the fields they engage in. The research concludes with four examples of how the youth in Poelenburg and Oude Westen are claiming power by accumulating capital. This poses an answer to the main research question: How do youth and institutional actors in Oude Westen and Poelenburg co-create opportunities wherein the youth can accumulate capital by countering the assumed habitus of their social fields and thereby claiming power to, power with and power from within?Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
Researching concepts like diaspora and nostalgia has often been done with the assumption of a certain constant in privilege. Transnationalism and feelings of in-betweenness are nuances that make...Show moreResearching concepts like diaspora and nostalgia has often been done with the assumption of a certain constant in privilege. Transnationalism and feelings of in-betweenness are nuances that make sensorial expressions of nostalgia unique. Feminist theory and its intersection with ethnographic methods can help gain a greater understanding of these expressions in which more attention is given to ethics and the researchers’ positionality. Zine-making as a practice can serve as a tool for presenting research findings while being aware of one's positionality as well as the expression of the sensory elements of the field.Show less
