Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Throughout the last 50 years the Spanish countryside has emptied due to the rural migration from villages to main industrial cities such as Madrid, Bilbao or Barcelona. Now, after decades of...Show moreThroughout the last 50 years the Spanish countryside has emptied due to the rural migration from villages to main industrial cities such as Madrid, Bilbao or Barcelona. Now, after decades of demographic decline, depopulation has become central in public and academic debate about rural development. This growing concern of emptying villages has raised questions about the precarious life and the sense of threat to people who live in these spaces and who are exposed to a loss of services and stable livelihood. This research is an ethnographic analysis of locals’ perspective living in the depopulated village of Yanguas, in Tierras Altas in the province of Soria, the most depopulated area in Spain. Departing from the concept of precarity within global capitalism I will focus on how people of Yanguas sustain a livelihood and how they perceive the village’s livability, while addressing the future perspective of development based on infrastructure creation. The findings in this research suggest that the struggles some people experienced while living in a depopulated village were not derived strictly from the fact that they live in a small community. On the contrary, the experience of depopulation, rather than being the source of precarity, was very often a symptom of other large-scale issues and social changes such as industrialization, delocalization, and patterns of social mobility and migration. This thesis combines audiovisual and text, and the outcome is this article and a film.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
With increasingly pressing and widespread ecological, social and personal crises, the forward march of progress has come to a dead end, and this time is ripe for sensing precarity, as Tsing (2015)...Show moreWith increasingly pressing and widespread ecological, social and personal crises, the forward march of progress has come to a dead end, and this time is ripe for sensing precarity, as Tsing (2015) announces. A sense of precarity is prevalent among practitioners in the Plum Village meditation center. In a case study, I join practitioners to encounter opportunities for engaging with the challenges of precarity and new possibilities for progress. With these experiences I point out the relevance of the Plum Village tradition in our earthwide precarious predicament. My aim in this thesis is to speak to the possibility of changing with mindfulness practice the dualist worldview that is at the root of widespread unsustainable progress practices. The devastating consequences of the forward march toward limitless growth demand a change of direction. My commitment to sustainable, inclusive living leads me to assess to what extent wholesome directions emerge for people and our planet in the other-than-modern views and practices that are taught in the Plum Village tradition.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Within the context of over-saturated cities and global exponential urban growth, the context of Gentrification has gained increasing academic and interdisciplinary momentum. This ethnographic...Show moreWithin the context of over-saturated cities and global exponential urban growth, the context of Gentrification has gained increasing academic and interdisciplinary momentum. This ethnographic research engages with the notion of the Gentrification of Place, by analyzing the way redevelopment programs are experienced by neighborhood inhabitants of Amsterdam North. The research encompasses a multimodal approach, as both literary and audiovisual component encompass the way inhabitants of historic neighborhoods experience urban change bound to Gentrification. The findings suggest that institutional place-making practices bound to the past, have generated collective notions of disregard, and stigmas that are accentuated when experienced through new place-making practices today, employed as part of ongoing neo-liberal policies, manifested through Gentrification. To further engage with the political aspects of the Gentrification of Place, Lefebvre’s urban spatial theory will be engaged with. Urban changes crystalize through altered notions of livability of neighborhood inhabitants, that lead to the experiencing of a precarious state of experiencing Place. The audio-visual component, composed by a collaborative photo project and by the ethnographic film Tijd voor Noord (Time for North) engages with similar notions, and functions as an ethnographic bike ride through Amsterdam North. The film explores perspectives of neighborhood brokers, who are affected by the changes bound to their neighborhoods.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The current economic system was never actually designed. With global shifts in priorities and the sudden momentum associated the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely impacted this research, the...Show moreThe current economic system was never actually designed. With global shifts in priorities and the sudden momentum associated the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely impacted this research, the opportunity to redesign an economic system that reflects the values of our community is significant. This paper explores the values of residents in Pernis, workers from the Port of Rotterdam and residents in Parramatta, inviting them to explore their own values and co-create a vision of the future. It uses a Futures Anthropology and Design Anthropology approach, incorporating a workshop to push the methodological boundaries of the discipline. This process revealed core values that align with the Sustainable Development Goals, which form the social floor of the Doughnut Economics model. This model is evaluated with respect to the visions of interlocutors and processes for better community engagement and co-creation are explored, with the suggestion that future anthropological research focuses on citizen’s assemblies as an improved method of participation. This paper finds that co-creative approaches are hindered by political, economic, green, built, technological and global infrastructures, but that they can also be facilitated by them. Through a cocreative approach, the ‘who’ of community can become transparent and resentment and scepticism towards government could be addressed. It is argued that if we are to develop regenerative communities there is much work to be done, but the key to this lies in co-creative, future focused research and engagement, with attention paid to the infrastructures that shape our communities in time and space.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
In 2015, the incumbent President Jacob Zuma claimed that the Dutch were the beginning of South Africa’s problems. Zuma claims that the problems arose because of Dutch colonialism and the subsequent...Show moreIn 2015, the incumbent President Jacob Zuma claimed that the Dutch were the beginning of South Africa’s problems. Zuma claims that the problems arose because of Dutch colonialism and the subsequent introduction of slavery. In this thesis, I try to investigate how the Dutch Consulate General in Cape Town executes its economic mandate by considering the dark shared heritage between South Africa and the Netherlands. I had the opportunity of doing an internship as the Communications and Public Diplomacy intern and therefore, have six months of accumulated ethnographic data. I found that the Dutch CG in Cape Town executes its economic mandate through their initiative called #cocreate which operates through projects. In addition, the Dutch CG claims to put the emphasis on South Africans which does not necessarily translate when looking at these projects. I found that although their intentions may be good, the Dutch CG often ends up overpowering any positive results by controlling the final say so closely. Also, I found that there is a strong reluctance to tackle particular problems surrounding their shared heritage. Such fears ultimately result in the neglect of communities that truly need their help and would have benefited from initiatives such as these.Show less
