The past historiography on the Boxer Rebellion was often characterized by an Orientalist perspective. Contemporary literature strives to surpass this approach, however, treating Westerners and...Show moreThe past historiography on the Boxer Rebellion was often characterized by an Orientalist perspective. Contemporary literature strives to surpass this approach, however, treating Westerners and Orientals as two different “beings” and using two measures in the analysis, reiterates the same paradigm. Focusing on Jane Elliot’s revisionist approach, this work shows the post-Orientalism stemmed from the necessity of surpassing the classic Orientalism, more subtle and devious. By comparing the Chinese and the European vision of the other, Occidentalism and Orientalism in both writings and pictorial sources (such as Boxer postcards and nianhua), a more clear and more precise vision of the events is drawn. Thus, this thesis expands the current literature on the Boxer Rebellion and displays the necessity of considering both parts in order to have a complete picture.Show less
Stillbirth and the way that parents express their grief are still sensitive topics in the twenty-first century. This thesis ties in with the debate on whether or not parents grieved their stillborn...Show moreStillbirth and the way that parents express their grief are still sensitive topics in the twenty-first century. This thesis ties in with the debate on whether or not parents grieved their stillborn children, as it was long believed that parents were ‘indifferent’ to the deaths of infants and baby’s due to high mortality rates in the nineteenth century (and earlier centuries). By examining Dutch death notices and family announcements placed in newspapers between 1870 and 1990, this thesis expands the existing historiographic debate and shows that parents did in fact grieve their stillborn children in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century.Show less
The discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate...Show moreThe discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate sex work from the Wallen district to address issues of over-tourism and congestion. However, this proposition has ignited controversy, as sex workers voice concerns about safety, social networks, and potential workspace loss. Researchers and activists advocate for recognizing sex work as tangible heritage to preserve its history and narratives. Despite initiatives of activists and advocates to document and safeguard the sector's history through the website www.sekswerkerfgoed.nl and the Prostitution Information Center, academic exploration of sex workers' experiences and sex work heritage in the Netherlands remains limited. Narratives from sex workers of color, migrant sex workers, and marginalized voices are often overlooked. Media portrayals often perpetuate stigmatization and negative stereotypes about sex work. The life stories of Nicolina Sant and Aaïcha Bergamin, two sex workers from the 20th century, offer valuable insights into Dutch sex work. Their narratives encompass diverse perspectives, encompassing ethnic backgrounds, cultural nuances, gender, and sexuality. Incorporating these stories enriches historical research on sex work, fostering a deeper comprehension of the industry and its intersections with urban life. Using the concept of urban citizenship, which emphasizes self-identity and recognition, challenges conventional notions tied to nationhood. Sex workers' claims to citizenship impact urban planning and city politics, influencing the socio-spatial fabric of the city, and reorienting research on sex workers to focus on agency rather than victimhood. Analyzing the stories of Aaïcha and Nicolina through this lens reflects on the idea of sex work as heritage while supplying an intersectional perspective to sex work history in the Netherlands.Show less
This thesis centres on the Annotatiën op de Surinaamsche Beschrijvinge van Ao. 1718 (Annotations of the Description of Suriname Ao. 1718), a redrafted monograph written between 1765-1772 by Jan...Show moreThis thesis centres on the Annotatiën op de Surinaamsche Beschrijvinge van Ao. 1718 (Annotations of the Description of Suriname Ao. 1718), a redrafted monograph written between 1765-1772 by Jan Nepveu, governor-general of the Dutch slave colony of Suriname between (acting) 1756-57 and 1768-79. Interrogating the epistemic foundations of the Eurocentric colonial metaphysical categories of the human and animal, the study combines techniques from historical discourse analysis with theory from Zakiyyah Iman Jackson’s Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World, a work that challenges the human/animal binary by reframing the black(ened) human as an entangled and integral component of modern (human) being. As examples illustrative of Dutch racism past and present, Nepveu’s representations of whiteness, blackness and animality – types of being demonstrated to be constitutive of the Enlightenment liberal universal concept of humanity – are situated in the larger context of (European-led) transatlantic slavery, conquest and colonialism. Arguing against the dominant scholarly trend that frames antiblack ideology in terms of acceptance/exclusion from the category of the human and the legal, political and social rights it entails, the category of the universal liberal human itself and the historical context from which it emerged is shown to have established and sustained race and the intertwined abjectification of the non-human.Show less
Migration to Europe has largely increased over the last decades, but there has been limited research on the networks of refugees and migrants. This paper examines the networks of sub-Saharan...Show moreMigration to Europe has largely increased over the last decades, but there has been limited research on the networks of refugees and migrants. This paper examines the networks of sub-Saharan refugees and migrants that reside in Greece. The networks play an important role in every step of their journey; from their country of origin to their trip towards Europe and their daily life in Greece. This work aims to investigate the type of networks sub- Saharan refugees and migrants form and find their common patterns. The ultimate goal is to display the importance of networks and evaluate if the type of networks migrants and refugees develop in Greece matters. This thesis is based on ten original interviews with sub-Saharan refugees and migrants who have lived in Greece for at least four years. The analysis of the interviews provides evidence that migrant networks ease and help both the trip and the integration of migrants and refugees. It is argued that the theory of ‘strength of weak ties’ is partially proven as many weak ties tend to develop to strong ties.Show less
By focussing on the persona of Henk Molleman, this thesis is to breaks down the Dutch Minorities Policy and presents a new understanding of how and why it came about. The focus is on the ideology –...Show moreBy focussing on the persona of Henk Molleman, this thesis is to breaks down the Dutch Minorities Policy and presents a new understanding of how and why it came about. The focus is on the ideology – defined by the process in which relevant ideas and practices are inherited and modified – of one of the policy's main inventors. In the attempt to build and reflect on existing literature and typologies, the guiding research question is the following: why did the Minorities Policy contain both universalist and multiculturalist traits, and how, if at all, did it strike a balance between them?Show less
This thesis explores one of the major lacunae in migration history: what happened to the descendants of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who migrated to the Dutch Republic in the early...Show moreThis thesis explores one of the major lacunae in migration history: what happened to the descendants of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who migrated to the Dutch Republic in the early modern period? Immigrants constituted a large segment of the urban population: in Amsterdam around 1650 circa forty percent of the resident population was born abroad. Thousands of these immigrants got married in Amsterdam and had children. The lives of these children, but also of the (great)grandchildren, had not been studied until now. Profiting from recent advancements in the digitisation and indexation of the parish registers and the notarial archives of Amsterdam, this thesis analyses the processes of integration, assimilation and social mobility of nine families with a Norwegian or Danish migration background between 1660 and 1811. What was their process of integration like, and to what extent did they experience social mobility?Show less
The analysis of the trends for industrial concentration, GDP growth per capita, and income inequality – based on data from IPUMS International, Maddison Project, Clio-Infra, and World Bank Open...Show moreThe analysis of the trends for industrial concentration, GDP growth per capita, and income inequality – based on data from IPUMS International, Maddison Project, Clio-Infra, and World Bank Open Data – in the context of the US, Canada and other selected countries from Europe, South America, and East Asia, has led to the following results: a) after a comparison between the Krugman Index values and the GINI coefficients for the historical series of US, UK, and Spain, I argue in the first place, that the 1970-2000 series for the group of East-Asian countries subject to the research is coherent with the presence of “displaced” Kuznets’ waves – where the latter is a theoretical tool (introduced by Milanovic) that revises the original Kuznets’ hypothesis by shifting the focus from the long-run to more limited period of times. Secondly, for the group of South American countries analysed, I confirm the results of Deinenger and Squire on the unidirectionality of the trends for economic growth and income inequality between the 1960s and the 2000s. Namely, that both trends are raising, instead of diverging at a certain point, as it would have been expected, according to the original Kuznets’ hypothesis. Nevertheless, the inversion of the income inequality levels for Brazil, and the extreme oscillatory nature of the trends for Argentina, seem to prospect a potential displacement of a Kuznets’s wave for the two countries in a subsequent period. Limitations in the available datasets for the years after 2000s hindered, though, a consistent verification of this hypothesis. b) I argue on the one hand, that, for the Western countries analysed, the series for industrial concentration and income inequality between 1860 and 1970 are fully compatible with a Kuznets’ wave. On the other, that the series after the 1970s are instead in contrast with Milanovic’s thesis of a second Kuznets’ wave starting during these years. Nevertheless, the value for industrial concentration that I found for the US in 2015 can have some relationship with the rising income inequality levels analysed by Milanovic. Further research should be 75 devoted to the analysis of this issue when the census datasets for the 2020s decade will be made available. c) I argue that a further theoretical insight, derived from my analysis, can be considered as a corollary of Krugman’s theory on industrial specialisation dynamics. Namely, that being equal the transportation costs and the level of technology/productivity, lighter economic shocks trigger increasing levels of industrial concentration, whereas highly disruptive shocks for the industrial tissue, such as wars and structural economic crises, produce instead decreasing levels of industrial concentration. Further research is necessary, though, in order to corroborate this theory.Show less
This thesis examines the experiences of those "Dutch Somalis" who moved onward to the UK and then returned to the Netherlands. The research is based on qualitative interviews with twelve Dutch...Show moreThis thesis examines the experiences of those "Dutch Somalis" who moved onward to the UK and then returned to the Netherlands. The research is based on qualitative interviews with twelve Dutch Somalis, seven of which made the journey to the UK and returned to the Netherlands. The interviews focused on the reasons why the "returnees" chose to return to the Netherlands. The participants cited safety reasons as the principal reason for return, alongside the belief in superior living standards in the Netherlands. The participants also expressed that in spite of returning to the Netherlands they did not feel entirely accepted there as a result of the assimilationist model of integration and racial discrimination. This paradoxical conclusion challenges some of the previous attempts to theorise return migration, which label return as emblematic of either success or failure.Show less
This study examines the relationship between the MHP (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) and Turkish workers in the FRG in the years 1961-80. Instead of measuring „integration‟ in terms of cultural...Show moreThis study examines the relationship between the MHP (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi) and Turkish workers in the FRG in the years 1961-80. Instead of measuring „integration‟ in terms of cultural differences between migrants and the native population, this study uses a comparative approach to understand the political behaviour of Turkish migrants. A comparison is made between, firstly, the refugees and expellees who settled in the FRG after World War II and, secondly, internal migrants in Turkey. Although the migration period as well as settlement conditions for the refugees and expellees, and the Turkish workers were different, the similar situation of these groups in the West German labour market enables a comparison between them. The comparison between internal and external migrants of Turkey also enables the evolution of the MHP to be better understood. Moreover, this study uses Turkish workers‟ relationship with the MHP as a lens to understand their political behaviour. In addition, the paper investigates the changes in government policy in both Turkey and the FRG, and the impact of these policies on the Turkish population. This work uses as its primary sources issues from a Turkish diasporic journal published in 1979 by Turk Federation, an organization affiliated with the MHP, and government reports produced by the Turkish authorities from 1966-78.Show less
