Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
closed access
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, a Scandinavian saying, illustrating how one could live with and through weather, that is, how to weather. This visual ethnographic...Show more“There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, a Scandinavian saying, illustrating how one could live with and through weather, that is, how to weather. This visual ethnographic research was a way for me to live with and through the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that it brought in my own country, the Netherlands. I have done fieldwork for almost three months at natural (outdoor) playground Het Woeste Westen (The Wuthering West), a place in Amsterdam where children can play with and in nature both ‘freely’ as ‘semi-organized’ with adult supervision. The study explores how children think of outdoor play as full of opportunities unavailable at home, what children do in the outdoors, and how their experiences shape their thinking about play and their relation to the material world. I have used audiovisual recordings, non-participating observations with interaction and visual elicitations. The result is a thesis in both written as ethnographic film form. The text includes both descriptions of observational video footage as written field notes, and transcribed video footage. The film aims at showing what I have seen and what I have been told by protagonists. My key research finding is that children weather by using the elements in their outdoor play. I argue that weather creates the world that they are in, which impacts how they play. Examples of this are moving more in winter weather to stay warm, jumping and sliding in mud as a fun activity and making fires to get warm and dry after a cold and rainy day.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
By considering food making as a way to reenact diasporic memories and cultural identity among Indo-Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands, this project elaborates on the mutually constitutive...Show moreBy considering food making as a way to reenact diasporic memories and cultural identity among Indo-Surinamese migrants in the Netherlands, this project elaborates on the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and food, and on cooking as a performative way to generate and transmit knowledge. The research yielded a textual output, combining academic and creative writing, a short film, and a series of ceramics. While the text builds on the parallel between material culture theories and ethnographic fieldwork, the film explores the relationship between people and objects in a non-linear way. With the production of Surinamese traditional food in ceramic, furthermore, findings about embodied knowledge were transposed in physical form. The research points toward the potential allocated to materials to trigger the recollection of individual and collective histories, aligning with a non-anthropocentric, non-objectivist anthropological approach.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
WeChat is one of the most used social media in China. While few Dutch people use it, the app remains popular among the many Chinese students in the Netherlands. This popularity abroad evokes the...Show moreWeChat is one of the most used social media in China. While few Dutch people use it, the app remains popular among the many Chinese students in the Netherlands. This popularity abroad evokes the question what this platform has to offer for people living in a different country and how it relates to a sense of ‘home’. Within social media research, a call is made to study social media using a non-media centric approach, focusing on the context in which it is used. Within this research, I study WeChat as used by three international Chinese students, and how they use WeChat to create a sense of home. Through digital observation and film, I examined how participants use WeChat, how they create a feeling of home while studying in the Netherlands, and the connection between these two. Overall, this study found that for a sense of home, relations, materiality, and a sense of security are important, for participants to both adjust to the Netherlands and recreate a sense of the ‘former home’. Their use of WeChat provides a tool to realise these different aspects.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
In a world where globalization is reshaping the way we understand mobility, communication, and self-identification, the study of migrants learning and using the language of their host community is...Show moreIn a world where globalization is reshaping the way we understand mobility, communication, and self-identification, the study of migrants learning and using the language of their host community is of increasing academic interest. The concept ‘new speaker’ is being used in European minority language communities to study the linguistic niches that these migrants are creating through the use of these languages they learn, questioning traditional concepts such as “native speaker” and “non-native speaker”. In this thesis I explore the challenges that New Speakers of Papiamentu experience learning this creole language on the island of Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands), and the strategies they develop to make pragmatic use of this cultural capital they acquire. This thesis proposes a methodology that draws from Linguistic Ethnography and Visual Anthropology that results in a multimodal thesis which comprises an ethnographic documentary and this article. The documentary portrays how several individuals from different nationalities who are learning Papiamentu navigate Bonaire’s multilingual environment using this language. The results of this research suggest that new Papiamentu speakers are actors of social change in Bonaire, as they are creating and expanding a ‘contact zone’ between Papiamentu first language speakers and new Papiamentu speakers, stimulating new forms of identification, belonging and intercultural communication in the context of a creole language communityShow less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Venezuela’s economic and political crisis has exponentially increased the transnational migration of Venezuelans to Colombia. Many migrants have established in central locations of Bogotá and the...Show moreVenezuela’s economic and political crisis has exponentially increased the transnational migration of Venezuelans to Colombia. Many migrants have established in central locations of Bogotá and the surrounding area searching for economic stability and healthcare services. Undocumented pregnant immigrants who need to access these services sometimes face roadblocks based on their documentation status. This thesis will explore and analyze undocumented migrants arriving in Bogotá and the surrounding area experience the process of pregnancy, and childbearing. To further understand how they negotiate and navigate policies and healthcare services using their social networks. This research took place over the course of two and a half months, using written analysis and audiovisual methods consisting of semistructured interviews and participant observation in non-profit organizations, hospitals, and homes of pregnant Venezuelan immigrants. The result is a film and text that work side by side to argue how pregnant immigrants navigate barriers of local policy and healthcare and acquire goods and services through the practice of bonding and bridging social networks. These networks allow them to obtain goods and services while also developing strong connections that provide emotional support.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
The music genre of psytrance has been localised throughout the globe. Especially now we can see that in postmodern times, where identities have become increasingly fluid and fractured, populations...Show moreThe music genre of psytrance has been localised throughout the globe. Especially now we can see that in postmodern times, where identities have become increasingly fluid and fractured, populations are looking for a place where they can find community and belonging. And it seems that in a post-Apartheid Cape Town where segregation was such a big part of life, being able to have a space to come together away from the structure of racial categorisation is important. Cape Town has a large following of the psytrance outdoor festival scene, however, not much has been written about the psychedelic trance scene in Cape Town. This study examines the psytrance scene in Cape Town, South Africa. Two months of research attending and observing at psytrance outdoor festivals in the Cape Town area, using audio visual recordings, and semi-structured interviews. The thesis comprises of a text and ethnographic film. The text touches upon the outdoor psytrance festival culture in Cape Town, looking at the need that people have to attend these multiple day outdoor festivals. Escape, reconnecting with nature and the active meditation that comes with dancing to repetitive and psychedelic music. My key research finding is that the outdoor psytrance festivals give Capetonians a space where they can escape their daily lives, work through problems that they might have, and create a sense of community and identity.Show less
Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
De geestelijke gezondheidszorg is nog weinig onderzocht vanuit een etnografisch antropologisch perspectief. Binnen het veld van de geestelijke gezondheidszorg is er weinig sociaal onderzoek. Omdat...Show moreDe geestelijke gezondheidszorg is nog weinig onderzocht vanuit een etnografisch antropologisch perspectief. Binnen het veld van de geestelijke gezondheidszorg is er weinig sociaal onderzoek. Omdat het veelal gestructureerd wordt door kwantitatieve onderzoeken, is er de roep, vanuit zowel de geestelijke gezondheidszorg als de academische wereld, naar meer kwalitatief onderzoek. Dit onderzoek is een etnografie bestaande uit een geschreven scriptie en een etnografische film. Dit kwalitatieve onderzoek geeft een stem aan degene waarvoor de geestelijke gezondheidszorg bedoeld is en onderzoekt de sociale processen van groepstherapie. Het onderzoek gaat in op het groepsdynamische proces binnen een werktherapie in groepsvorm. Het Landschap Onderhoud Project is een project dat arbeidsmatige training geeft voor klinisch herstel van mensen die kampen met psychische problematiek. Methodologisch is de kern van het onderzoek het gebruik van visuele methoden. Door verschillende gesprekken, interviews, observaties en participaties vormde ik mij een beeld in een twee en halve maand durende onderzoeksperiode. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat samenwerken, samen leren, vriendschappen en botsingen allen bijdragen aan het groepsdynamische proces binnen het LOP. Dit, in combinatie met externen factoren zoals opdrachtgevers, het weer en het soort werk dat gedaan wordt, maakt dat de groepsdynamiek fluctuerend is. De begeleiding van het LOP en het werken in de natuur zijn vitale componenten voor de positieve werking op de geestelijke gesteldheid.Show less
