Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)
open access
Diversity and inclusion in the work environment are nowadays widely presented as solutions for enduring social issues. Various examples however show that it turns out to be very difficult for...Show moreDiversity and inclusion in the work environment are nowadays widely presented as solutions for enduring social issues. Various examples however show that it turns out to be very difficult for organizations to work on diversity and inclusion and to make it function as a solution for certain social issues within organizations. This thesis studies the implementation of a diversity and inclusion program in a department of the municipality of Amsterdam. My study indicates three main challenges that have to do with the framing of diversity and inclusion programs, the aim of diversity management, and the multivocality of the terms used. These challenges make it particularly difficult to implement such diversity and inclusion programs and foreground issues that can accompany diversity and inclusion programs.Show less
This thesis provides an alternative view on the Quality of Government (QoG) framework. The current norm within this framework is that impartiality in bureaucrats’ decision-making leads to better...Show moreThis thesis provides an alternative view on the Quality of Government (QoG) framework. The current norm within this framework is that impartiality in bureaucrats’ decision-making leads to better governmental outcomes because citizens perceive the government institutions to be more effective. Based on criticisms of this framework, this thesis provides an alternative metric of decision-making for street-level bureaucrats; equity: decision-making by government officials that temporarily favors members of marginalized groups in society over people that come from a privileged group in society with the purpose of creating more equality amongst societal groups. It is hypothesized that equity affects citizens’ perceptions of governmental institutions in four ways: (1) it increases the suitability of decisions made by street-level bureaucrats to the individual cases, (2) it increases the accessibility of public institutions to citizens, (3) it decreases the predictability of a requests’ outcome and (4) it decreases the timeliness with which is responded to citizens’ requests. Based on these four hypotheses, the general expectation is that equity creates a better citizen perception of governmental institutions. To test this, an exploratory small-N comparative case study is made in which the Dutch SVB and Allowance of the Dutch Tax Department are compared. The aim is to provide scholars with a more nuanced understanding of the QoG framework and for practitioners to have a wider tool-set available which they can use to provide services to citizens.Show less
By conducting a comparative analysis between Argentina and Chile this thesis examines the experiences of neoliberalism between 1980 and 2016 in relation to the development of the political economy...Show moreBy conducting a comparative analysis between Argentina and Chile this thesis examines the experiences of neoliberalism between 1980 and 2016 in relation to the development of the political economy of those counties. Additionally, this thesis analysis whether market-oriented reforms have improve the reduction of unemployment, poverty, and income inequality. By comparing the experiences of neoliberalism in Argentina and Chile over time, this thesis observes different results of the premises of the processes. While Argentina improves its GDP as well as its reduction in unemployment, poverty and income inequality, in times of state-oriented reforms, Chile continuously implements neoliberal market policies and decreases its level of poverty, while income inequality remains stable.Show less
