Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
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This thesis contends with embedded forms of (post)colonialism found within contemporary immigration procedures faced by non-Western immigrants in Europe. While reflecting on how colonial...Show moreThis thesis contends with embedded forms of (post)colonialism found within contemporary immigration procedures faced by non-Western immigrants in Europe. While reflecting on how colonial hierarchies and Othering is sustained through certain immigration processes the concept of agency is considered. Ultimately, this thesis finds that it is within the structure of victimhood that non-Western immigrants and refugees are able to maneuver and negotiate significant degrees of agency.Show less
This research aims to unveil the agency of the artwork “la Zoyd’s pataVerse” by Yvonne le Grand. By applying Wild’s take on Gell’s Art Nexus, three phases of the social biography of Le Grand’s work...Show moreThis research aims to unveil the agency of the artwork “la Zoyd’s pataVerse” by Yvonne le Grand. By applying Wild’s take on Gell’s Art Nexus, three phases of the social biography of Le Grand’s work are placed into a system that connects with four agents that mostly revolve around the interactions between them. This research laid bare that the agency of the artwork came into being because of (a) the Index, being an online platform that invited Recipients to participate in the artwork; (b) the Artist, deciding to (not) use the input by Recipients in Zoyd’s life; (c) the Recipient, willing to and being able to interact with the Artwork; and (d) the Prototype, offering another dimension to the artwork as it refers to the fact that online and offline identities are both versions of the self that are not fully separate.Show less
After a brutal war, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) lost its significant territorial areas. How to deal with the organization’s members returning back to their home countries, has been...Show moreAfter a brutal war, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) lost its significant territorial areas. How to deal with the organization’s members returning back to their home countries, has been subject to heated debate. By focusing specifically on the role of the organization’s female members this paper explores the differences in the judicial approaches to the returning ISIS-women, through a case study analysis of Norway and Sweden. By discussing the differences in the expansion of national terror legislation, its implementation in relation to the women of ISIS, and the possible contributing factors to the different approaches, this paper answers the following research question: how do Norway and Sweden differ in their judicial approach to the Norwegian and Swedish women of ISIS returning back home between 2012-2022? Moreover, what are the main contributing factors leading to the differences in the approaches? The paper argues that Norway is more punitive towards returning women than Sweden. This is due to Norway’s legislation on terrorism participation, which allows for prosecution without classifying which actions count as participation. Furthermore, the paper argues that this differs from Sweden’s legislation on participation, which requires evidence of grave terrorist crimes committed in order to prosecute. This, the paper demonstrates, results in Sweden lacking the legal framework to prosecute its female nationals returning from ISIS. Lastly, the paper explores possible factors contributing to the different judicial approaches and highlights the Swedish legislative council, the effect of recent terrorist attacks, and loud critics as the most significant. Through the use of the case study, this paper contributes to knowledge on the implications domestic judicial differences can have in combatting transnational threats like terrorism.Show less
This thesis examines attitudes towards feminism and the New Woman movement in the 1890s and 1900s in relation to the representations of female criminal characters in the following works: Thomas...Show moreThis thesis examines attitudes towards feminism and the New Woman movement in the 1890s and 1900s in relation to the representations of female criminal characters in the following works: Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891); Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories; and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907). The thesis argues that the texts all contain a paradox considering the agency of criminal women. On the one hand, Hardy, Doyle and Conrad depict the criminal woman as a symbol of choice and agency. On the other hand, the texts also cast doubt on the idea that agency is possible for anyone when the criminological (often deterministic) explanations for the crime are taken into account.Show less
“The future of the world’s population is urban.”1 People move to the city for opportunities, money and a better life. When we look at this transition from a freedom perspective, instead of the...Show more“The future of the world’s population is urban.”1 People move to the city for opportunities, money and a better life. When we look at this transition from a freedom perspective, instead of the common resource or utility views, you could question whether the city will always provide this better life. Do urban environments provide the freedoms we value, better than rural environments? In this thesis I claim that certain freedoms, present in rural environments, actually get reduced when people move to the city, and that the urban spatial environment is a crucial factor in this. I will introduce Amartya Sen’s capability approach to elaborate on the importance of capabilities, compared to other normative indicators of human flourishing. Sen’s capability approach does not focus on resources or outcomes, but on the process whereby people flourish; the freedom people have to do and to be as they have reason to value. These substantive freedoms are divided by Sen in a freedom concerned with people’s wellbeing (reflecting capabilities) and a freedom concerned with people’s agency. This distinction is particularly relevant when we consider spatial environments. Where wellbeing freedom deals with the different opportunities open to people, agency freedom concerns the freedom people have to effectively shape and choose their own. By looking at concrete cases, I show that certain freedoms, while present in rural environments, are reduced by the spatial design of our cities, after which I present a number of inspirational design cases which are able to address these losses. I conclude by arguing that, in designing our cities, there is reason to pay more attention to the rural valuing of freedom, both in providing alternative options for people to achieve wellbeing, and in providing space for people to exercise agency in order to conceive a wider range of valuable goals.Show less
Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2022-03-03T00:00:00Z
Since the 1980s, Italy has become one of the leading destinations of Senegalese migration and one of the countries with the most numerous Senegalese population in Europe. Along with other African...Show moreSince the 1980s, Italy has become one of the leading destinations of Senegalese migration and one of the countries with the most numerous Senegalese population in Europe. Along with other African diasporas, Senegalese migrants in Italy are an object of interest of the national media that generally portray them as a monolithic group, uniformed under simplistic images and victim of its circumstances. The presence of this community has also been the interest of many scholars within the social sciences. In their works, these scholars adopted a more nuanced and objective look towards Senegalese migrants’ conditions in Italy, taking into account agency and diversity in dealing with the complex situation of this migrant community. Building from the corpus of research laid down by these works, this thesis contributes to the discussion on Senegalese migrants’ agency from a different perspective. Drawing from the example of Senegalese street sellers working in Florence, the present work shows how the use they make of language can be seen as a way to recover actors' agency. Specifically, by considering the use they make of language as an identity marker, the present thesis reveals the role that Senegalese street vendors have in dealing with their new (linguistic) circumstances. Within this framework, intentionality in language use works as a concept to understand and investigate agency. In this way, the present work sheds light on language use as an asset for Senegalese street sellers’ agency; moreover, it gives a practical solution to understand and analyse agency by pointing to how intentionality may be expressed in language use.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (BA)
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Pas recentelijk is er in onderzoek meer aandacht voor de rollen die de vrouwen in Lucanus' Bellum Civile spelen. Deze scriptie is er dan ook aan gewijd om de rollen van de belangrijkste vrouwen in...Show morePas recentelijk is er in onderzoek meer aandacht voor de rollen die de vrouwen in Lucanus' Bellum Civile spelen. Deze scriptie is er dan ook aan gewijd om de rollen van de belangrijkste vrouwen in het Bellum Civile (Julia, Marcia, Cornelia en Cleopatra) verder uit te diepen. Hierbij zal de vraag gesteld worden hoeveel agency Lucanus de vier vrouwen toekent: of en op welke manier hij ze in staat stelt invloed uit te oefenen op het verloop van de handeling en of ze dit onafhankelijk doen of door hun relatie met elkaar en de mannelijke personages in het epos. De mate van agency die de vrouwen in het werk vertonen, zal geëvalueerd worden door middel van close-reading van een reeks passages waarin ze een rol spelen. Daarbij zal een verband gelegd worden tussen de transformatie tot Furie die alle vier de vrouwen tot op zekere hoogte doormaken, en de ontwikkeling van hun agency binnen het epos.Show less
Parsimonious system-based theories take center stage within the scholarly field of International Relations. Assuming the international system to be the key determinant of international politics,...Show moreParsimonious system-based theories take center stage within the scholarly field of International Relations. Assuming the international system to be the key determinant of international politics, they aim to explain any geopolitical event. Utilizing 60 speeches from United States presidents Obama and Trump, and employing China’s Belt and Road Initiative as an important divide, this thesis will examine the role of agency, through the individual leadership of both Obama and Trump, within the realm of international politics.Show less
Arab women are often portrayed as in need of saving from the conditions they live in. This narrative takes away the possibility of these women to be agents of change in their own lives. This thesis...Show moreArab women are often portrayed as in need of saving from the conditions they live in. This narrative takes away the possibility of these women to be agents of change in their own lives. This thesis aims to explore how Saudi women push back against societal norms in literary fiction. Specifically, it investigates how Saudi female fictional characters employ different forms of agency in physical and online public spaces compared to private and women-only spaces. The close reading of segments of two fictional literary works was used to showcase how female protagonists employ different understandings of agency. These examples were then linked to real-life examples to demonstrate that fiction is strongly rooted in reality. What became clear is that there is a multiplicity of ways for Saudi women to employ agency to resist and reshape the established order and practices, and different spaces within Saudi society offer different opportunities for employing agency. Moreover, there are different types of agency employed by different types of Saudi women. Thus, Saudi women can be agents of change within Saudi society and their own lives.Show less
Burgeoning Africa-China relations have sparked considerable debate over the past two decades. Many Western academics, politicians, and journalists now see growing Africa-China relations as a form...Show moreBurgeoning Africa-China relations have sparked considerable debate over the past two decades. Many Western academics, politicians, and journalists now see growing Africa-China relations as a form of Chinese neo-colonialism in Africa that is challenging Western efforts to help the continent develop. It is in this atmosphere of competition that the perspectives of Africans themselves have often been overlooked. This research paper attempts to shed light on these perspectives by analysing how elite political discourse in South Africa, Zambia and Angola perceives growing Africa-China relations, and how this discourse differs from common themes found in Western discourse. The paper combines a macro critical political discourse analysis of elite political discourse with a qualitative comparative analysis of these three case studies, within the timeframe January 2018 – January 2020. The research paper reveals that African political discourse often differs from, and indeed challenges, common themes found in Western discourse. In doing so, this research also contests the ‘universality’ of Western perceptions of both Africa and Africa-China relations. And finally, this research problematises the portrayal of non-Western actors in mainstream IR and highlights the need to listen to these voices from the periphery.Show less
Abstract: This thesis deals with the question of human subjecthood. What makes us Subjects? The innovations in computer science and artificial intelligence prompt a follow up question: When and how...Show moreAbstract: This thesis deals with the question of human subjecthood. What makes us Subjects? The innovations in computer science and artificial intelligence prompt a follow up question: When and how can an artificial intelligence or artificial life form be considered a Subject? In a comparison between man and machine this essay investigates different notions of Subjecthood. Introducing a narratological concept of subjecthood based on Bal’s narratology leads to the conclusion that the subject object division isn’t a binary opposition. Analysing Heidegger’s theory of agency as well as Freud and Lacan their narratives of development in psychoanalytical theory illustrate the importance of a split within the Subject, a split between what it needs and what it learns. The space between internal and external forces in an agent allow a Subject to come into being pointing out how the individual needs society in order to exist.Show less
This thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and...Show moreThis thesis presents a search for defining the agency of missionaries, their respective churches and religion’s role in the decolonisation of Rhodesia until 1979 with the ending of the Bush War and the emergence of the newly created Republic of Zimbabwe. As such, it seeks to understand missionaries as more than just a happenstance of history but rather as active and integral to developments within the Rhodesian region and its vastly different processes of decolonisation. Furthermore, this thesis presents the history of decolonisation from the bottom up, attributing agency and importance to the ordinary people whose lives were affected by the global dynamics of the Cold War. What follows, therefore, details the discovery of missionaries as actors within Rhodesia and their far-reaching impact on the decolonisation processes at play.Show less
This thesis seeks to explore how street children in Cairo are governed. It takes a multi-level approach through examining the public level, aid organizations and the Egyptian government. The way...Show moreThis thesis seeks to explore how street children in Cairo are governed. It takes a multi-level approach through examining the public level, aid organizations and the Egyptian government. The way street children are perceived on these different levels influences policy approach. Street children are rejected by Egyptian society, and a negative stereotype about them dominates the public view. The choices that street children must make in their daily life accentuate these stereotypes. A recent paradigm shift in academia has led aid organizations from viewing street children as passive subjects of charity towards a more human rights-based approach. Despite this paradigm shift, the government has yet to adapt its policy and continues to treat street children as delinquents. This thesis calls for more research on the topic of street children, in order to map out the magnitude of the problem. Furthermore, I suggest that unless street children are perceived the same on all levels, no adequate solution will be found to the growing problem.Show less
In her book-length works "i is a long memoried woman" and “Picasso, I Want My Face Back,” the Guyanese-British poet Grace Nichols uses poetry to give a voice to a particular woman in history. The...Show moreIn her book-length works "i is a long memoried woman" and “Picasso, I Want My Face Back,” the Guyanese-British poet Grace Nichols uses poetry to give a voice to a particular woman in history. The lyrical subjects speaking in these works, an unnamed enslaved woman and the artist Dora Maar, respectively, bear witness to the past injustices they have endured. Through close reading, I show that both testimonial accounts address not only the historical violence suffered by these women but also the epistemic violence perpetrated by a modernist representation of them in writing and in painting. This epistemic violence presents them as non-agents, in crisis and as victims. I argue that at the heart of Nichols’ two testimonial projects lies an ethics of agency which not only seeks to make these particular women’s voices heard, but which also presents a mode of writing that demonstrates their agency as an inspiration for future women’s voices.Show less
Throughout the Egyptian January 25 Revolution in 2011, as part of the so-called Arab Spring, many incidents have put women, their bodies, and portrayals of female bodies at the heart of the...Show moreThroughout the Egyptian January 25 Revolution in 2011, as part of the so-called Arab Spring, many incidents have put women, their bodies, and portrayals of female bodies at the heart of the uprisings. As the political participation of women became challenged, suppressed, and even violently punished under the ruling of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who came to power after the ousting of President Mubarak, the female body became a site of domination. Nevertheless, young women rose against the oppressive forces they faced, challenging the social and political standards by putting their bodies into the public sphere and transforming the female body into a means of revolutionary contention. Derived from the underlying question how the female body is a site of power interplay in times of political transition, the aim of this thesis is to examine how women have addressed the appropriation of their bodies and the reduction of their political voices to the female corporality in post- revolutionary Egypt. This thesis analyses the vastly differing cases of Samira Mohamed Ibrahim and Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, who use their bodies as a tactic of and topic for political dissent and struggle for agency. Illustrating the centrality of the female body throughout times of political transitions, the plural expressions of female agency and ‘bodily insurgency’ in post-revolutionary Egypt, these women express a counter-discourse to existing ideas about femininity and a woman’s corporality. As they denounce the practices of a patriarchal system that reduces their political voices to merely their sex, it is argued that the female body is more than a disciplined and ‘docile’ object, for it contains transformative and political potential – in different ways.Show less
