We need to talk about skateboarding

Skateboarding is a skilful practice, a discipline of failure, and a global culture. Sander Hölsgens studies skateboarding as a tool for social good and reflects on three socio-political interventions by skaters in the Netherlands.

Sander Hölsgens • May 11, 2022

On the Corona crisis and numbers

Dutch policy has placed health metrics at the center of discussions around the Corona Crisis. Numbers visualize the urgency of the societal threat and form the basis for policy intervention, but they are also feared, celebrated and presented as proof that ‘we are all in this together’.

Tim van de Meerendonk • April 22, 2022

Making it Happen: comparison through teamwork in the Food Citizens? project

On February 4th, 2022 the Food Citizens? conference wrapped up four years of research in the ERC Consolidator project Collective Food Procurement in European Cities: Solidarity and Diversity, Skill and Scale, profiling the team’s comparative research.

Cristina Grasseni • February 18, 2022

Climate change in plain sight: anthropological contribution in the time of climate crisis

In-depth fieldwork methods can reveal invaluable insights of climate change beyond the domain of science and politics. Based on her ethnography of Sicilian farmers amidst agricultural transition, Anna Notsu shows how participant observation may unveil embodied climate change experiences.

Anna Notsu • February 07, 2022

Why we need to co-create knowledge for sustainability – and why this is easier said than done

Recent debates on energy transitions and poverty illustrate the social ecological complexities of sustainability problems. These cannot be tackled by single academic disciplines – nor by academics alone. In this blog, Marja Spierenburg reflects on the need for, and challenges of ‘transdisciplinarity’.

Marja Spierenburg • January 24, 2022 • 2 comments

Loneliness in solidarity and solidarity in loneliness - How students in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology navigate the Covid-19 crisis

Essays of 68 CADS students show their struggle with the effects of the Covid-19 measures. This blog reveals how students navigate the crisis and, in light of a recent Monitor on student mental wellbeing, calls for more qualitative inquiry into underlying issues in order to find solutions.

Teachers and Students Diversity and Development 2021 • December 15, 2021

Beyond potential: the structural issue of gender diversity in esports

Based on his fieldwork in Berlin, Tom Legierse cautions that although esports are heralded as potentially gender inclusive spaces, in reality gender discrimination is still deeply ingrained in their structures. Aspiring Dutch esports capitals have to take care not to reproduce gendered inequality.

Tom Legierse • December 01, 2021

Understanding blind running through participant sensation

The organization Running Blind matches people with visual impairments to a sighted runner. They run while both holding the ends of a tether. Marit Hiemstra explains how being a guide, and applying the method of ‘participant sensation’ enabled her to study the embodied role of trust in blind running.

Marit Hiemstra • October 19, 2021

Algorithmic-based technologies’ impact on journalistic identities

Algorithm-based technologies increasingly impact not only what news we are seeing but also how journalists are evaluating themselves. In this blogpost, Tomás Dodds reflects on changing professional identities in two Chilean newsrooms.

Tomás Dodds Rojas • September 20, 2021