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V tomto článku představuji etnografii mayské novoroční pouti a obětního rituálu, v nichž je zjednávána a vyjadřována delikátní vztahovost mezi lidmi a živoucími horami. Diskutuji navíc některé z nedávných pokusů překonat reprezentacionistické přístupy v mayských studiích. In this paper, I provide an ethnography of the Maya New Year’s pilgrimage and sacrifice ritual, in which a delicate relatedness between people and animate mountains is enacted and expressed. Moreover, I discuss some of the recent attempts to challenge representationalist approaches in Maya studies.

This thesis introduces a critical analysis of a self-proclaimed alternative to modernity. Based on a case of selected, so-called non-conventional medicine within the context of the Czech Republic between 2013 and 2017, I explore how a specific bodily practice like Ayurveda works in this environment. Since it is sought and employed in the everyday lives of an increasing number of people, even in such modestly sized post-socialist country, it resembles similar tendencies generally described in the globalized world (especially from the middle class upwards) in recent decades. Drawing upon (auto)ethnographic research, which originated at a school for future Ayurvedic practitioners and continued into informal meetings- sometimes at the homes of practitioners, I introduce Ayurveda as a specific way of body becoming. Starting with how the body and wellbeing is discursively established within the space of schools, I nevertheless focus mostly on individual practice. I look at how Ayurvedic epistemology is employed and how it enables recognition of one's own body, and subjectivity as interconnected with the surrounding environment. I follow how, as a result of this process, this recognition conditions a certain self- empowerment, especially regarding the establishment or maintenance of one's own wellbeing. I...

Situated at the intersections of reproduction, population politics, health care services, and marginality in Central Europe, this dissertation explores the diverse ways Romani women living in precarious circumstances demonstrate reproductive agency. In particular, it examines the ways their agency critically engages with the discourse of responsibilization (Rose 1996, 2007) on the affective and social levels in a context ruled by a moral regime that calls for reproductive governance (Morgan & Roberts, 2012, 2019). Discussion and analysis are based on long- term participant observation in a segregated Romani settlement in Slovakia, as well as a short- term observation of staff and patients at a maternity ward in the Czech Republic. The ethnographic methodology and analysis are inspired by critical medical anthropology and the anthropology of reproduction. Building on this mixed-method approach, the analysis focuses on the individual, communal, and societal aspects of reproductive decision-making. It discloses the significant material and moral constraints surrounding women's reproductive decisions and it shows that marginalized Roma women both revere and refuse the discourses of self- governance, responsibility, and accountability in their reproductive practices. The text tackles the economics of...

Governments wield awesome powers, but what do those at the very top of governments actually do? In this dissertation, Erik-Jan van Dorp studies senior civil servants up-close and personal. Based on rare direct observations, elite interviews, as well as quantitative data, he illustrates the inner workings of Dutch government through the beliefs and practices of civil servants. He observed them at work: advising ministers, managing, juggling the important and the urgent. Drawing on the literature of managerial work, craftsmanship and politicisation, this study conceptualises the work of senior civil servants as craftwork. The book presents analyses of what makes senior civil servants rise to the top. It then reveals what they do when they get there, and how they do it. Gripping qualitative case studies, situated in the prime minister’s office, provide in-depth knowledge of how senior civil servants deal with the politicians and politics in the 21st century. Moreover, having observed senior civil servants for hundreds of hours, Van Dorp brings to life the everyday practice that is senior civil servants’ craftwork: serving and shaping, taming chaos, and performing visibly backstage. These findings are powerful and practical, both for academics, students, and practitioners.

Collaboration is everywhere: it is inherent to working with colleagues, negotiating with partners in the field, and addressing complex societal issues that cross sectoral boundaries. Although collaborative governance has been popularized as a panacea for societal issues in literature and practice, establishing and maintaining collaboration ‘on the ground’ involves a contentious process that may bring about as many problems as it resolves. Processes of collaboration are complex due to challenges in (re)arranging interaction across organizational, sectoral, and hierarchical boundaries. These boundaries often function as rallying points for the different or competing meanings of collaborating actors. A boundary work lens can help shed light on actors’ divergent meaning-making processes and therefore increase our understanding of the intricate dynamics of collaboration. In this dissertation, Sarah van Duijn examines the dynamics of a case of collaborative governance following a large health care reform that spans the health and social care sectors. She studies how unacquainted decentral actors, as well as central actors, engage in different forms of boundary work as they attempt to establish, maintain, and resist collaboration from its initial phases onwards. Throughout its empirical analysis, this study provides new insights into the interplay between different forms of boundary work and shows how collaborative governance is a process that requires actors on multiple levels to continuously tinker with tensions as they draw, contest, uphold, or erase boundaries in order to organize (or refrain from) interaction. First, the study underlines the value of adopting an interpretive and processual approach for studying collaborative governance: ‘following’ the meaning-making processes of actors working towards collaboration over time allows both for understanding their continuous renegotiations – over the boundaries between them, as collaborating actors – and for revealing their potentially diverging perspectives. As such, an interpretive and processual approach provides insight into how and why actors may be (un)able to work towards collaboration. Second, it further develops the interconnectedness between different forms of boundary work, i.e., between decentral forms, which take place between collaborating actors, and central forms, which involve attempts to create and constrain the options available to collaborating actors. By better understanding boundary work on these different levels, we are also better able to understand the links between different forms of boundary work and the enduring tensions involved in collaborative governance. Third, the dissertation explains how different forms of boundary work, on the one hand, and the enduring tensions in collaborative governance, on the other hand, can be mutually informative. This also brings to light a new form of boundary work: counter-configurational boundary work, a term for the responses of decentral actors to the configuring actions of central actors. Although this dissertation does explore this area of boundary work to some extent, there is much more potential for future research in this vein – both for scholars who study boundary work and for those who study collaborative governance. Those who wish to do so may want to consider the methodological implications of this dissertation first: these include the value of an approach that appreciates the interpretive and processual dynamics of a case; and for an approach that allows both for zooming in on the micro-dynamics between decentral-level actors and for zooming out to the central-level dynamics that enable or constrain decentral efforts.

Collaboration is everywhere: it is inherent to working with colleagues, negotiating with partners in the field, and addressing complex societal issues that cross sectoral boundaries. Although collaborative governance has been popularized as a panacea for societal issues in literature and practice, establishing and maintaining collaboration ‘on the ground’ involves a contentious process that may bring about as many problems as it resolves. Processes of collaboration are complex due to challenges in (re)arranging interaction across organizational, sectoral, and hierarchical boundaries. These boundaries often function as rallying points for the different or competing meanings of collaborating actors. A boundary work lens can help shed light on actors’ divergent meaning-making processes and therefore increase our understanding of the intricate dynamics of collaboration. In this dissertation, Sarah van Duijn examines the dynamics of a case of collaborative governance following a large health care reform that spans the health and social care sectors. She studies how unacquainted decentral actors, as well as central actors, engage in different forms of boundary work as they attempt to establish, maintain, and resist collaboration from its initial phases onwards. Throughout its empirical analysis, this study provides new insights into the interplay between different forms of boundary work and shows how collaborative governance is a process that requires actors on multiple levels to continuously tinker with tensions as they draw, contest, uphold, or erase boundaries in order to organize (or refrain from) interaction. First, the study underlines the value of adopting an interpretive and processual approach for studying collaborative governance: ‘following’ the meaning-making processes of actors working towards collaboration over time allows both for understanding their continuous renegotiations – over the boundaries between them, as collaborating actors – and for revealing their potentially diverging perspectives. As such, an interpretive and processual approach provides insight into how and why actors may be (un)able to work towards collaboration. Second, it further develops the interconnectedness between different forms of boundary work, i.e., between decentral forms, which take place between collaborating actors, and central forms, which involve attempts to create and constrain the options available to collaborating actors. By better understanding boundary work on these different levels, we are also better able to understand the links between different forms of boundary work and the enduring tensions involved in collaborative governance. Third, the dissertation explains how different forms of boundary work, on the one hand, and the enduring tensions in collaborative governance, on the other hand, can be mutually informative. This also brings to light a new form of boundary work: counter-configurational boundary work, a term for the responses of decentral actors to the configuring actions of central actors. Although this dissertation does explore this area of boundary work to some extent, there is much more potential for future research in this vein – both for scholars who study boundary work and for those who study collaborative governance. Those who wish to do so may want to consider the methodological implications of this dissertation first: these include the value of an approach that appreciates the interpretive and processual dynamics of a case; and for an approach that allows both for zooming in on the micro-dynamics between decentral-level actors and for zooming out to the central-level dynamics that enable or constrain decentral efforts.

Verslag van een onderzoek waarin de cultuurparticipatiepraktijk van het verhalen vertellen op etnografische wijze wordt onderzocht, met name op de betekenis die die praktijk heeft voor de participanten.

Verslag van een onderzoek waarin de cultuurparticipatiepraktijk van het verhalen vertellen op etnografische wijze wordt onderzocht, met name op de betekenis die die praktijk heeft voor de participanten.

Overgewaaid uit de VS begint in Nederland spoken word ook steeds meer vaste voet aan de grond te krijgen. Dichter en onderzoeker Anne Braakman legde zijn oor te luister in de spoken word-scene en beschrijft in dit artikel zijn bevindingen. Hij zag dat drie waarden centraal staan: expressie, community en (maatschappelijke) beïnvloeding. Dit artikel gaat over spoken word. In de spoken word-scene dragen mensen – die zichzelf afwisselend aanduiden als woordkunstenaar, spoken word-artiest, dichter, poëet, schrijver, performer, schrijvende performer of performende schrijver – gedichten voor aan een publiek. Soms is hier muzikale begeleiding bij, maar doorgaans niet. De gedichten zijn geschreven ‘om (vooral) gehoord te worden’ (Van der Starre, 2019, p. 1). Er is groeiende academische aandacht voor spoken word. Vooral in de Engelstalige literatuur, die vaak gaat over de situatie in de Verenigde Staten, bestaan bijvoorbeeld studies over slam poetry (Somers-Willett, 2005) en over spoken word in educatieve contexten als scholen, buurthuizen of volwassenenonderwijs (Merriweather, 2011; Williams, 2015; Fisher, 2003). Soms wordt het besproken als critical pedagogy in de context van rap en hiphop (Biggs-El, 2012) of als alternatieve en kritische kennisbron voor de dominante cultuur (Fisher, 2003; Chepp, 2012). Er lijkt echter relatief weinig aandacht te zijn voor spoken word als op zich staand fenomeen. Ook is er in de literatuur geen eenstemmige definitie of een afbakening van het genre, en is er evenmin onderzoek over (het relatieve belang van) de verschillende historische wortels. In Nederland bestaat zo goed als geen academische literatuur over spoken word. Aan het voordragen van poëzie wordt wel aandacht besteed (Dera, 2014; Franssen, 2012), maar spoken word is nog amper zichtbaar. Van der Starre (2021) besteedt in haar proefschrift over wat gedichten betekenen voor mensen in het voorbijgaan aandacht aan spoken word, vooral in relatie tot het literaire establishment. In een eerdere publicatie (Van der Starre, 2017) besteedt ze aandacht aan slam poetry en performance. Dit artikel beschrijft een (auto-)etnografisch geïnspireerde exploratieve casestudie naar de Nederlandse spoken word-scene en maakt daarmee een begin met het vullen van de kennislacune. Centrale onderzoeksvraag in dit artikel luidt: Wat is de waarde van participatie voor de beoefenaars van spoken word? Om die waarde te onderzoeken richt ik me uitgebreid op het tweede compartiment uit het in de inleiding van dit themanummer besproken model van Bisschop Boele. Daarnaast besteed ik en passant ook aandacht aan de andere drie compartimenten. Zo begin ik met korte beschrijvingen van twee spoken word-bijeenkomsten, gebaseerd op mijn veldwerkaantekeningen: een bewust gefragmenteerde versie van een thick description (compartiment 1 uit het model). Ik vul deze eerste blik op de scene aan met een beknopte beschrijving van de geschiedenis en de maatschappelijke situering (compartiment 4) van het genre. Vervolgens beschrijf ik de gekozen theoretische achtergronden en de methodologie en de bevindingen van mijn onderzoek. De teksten in kaders zijn mijn eigen poëtische reflecties tijdens mijn onderzoek.

This is the text of a paper I prepared for the ‘Tagung Ethnographie und Musikpädagogik’ (HMTM Hannover, May 14-15, 2022). Unfortunately I fell ill while finishing the paper and was not able to attend. The paper, in this slightly unfinished state, was however read at the conference by my esteemed colleague prof.dr. Andrea Welte.

S využitím konceptualizací kritické sociologie, kritického přístupu k neoliberalismu a nových studií dělnictví se text zaměřuje na to, jak se strukturní proměna socioekonomických podmínek promítá do pracovní reality dělníků i manažerů v poslední evropské továrně Baťa a jaké má důsledky pro to, jak zakoušejí svoji práci a pojímají vlastní identitu. Na základě etnografického výzkumu v továrně Baťa identifikuje text kulturu nejisté zodpovědnosti charakterizovanou prostřednictvím čtyř dimenzí: vyvazování se ze zodpovědnosti ze strany vedení, přejímání zodpovědnosti ze strany dělníků, nastolení rétoriky ekonomizace a zpřítomnění vědomí konce. The paper investigates the factory in the context of a multinational corporation. The historical-structural background for capturing the changes in the factory is both post-socialism and the conditions of neoliberalism. Drawing on conceptualizations from critical sociology, critical approaches to neoliberalism, and new working-class studies, the author focuses on how the structural transformation of socioeconomic conditions translates into the work in the factory and what implications this has for how workers and managers experience work and their own identities. Based on ethnographic research at the Baťa shoe factory, I identify a culture of precarious responsibility, which I characterize through four dimensions: management’s disengagement from responsibility, workers’ assumption of responsibility, the imposition of economization.

De commissie heeft gekozen voor een etnografische aanpak: het trachten te begrijpen enbeschrijven van de aanpak door het team Risicogroepen in de maatschappelijke en politieke context waarin het zijn werkzaamheden verricht. Daardoor is het mogelijk om de praktijk van het team te kunnen begrijpen en beschrijven in al haar complexiteit.Het rapport is datagedreven: de commissie heeft gegevens verzameld en geanalyseerd en deze hebben tot onderzoek naar nieuwe vragen geleid. Het is aan de hand van de aangedragen casuïstiek door leden van het team Risicogroepen dat de commissie in dit proces haar kennis heeft kunnen verdiepen en verbreden. Naast mondelinge en schriftelijke informatie verstrekt door het team, heeft de commissie eigen desk research verricht en gebruik gemaakt van de beleidstheoretische, beleidsmatige, juridische en wetenschappelijkekennis van haar leden.

De commissie heeft gekozen voor een etnografische aanpak: het trachten te begrijpen en beschrijven van de aanpak door het team Risicogroepen in de maatschappelijke en politieke context waarin het zijn werkzaamheden verricht. Daardoor is het mogelijk om de praktijk van het team te kunnen begrijpen en beschrijven in al haar complexiteit. Het rapport is datagedreven: de commissie heeft gegevens verzameld en geanalyseerd en deze hebben tot onderzoek naar nieuwe vragen geleid. Het is aan de hand van de aangedragen casuïstiek door leden van het team Risicogroepen dat de commissie in dit proces haar kennis heeft kunnen verdiepen en verbreden. Naast mondelinge en schriftelijke informatie verstrekt door het team, heeft de commissie eigen desk research verricht en gebruik gemaakt van de beleidstheoretische, beleidsmatige, juridische en wetenschappelijke kennis van haar leden.

The popularity of the minimalist lifestyle has been growing rapidly since 2008, especially in the American context. In recent years, this phenomenon has also been noticeable in the Czech Republic, manifesting itself in a critical revision of consumer society, to which it responds and defines itself in new forms of (anti)consumption. This thesis aims to examine minimalist consumption practices and to analyse minimalism mainly through the lens of material culture studies. With the help of ethnographic practices, I focus on selected aspects of the minimalist lifestyle, including its connection to environmental and anti-consumerist attitudes, attitudes towards material objects as such, or the position of minimalist actors in the social field. Keywords: ethnography, minimalism, material culture, consumer practices, consumer society

This diploma thesis examines the relationship between waste and people in the collection yard. The collection yard is used for the separate disposal of such waste, which due to its size or material cannot be stored in conventional bins. Because our society is focused on consumption and consumption, a lot of things are thrown away, but other people find them interesting or useful, so they take them out. However, nothing should be taken away from the collection yard, as the waste is not homeless, but is defined by property rights. At the same time, the main principle of waste management - the waste hierarchy states that before a thing becomes waste, it should be used differently. I therefore deal with how this concept of waste conditions the movement of things in the collection yard, how and by whom the removed waste can be used and what role the removal of waste plays in fulfilling the waste hierarchy. I decided to examine all this using anthropological methods, namely participatory observation at the collection yard and interviews with individual actors. Research has shown that things that could still serve someone are being thrown away unnecessarily at the collection yard. People decide to take them "on their own" with the unofficial cooperation of local employees. The removed waste is then used...

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the identity of extreme metal musicians. In the theoretical part, the terms identity, genre, subculture were defined and a brief history of extreme metal was outlined. In the empirical part, research was presented in which 8 semi-structured interviews with grindcore, black metal, trash metal and death metal musicians were analyzed using qualitative methods. Subsequently, an analysis of the interviews was carried out, from which 11 main categories emerged that characterize the individual experience of extreme metal musicians. Based on the obtained results and data from participant observation, the chapter on the identity of an extreme metal musician was created, within which 2 main areas emerged, the purity of metal and the energy of metal, which form the basic pillars of the identity of an extreme metal musician. In the following chapter, the obtained data were placed in a wider context by means of a comparison with the theoretical starting points of the work. KEYWORDS Metal music, identity, subculture, etnography, analysis of interview

Gastcollege voor studenten Docent Beeldende Kunst & Vormgeving, Academie Minerva, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, over het doen van onderzoek.