Projects
Living with lower water levels of the Congo River : an ethnography of fishing villages between Kinshasa and Mbandaka KU Leuven
Climate change is a reality and its impact is increasingly visible on a global level. Climate chnage is considered to be one of the greatest threats to the substance means of the world's population, especially those living in developing countries. This climate change represents an increasingly perceptible threat to the viability of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa, where communities live mainly from the exploitation of natural ...
Language and guardianship: A sociolinguistic ethnography of the multilingual resources and strategies used in the guidance trajectory of unaccompanied refugee minors Ghent University
Language and multilingualism play a critical role in asylum and refugee encounters. Sociolinguistic and interpreting research on multilingual service provision has demonstrated how issues of voice and linguistic-narrative inequality are part of the everyday experience of migrants and refugees because they often do not get the language support they are entitled to. While considerable research has been conducted on the multilingual challenges ...
'Fostering Resilience' in Front-line Environmental Management Practice: A Multi-Sited Ethnography of Novel Constellations of Environmental Value in Practice KU Leuven
Environmental management professionals (EMPs) play a crucial role in strengthening ecosystems and mitigating the effects of global warming. Given the fundamental unpredictability of events associated with climate change, EMPs are asked to "foster ecosystem resilience," thereby enhancing ecosystems' capacities to bounce back from, or adapt to, unpredictable environmental stressors. As a recently emerged environmental policy paradigm, however, ...
Family-life, difference and practices of citizenship. A longitudinal ethnography on families’ experiences in the Belgian and Dutch asylum regime KU Leuven
This research investigates how families are living with and navigating the asylum procedure in Belgium – within “camps” and beyond – in order to shine light on the affective, embodied process of seeking access to legal status. The monograph is based on a longitudinal, follow-along ethnography of families’ trajectories through the asylum regime in Belgium. It follows a number of families throughout the various phases of their asylum procedure: ...
Humanitarianism as a Form of Government: Interactions in Aid, Meaning-Making, and Well-being for Helpers of Refugees in Greece and Germany, a Multi-sited, Transdisciplinary Ethnography Institute of Tropical Medicine
Transformative practices of inhabitation as an implicit urban project: moving from ethnography to projective scenarios in three large-scale social housing estates in Brussels. KU Leuven
Governance in 'rebellious' society: An ethnography of governance complexes in central and northeast India Ghent University
This project analyses the impact of long-term conflict on local governance in two cases: the secessionist Naga armed struggle (Northeast India) and the Maoist Naxalite conflict (Central India). The aim is to provide a political ethnography of governance in 'rebellious society', by conducting fieldwork in areas where the state and the rebels have been trying to set up governance structures.
Women in migration: An Institutional Ethnography of Agency, Empowerment and Resistance inside Reception Facilities. KU Leuven
This research project aims at addressing the question of agency, empowerment, and resistance inside reception facilities designed to accommodate migrant people that have not had access to material help due to the lack of state facilities, neither a right of stay. More specifically, it focuses on women in migration and their specific intersectional experiences of reception and starts from the case study of the Sisters’ House – a reception ...
Performing culture in youth courts: An active ethnography of narrative negotiations Ghent University
The project explores the ways in which the notion ‘culture’ is mobilised in youth courts. This institutional context is underpinned by "it's for your own good" ideals, entailing a constant balancing between protecting and punishing young people. Professionals also need to take into account youth's overall background. Previous research has shown that 'mundane' understandings of ‘culture' influence these assessments and at times negatively ...