In the West of Amsterdam there is an area that used to be occupied by light industry, but which since has been designated as a new area for housing development. Surrounding the area is a working-class neighbourhood with homes built in the first half of the 20th century. Rather than giving corporate developers free range, the municipality has also given space to citizen initiatives and community development. One project to come out of that is a climate neutral neighbourhood that aims at self-sufficiency. This essay is about in- and exclusion dynamics in sustainable innovation trajectories. As we will show, class is an important dimension in these dynamics. Exclusion happens through the feedback loops that occur when socially or culturally similar people band together to tackle complex challenges.

Article by Razia Jaggoe, Marten Boekelo, illustrated by Margherita Miani, read by Rosalie Post

We should question the belief that women’s less ideal positions at work compared to men, are their individual duty to undo. This belief encourages women to focus on self-improvement, and ignore and reduce the differences between men and women when it comes to equal payment, leadership positions, professional behavior, maternity leave and other work-related matters. However, when approaching gender inequality at work through cultural structures and established institutions, it seems to boost men’s thriving over women’s. To truly solve the gender gap at work, we should distance ourselves from the unfair notion that primarily individual women should solve gender inequality at work. Instead, I suggest a culture in the workplace, in which agency is not individual but collective. Collective agency might foster an inclusive exploration to improve gender equality at work on a more systemic level in The Netherlands.

Article by Stephanie van der Raad illustrate by Margherita Miani, read by Stephanie van der Raad

https://theanthro.art/what-works-for-women-self-improvement-versus-a-social-and-cultural-approach-to-solve-gender-inequality-at-work-in-the-netherlands/

We all care about the environment, one way or another. The news in recent decades about the state of the Planet has probably made us more careful about our actions, because we care about nature and what we pass on to future generations. Also, in addition to the general public, specialists in the natural sciences initiate numerous environmental protection programs. All these efforts and good intentions can sometimes be misdirected in the absence of a deep understanding of the situation on the ground. Environmental anthropology deals with the way human communities relate to the environment and use the natural resources. For environmental protection programs to become a success story, it is crucial that environmental anthropologists contribute to these programs alongside biologists, geographers or ecologists, because the human communities they study are located in protected areas and have been part of that ecosystem for hundreds of years. Offering examples from different areas in Romania, this short essay presents how environmental anthropology effectively makes a contribution. The debate on “ecological traditional knowledge,” local communities in protected areas, or “natural disasters” emphasizes the need to understand ecology from a human perspective. An absolutely must for us and our future.

A text by Oana Ivan illustrated by Loreta Isac-Cojocaru and read by actress Katia Pascariu.

https://theanthro.art/environmental-anthropology-on-nature-human-communities-and-the-little-known-reality-oana-ivan-illustration-by-loreta-isac/

My experiences with anthropological research in Ghana and Cameroon made me aware of the differences between doing such research ‘there’ and ‘here’, between being a visitor in another country and being a researcher in my own society.

Illustration by Studio Sonsuz

https://theanthro.art/investigative-or-embedded-research-fieldwork-experiences-in-ghana-and-cameroon-as-lessons-for-anthropology-at-home-sjaak-van-der-geest-illustration-by-studio-sonsuz/

Understanding the causes of persistent inequality between different segments of a society is at the core of social science. This article explores the issue of exclusion by examining various mechanisms of durable inequality within Romanian society, with a specific focus on the Roma population. Throughout history, the Roma have experienced institutionalized exclusion, including slavery, which this text refers to as “categorical exclusion”. Even though these explicit forms of exclusion have been abolished, there is still evidence of “social exclusion” as a continuation of earlier institutionalized servitude. To understand and address the mechanisms that perpetuate inequality, it is crucial to critically examine existing exclusionary social structures, representations, and unequal forms of interactions. The detailed discussion of changing patterns of social exclusion of Roma within the Romanian society is based on both the existing literature and new empirical material streaming from recent fieldwork in communities where effects of the international migration and return are apparent. Since the second half of the twentieth century there were two major structural transformations: first the end of the state socialist system, the transition to a market economy and multi-party democracy, and second, the process of European integration, accession to the common market. Among the unforeseen consequences of this later transformation are the new forms of exclusionary discourses within the European Union, persistent structural inequalities but also some challenges to it by the spontaneous residential desegregation in the communities of origin, which also create new situations of encounter, as return migrants and their move to central squares in the settlement. Younger returnees differ from the generation of their parents or grandparents, as the youth more readily experiment with new, more egalitarian forms of exchanges.

Illustration by Ioana Sabău

https://theanthro.art/after-categorical-exclusion-domains-and-processes-of-social-exclusion-of-the-romanian-roma-laszlo-foszto/

It is well known that tuberculosis (TB) damages the physical body. Less known is the fact that the body is frequently damaged by one or more of the many side effects of TB drugs. What is even less recognized, including among doctors, is that this multi-layered damage often lasts long after a person is cured and may be irreversible. In this article I will discuss hearing loss and other sequelae (aftereffects of a disease or injury) caused by tuberculosis and its treatment and experienced by people in Romania. I argue that these harms change TB survivors’ sense of self, and that, because of how treatment is organized, medical providers, who deem them “cured” may not know about their sequelae or their struggles to return to their former lives. This article is based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork that took place in Romania mainly between 2009 and 2016 at several hospitals and clinics. This fieldwork included survey and interview methodologies, as well as participant observation, which entailed accompanying medical staff on rounds and living at a TB sanatorium for six months. The long duration of the fieldwork allowed me to see how a person experiences the entire trajectory of their illness, including its progression long after they leave the view of the medical system.

Article by Jonathan Stillo, illustrated by Adela Holdon

https://theanthro.art/being-cured-but-no-longer-being-yourself-tuberculosis-sequelae-and-the-unseen-second-lives-of-romanian-tuberculosis-survivors-jonathan-stillo/

In this reflective paper, I delve into the moral evaluation process carried out by emergency department (ED) triage workers in Romania as they grapple with the rising demand for emergency care. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach, I scrutinize how triage staff assess patients’ entitlement to and deservingness of care, with a focus on the intricate dynamics of this assessment process. My long-term fieldwork at the EDs of two public hospitals exposed that moral evaluation arises from the pragmatic necessity of dissuading patients from seeking ED services for issues that could be addressed by primary care providers. Since current policies prevent triage workers from denying emergency care access, moral evaluation assumes more subtle forms, such as unwarranted delays, admonishments, and reproaches. Although the moral evaluation process exhibits a clear exclusionary aspect, it does also consider structural issues within primary healthcare organization and offers some protection for patients who cannot access medical care elsewhere due to circumstances beyond their control. However, the staff’s lack of structural competence leads to certain vulnerable patient groups, particularly the Roma, facing disproportionate sanctioning. This includes micro-aggressions and unjustified admission delays, inadvertently perpetuating unequal healthcare access and exacerbating health disparities along ethnic lines. In conclusion, the moral evaluation process is a complex, multi-faceted endeavor that seeks to align the rationing of access to emergency services with moral criteria. Despite its intentions, the process inadvertently amplifies inequity in access to healthcare.

Illustration by Andrei Pacea

https://theanthro.art/sorting-patients-out-the-moral-evaluation-process-in-emergency-departments-marius-wamsiedel/

How does intra-European transnational labor migration in agriculture change the material and status conditions of the most underprivileged groups living in the European peripheries from which this labor originates? How do the dominant groups react? While a rich literature looks at transnational labor migration from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, there is still room for research on the ethic relations that structure these flows as well as on the material effects that it has in communities of extreme marginality such as that of the rural Roma.

Illustration by Andra Badea

https://theanthro.art/roma-seasonal-migration-and-its-effects-in-romanian-rural-communities-valer-simion-cosma/

“I haven’t held you in my arms, but I feel you. I haven’t talked with you, but I hear you. I haven’t met you, but I love you. Your absence is like the sky: present everywhere.” In Romania, women who unexpectedly lose a fetus or newborn baby with whom they had imagined a life-long bond often experience deeply-felt emptiness and loneliness. Their experience is made worse by the silence and misrecognition they encounter in their social surroundings. This article describes women’s painful interactions with the medical system, the Orthodox Church and the people in their personal networks. It shows not only how their little ones are excluded as worthy members of Romanian society, but also how they themselves hardly get any social space or recognition as bereaved mothers. While some may benefit from the occasional civil society initiative, many just suffer in silence

Article by Erica van der Sijpt, illustrated by Axelle van Wynsberghe, read by

https://theanthro.art/suffering-in-silence-experiences-of-emptiness-and-exclusion-after-reproductive-loss-in-romania-erica-van-der-sijpt/

Transparency and accountability are fundamental for modern democracies but grassroots governance depends upon social and cultural systems of knowledge which often raise serious barriers to information and political participation. Ethnographic fieldwork in a Romanian village shows how a culture of secrecy and deception permeates social interactions from everyday life to the workings of local politicians and administrators. Information about corruption and abuse of power becomes hidden and distorted when political leaders behave just like everyone else in the village: they protect shady deals and patronage using the epistemic advantage offered by technocratic knowledge and the haze of rumours and gossip.

Article by Radu Umbreș, illustrated by Sveta Parfenyuk

https://theanthro.art/secrets-lies-and-political-inequality-radu-umbres/