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Articles in peer-reviewed journals by Sanderien Verstappen
Urban, Planning and Transport Research , 2023
This article carves out a role for anthropologists in cycling research and develops the outlines ... more This article carves out a role for anthropologists in cycling research and develops the outlines of a research agenda for urban cycling in the discipline of anthropology.
entanglements, 2020
A new kind of film has come into being, meant to be viewed on a smartphone: low-resolution, ultra... more A new kind of film has come into being, meant to be viewed on a smartphone: low-resolution, ultrashort, and often anonymous. The distribution of these ultrashort videos has become a topic of concern in India, where they are discussed as a venue of promoting violence against minorities. In this experience I consider the form of the smartphone film from the perspective of an anthropological filmmaker. I share three downloadable films of forty seconds each, which I created to engage the smartphone as an alternative venue of knowledge sharing about research, during a period of temporary immersion in the world of Graphic Design.
AllegraLab, 2020
During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when cinema theatres and university buildings closed, many... more During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when cinema theatres and university buildings closed, many film festivals decided to move their activities online. This moment of experiment with digital infrastructures exposed filmmakers and audiences to new possibilities for viewing and discussing films. It also led to renewed discussions about the longer-term project of sharing anthropological knowledge with varied publics. This was discussed during an online event of the ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival Vienna on May 8, 2020, organised in collaboration with the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab. The participants of this discussion were anthropologists who are also filmmakers or operate in the professional field of film distribution.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2018
India witnesses a proliferation of 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' residential areas, which reflect deepenin... more India witnesses a proliferation of 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' residential areas, which reflect deepening segregation along religious lines. This article explores the production of such spaces through a case study of Anand in central Gujarat. It uses the lens of 'mobilities' to critically interrogate the 'Muslim ghetto', a notion that has come to figure prominently as a conceptual framework in discussions on residential segregation in contemporary India, and proposes to consider the residential spaces of Muslims instead as 'hubs' of urban and regional connectivity. Avoiding a false dichotomy between segregation-as-seclusion and cohabitation-as-connecting, the article demonstrates how new kinds of environments reflect and facilitate new sets of social relations, and generates a fresh perspective of a Muslim area as a hub of intersecting mobilities within a context of rural and urban transformation.
Journal of South Asian Development, 2017
A rich body of historical and anthropological scholarship has critically interrogated the making ... more A rich body of historical and anthropological scholarship has critically interrogated the making and remaking of 'Gujarat', exploring not only the political and social contestations around the formation of Gujarat as regional territory but also the articulation of distinct regional identities in various parts of the region and by various 'minority' communities. This article contributes to these discussions through a case study of a transnational community of Gujarati Muslims, Sunni Vohras from Charotar in central Gujarat, drawing on travel-along ethnographic research with a migrant visiting his 'homeland'. The tensions brought about by the unfolding politics of Hindu nationalism in post-2002 Gujarat have influenced how mobile members of this group reproduce social relations in a transnational social field and cultivate social and material ties to the region. Conceptualizing the region as constituted by various kinds of mobilities, and paying special attention to social relations and social-economic practices, the article demonstrates how a regional homeland can be uncovered through 'travel-along' ethnographic research.
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2015
Visual Anthropology, 2015
Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 2014
In this paper we examine the contradictory migration experiences of Indian youth who recently mov... more In this paper we examine the contradictory migration experiences of Indian youth who recently moved to Britain on a student or temporary work visa and discuss the perspectives of their middle-class families in Gujarat. Like many young people in developing countries, our informants dreamed of going to the West to earn money and improve their prospects at home but ended up in low-status, semi-skilled jobs to cover their expenses, living in small guesthouses crammed with newly arrived migrants. Why did these young people leave India and go to London and what do they get by moving abroad? Based on research in London and Gujarat, our findings show that the decision to migrate is shaped by a combination of individual and social motivations. These young people moved to London not only to earn money and gain new experiences but also to escape family pressures by living away from their parents. Their parents encourage them, though they are aware of the difficulties their children face in London. They regard the migration as a requisite precautionary strategy to maintain their status as middle-class families in India, thereby safeguarding the next generation's future prospects.
Book reviews by Sanderien Verstappen
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2018
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2020
International Review of Social History, 2011
Books by Sanderien Verstappen
Book chapters by Sanderien Verstappen
Provincial Globalization in India: Transregional Mobilities and Development Politics, 2018
Visual Methodology in Migration Studies: New Possibilities, Theoretical Implications, and Ethical Questions, 2021
Now accepted for Scopus! Content available on the Scopus site in spring 2021. This series is the ... more Now accepted for Scopus! Content available on the Scopus site in spring 2021. This series is the official book series of IMISCOE, the largest network of excellence on migration and diversity in the world. It comprises publications which present empirical and theoretical research on different aspects of international migration. The authors are all specialists, and the publications a rich source of information for researchers and others involved in international migration studies. The series is published under the editorial supervision of the IMISCOE Editorial Committee which includes leading scholars from all over Europe. The series, which contains more than eighty titles already, is internationally peer reviewed which ensures that the book published in this series continue to present excellent academic standards and scholarly quality. Most of the books are available open access.
Popular/journalism by Sanderien Verstappen
In IIAS Newsletter 81 (2018)
Urban, Planning and Transport Research , 2023
This article carves out a role for anthropologists in cycling research and develops the outlines ... more This article carves out a role for anthropologists in cycling research and develops the outlines of a research agenda for urban cycling in the discipline of anthropology.
entanglements, 2020
A new kind of film has come into being, meant to be viewed on a smartphone: low-resolution, ultra... more A new kind of film has come into being, meant to be viewed on a smartphone: low-resolution, ultrashort, and often anonymous. The distribution of these ultrashort videos has become a topic of concern in India, where they are discussed as a venue of promoting violence against minorities. In this experience I consider the form of the smartphone film from the perspective of an anthropological filmmaker. I share three downloadable films of forty seconds each, which I created to engage the smartphone as an alternative venue of knowledge sharing about research, during a period of temporary immersion in the world of Graphic Design.
AllegraLab, 2020
During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when cinema theatres and university buildings closed, many... more During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when cinema theatres and university buildings closed, many film festivals decided to move their activities online. This moment of experiment with digital infrastructures exposed filmmakers and audiences to new possibilities for viewing and discussing films. It also led to renewed discussions about the longer-term project of sharing anthropological knowledge with varied publics. This was discussed during an online event of the ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival Vienna on May 8, 2020, organised in collaboration with the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab. The participants of this discussion were anthropologists who are also filmmakers or operate in the professional field of film distribution.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2018
India witnesses a proliferation of 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' residential areas, which reflect deepenin... more India witnesses a proliferation of 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' residential areas, which reflect deepening segregation along religious lines. This article explores the production of such spaces through a case study of Anand in central Gujarat. It uses the lens of 'mobilities' to critically interrogate the 'Muslim ghetto', a notion that has come to figure prominently as a conceptual framework in discussions on residential segregation in contemporary India, and proposes to consider the residential spaces of Muslims instead as 'hubs' of urban and regional connectivity. Avoiding a false dichotomy between segregation-as-seclusion and cohabitation-as-connecting, the article demonstrates how new kinds of environments reflect and facilitate new sets of social relations, and generates a fresh perspective of a Muslim area as a hub of intersecting mobilities within a context of rural and urban transformation.
Journal of South Asian Development, 2017
A rich body of historical and anthropological scholarship has critically interrogated the making ... more A rich body of historical and anthropological scholarship has critically interrogated the making and remaking of 'Gujarat', exploring not only the political and social contestations around the formation of Gujarat as regional territory but also the articulation of distinct regional identities in various parts of the region and by various 'minority' communities. This article contributes to these discussions through a case study of a transnational community of Gujarati Muslims, Sunni Vohras from Charotar in central Gujarat, drawing on travel-along ethnographic research with a migrant visiting his 'homeland'. The tensions brought about by the unfolding politics of Hindu nationalism in post-2002 Gujarat have influenced how mobile members of this group reproduce social relations in a transnational social field and cultivate social and material ties to the region. Conceptualizing the region as constituted by various kinds of mobilities, and paying special attention to social relations and social-economic practices, the article demonstrates how a regional homeland can be uncovered through 'travel-along' ethnographic research.
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2015
Visual Anthropology, 2015
Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 2014
In this paper we examine the contradictory migration experiences of Indian youth who recently mov... more In this paper we examine the contradictory migration experiences of Indian youth who recently moved to Britain on a student or temporary work visa and discuss the perspectives of their middle-class families in Gujarat. Like many young people in developing countries, our informants dreamed of going to the West to earn money and improve their prospects at home but ended up in low-status, semi-skilled jobs to cover their expenses, living in small guesthouses crammed with newly arrived migrants. Why did these young people leave India and go to London and what do they get by moving abroad? Based on research in London and Gujarat, our findings show that the decision to migrate is shaped by a combination of individual and social motivations. These young people moved to London not only to earn money and gain new experiences but also to escape family pressures by living away from their parents. Their parents encourage them, though they are aware of the difficulties their children face in London. They regard the migration as a requisite precautionary strategy to maintain their status as middle-class families in India, thereby safeguarding the next generation's future prospects.
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2018
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2020
International Review of Social History, 2011
Provincial Globalization in India: Transregional Mobilities and Development Politics, 2018
Visual Methodology in Migration Studies: New Possibilities, Theoretical Implications, and Ethical Questions, 2021
Now accepted for Scopus! Content available on the Scopus site in spring 2021. This series is the ... more Now accepted for Scopus! Content available on the Scopus site in spring 2021. This series is the official book series of IMISCOE, the largest network of excellence on migration and diversity in the world. It comprises publications which present empirical and theoretical research on different aspects of international migration. The authors are all specialists, and the publications a rich source of information for researchers and others involved in international migration studies. The series is published under the editorial supervision of the IMISCOE Editorial Committee which includes leading scholars from all over Europe. The series, which contains more than eighty titles already, is internationally peer reviewed which ensures that the book published in this series continue to present excellent academic standards and scholarly quality. Most of the books are available open access.
In IIAS Newsletter 81 (2018)
In IIAS Newsletter 80 (2018)
Ohm Vani 10(1), pp. 23-25, 2003. De belangstelling voor Indiase commerciële films is de laatste j... more Ohm Vani 10(1), pp. 23-25, 2003. De belangstelling voor Indiase commerciële films is de laatste jaren enorm toegenomen in Nederland, vooral onder Hindostaanse jongeren. Sanderien Verstappen, studente Culturele Antropologie aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, deed onderzoek naar de band van Surinaams Hindostaanse jongeren met Indiase films. Vroeger kwamen Hindostaanse jongeren alleen in een Hindostaanse videotheek als ze een film voor hun ouders moesten ophalen. Zelf keken ze liever naar Amerikaanse films op TV. Tegenwoordig zijn het juist de jongeren die een voortrekkersrol vervullen in de Bollywoodscène. Indiase dans, muziek en kleding is een gespreksonderwerp op het schoolplein en in de discotheek. Ondernemers spelen in op de veranderende markt met Bollywood posters, Bollywood sleutelhangers, Bollywood schoolagenda's enzovoorts. Oudere jongeren zoals Viresh (25) kijken met verbazing naar hun jongere neefjes en nichtjes op de middelbare school: "Toen ik op de middelbare school zat, werd er nooit over films gepraat. We hadden het altijd over feestjes en bandjes. De meeste jongeren keken alleen maar Engelse films. Nu is het heel anders. Ik hoor het van mijn nichtjes, die praten op school de hele tijd over films. Welke acteur is in, welke film moet je gezien hebben, posters verzamelen enzo..." Er zijn een aantal redenen voor de toegenomen belangstelling, waarvan ik er hier twee noem. Ten eerste is de kwaliteit van Hindi films in de jaren negentig volgens de jongeren sterk verbeterd. Ten tweede heeft de opkomst van een nieuwe technologie, DVD, de Indiase film dichterbij gebracht. Doorbraak De doorbraak voor de Indiase film in Nederland kwam in 1998 met Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Maar liefst drie keer toerde Ram's Videotheek met deze film langs de Nederlandse theaters. Elke keer waren de zalen uitverkocht. De film markeerde een turning point in de verkoop van Indiase films in Nederland. Voor het eerst sinds lange tijd raakten ook jongeren en kinderen geïnteresseerd. En hun interesse bleef. Veel jongeren herinneren zich Kuch Kuch Hota Hai als de eerste Hindi film die ze leuk vonden. Rewin (24) bijvoorbeeld zag Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ruim vijf jaar geleden, toen de film nog maar net uit was. Het was de eerste Indiase film die hij helemaal van begin tot eind keek zonder zich te ergeren.
Fantasie en werkelijkheid door de ogen van Hindostaanse jongeren
The Guardian, 2017
A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inabilit... more A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inability to live there.
In contemporary China, cities are growing fast with large-scale investments in urban housing to accommodate rural-urban migration. For people from rural areas, buying a house in the city has become an important symbol of success. Yet, the houses they are able to afford are often located in city outskirts with few labour opportunities. Therefore many are unable to stay long-term in their newly acquired house, and instead furnish and store it for the future. This film is about such a house. It is empty most of the year, but the owners still consider it their home.
Direction: Sanderien Verstappen and Willy Sier
Camera: Sanderien Verstappen
Research & translation: Willy Sier
Editing: Sanderien Verstappen and Hilbert Kamphuisen
The film is based on a doctoral research project by Willy Sier in the city of Wuhan, at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). It had its premiere at the VU Ethnographic Film Festival in 2016, and was financially supported by the University of Amsterdam (Anthropology Department and Moving Matters Research Group) and technically facilitated at DIA (Documentary Institute Amsterdam).
Focal Blog "Art and Visual Anthropology", 2021
During the lockdowns of spring 2020, short videos became a popular means of reflecting on new exp... more During the lockdowns of spring 2020, short videos became a popular means of reflecting on new experiences of quarantine and social distancing. Passed around on social media platforms, downloaded in microseconds, and stored on smartphones where they became nested amidst other videos and photos, Corona videos brought about smiles amidst anxious circumstances and reflected meaningful forms of expert and folk knowledges about the pandemic. In this blogpost, the genre of the Corona video is approached from the perspective of anthropological filmmaking. Can anthropologists create their own cinematographic interventions into the pandemic, by joining these visual conversations while commenting on them at the same time?