Mind the Gap: Mental Health and a Regulated Insurance Market in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands healthcare is organized by a regulated insurance market. This combination of state and market creates tensions that are explored in this short film, in which psychotherapists reflect on their difficult position in the system.

Nikkie Buskermolen • June 07, 2018

A Struggle for Care: Public Health and Private Insurance in Brasília

Access to healthcare takes us to the heart of Brazil’s polarized debate on social justice and inequality. This film explores some of the difficulties people face when they need medical attention and the dilemmas of financing healthcare.

Erik Bähre and Fabíola Gomes • May 23, 2018

Risky Business: Crop Insurance in Rural India

In central India, agriculture is a risky business. As climate change has altered weather patterns and monsoon rains are becoming increasingly unpredictable, a new crop insurance policy promises to use financial management to control the extremes of nature.

Tim van de Meerendonk • April 30, 2018 • 6 comments

The Price of Death: Life Insurance in Black New Orleans

Funeral directors probably know better than anyone that as long as we live, we are certainly going to die. Yet, for some, death may come at too high a price. How do people reckon financially with the biological fact of their mortality?

Nikki Mulder • April 17, 2018

The Black Box in Bologna: A Short Documentary

By portraying seven perspectives on the recent spread of the black box in the car insurance domain, this documentary sheds light on the much-debated relation between responsibility, privacy, and control. This is further explored in Moretti's PhD research.

Irene Moretti • April 09, 2018

Creating a Story: Large-Scale Bioenergy Production and Its Critics in Sierra Leone

‘How thousands of farmers lost everything’ states the title of a recent Dutch newspaper article about the consequences of a large-scale bioenergy project in Sierra Leone. The narrative may sound strong and clear, but it is also partial and suggestive.

Robert Pijpers • April 03, 2018 • 4 comments

Footage of Failure: Multimodality in Practice

Failure is an unavoidable aspect of the ethnographic enterprise. And yet, failure should not be seen as a dead end. In the context of the FR&T program, we piloted a multimodal research collaboration that required embracing failure as a reoccurring theme.

Sabine Luning and Mark Westmoreland • March 22, 2018

“Dance, Sister! Dance!” New Ways of Doing Ethnography in the City

“Dance, sister! Dance!” Dina is prodding my side, encouraging me to stand up and dance. “My friend is asking you to dance!” She points at her smartphone, which is videotaping us. The word ‘live’ shows that we are broadcasting live on Facebook.

Lennie Geerlings • February 19, 2018 • 1 comment

The Leiden School of Multimodal Ethnography?

In this blog, Mark Westmoreland provides some insights into how the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University engages with multimodal teaching & research. This is part 2 of a blog series on multimodal anthropologies.

Mark Westmoreland • January 10, 2018