Monthly Archive: December 2010

Closing the years 2009-2010 3

Closing the years 2009-2010

Because I don’t exactly know anymore when I started my own website, both the years 2009 and 2010 have been labelled as celebrating 10 years of blogging. In the last two years I tried to re-direct this site into more like a public anthropology website. A process that started in 2009 with the post Public Anthropology – 10 years from Researchpages to Closer (1999/2000-2009/2010). In this post I review the last two years and give an update on the recent publications.

The politics of pleasure – The digital story of the nativity 8

The politics of pleasure – The digital story of the nativity

There are several funny videos on Youtube depicting the story of the nativity by using Facebook and/or other social media updates. By foregrounding particular identities, hegemonies and politics while marginalizing others, the Internet reproduces geo-political but also racial, gender and sexual privileges while at the very same time for example Facebook’s rhetoric suggests that we can connect worldwide without any social boundaries giving it an empowering and liberating potential. The Internet is an ideologically laden network and the digital story of the nativity is a nice example of that.

Gülenbeweging brengt in Tweede Kamer SP en PVV nader tot elkaar 4

Gülenbeweging brengt in Tweede Kamer SP en PVV nader tot elkaar

Het kabinet stuurde deze week een rapport naar de Tweede Kamer over de Gülenbeweging, die de afgelopen weken weer in de publieke aandacht was geweest met alarmerende krantenberichten. De Gülenbeweging is de snelst groeiende Turks-islamitische beweging en is tegenwoordig in een honderdtal landen actief. Het rapport, werd donderdag behandeld in een spoeddebat met minister Donner, dat was aangevraagd door het SP-Kamerlid Sadet Karabulut. Eerdere Kamervragen van Karabulut waren de aanleiding geweest tot een onderzoeksopdracht aan de auteur van het rapport, Martin van Bruinessen, die hier een samenvatting van het rapport geeft en een impressie van het kamerdebat.

Wikileaks: Wikivism, Anarchism and the State 1

Wikileaks: Wikivism, Anarchism and the State

What Wikileaks does is to break the secrets of states so they become open for public deliberation. This action and the counter-reaction of states therefore tell us something about the the limits and extent of state power with regard to Internet activism. Although in general the revolutionairy potential of the Internet appears to be rather limited, in this case the Internet can be a substitute for directed organization certainly in the wake of ‘counter-overreaction’ by the states. In that way the ‘counter-overreaction’ does not only validate the leaks but also directly provokes and feeds the activism against the states’ responses to Wikileaks.

Debate: Sharia's in the West – A Place for religious Laws in Western Democracies? 0

Debate: Sharia's in the West – A Place for religious Laws in Western Democracies?

How should a modern secular State respond to the wishes and principles of religious minorities? A debate at Radboud University about implementation of Sharia’s in Europe. In his lecture, John Witte, specialist in family law and religious freedom, gave his views on these matters. Piet Hein van Kempen and Jan Jaap de Ruiter responded.