What is 'the news' and how does it differ from 'news'? The latter speaks to power, diversity of news media, and multiple publics. This dissertation is an ethnographic study of 'the news' and 'news... Show moreWhat is 'the news' and how does it differ from 'news'? The latter speaks to power, diversity of news media, and multiple publics. This dissertation is an ethnographic study of 'the news' and 'news' in, respectively, an institutional and a popular public on the Dutch Caribbean islands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The metaphor of the ‘glasshouse’ refers to how social life on these islands took shape under Dutch colonial rule and has since evolved as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Like (real) glasshouses, built as regulated atmospheres to optimize the growth of plants outside their natural habitat, I argue that as part of the Dutch colonial project Curaçao and Sint Maarten were designed and regulated as social environments according to capitalist principles. Yet, as unruly transformations emerge in (real) glasshouses, so do unforeseen flowering and mushrooming take place on Curaçao and Sint Maarten. With a focus on news as a social process that generates common, contested, and at times cathartic senses of belonging, this dissertation aims to broaden the understanding of what 'news' means and does, while showing how everyday dynamics of 'the news' and 'news' articulate the creative transformations around (re)imagining and constructing the island communities. Show less
The rapidly growing transdisciplinary enthusiasm about developing new kinds of Anthropocene stories is based on the shared assumption that the Anthropocene predicament is best made sense of by... Show moreThe rapidly growing transdisciplinary enthusiasm about developing new kinds of Anthropocene stories is based on the shared assumption that the Anthropocene predicament is best made sense of by narrative means. Against this assumption, this article argues that the challenge we are facing today does not merely lie in telling either scientific, socio-political, or entangled Anthropocene narratives to come to terms with our current condition. Instead, the challenge lies in coming to grips with how the stories we can tell in the Anthropocene relate to the radical novelty of the Anthropocene condition about which no stories can be told. What we need to find are meaningful ways to reconcile an inherited commitment to narrativization and the collapse of storytelling as a vehicle of understanding the Anthropocene as our current predicament. Show less
This study examines the kind of uncertainties frontline tax officials working with a trust based inspection approach experience in interacting with citizen-clients. The classical literature on... Show moreThis study examines the kind of uncertainties frontline tax officials working with a trust based inspection approach experience in interacting with citizen-clients. The classical literature on bureaucracy and the street-level bureaucracy literature suggest frontline officials face two kinds of uncertainties: information and interpretation problems. Analysing stories of Dutch frontline tax officials collected through in-depth interviews, this article shows that these two kinds of uncertainty only explain a part of the uncertainties experienced. Respondents also face action problems requiring improvisational judgements. The study furthermore finds that different sources underlie these uncertainties, pointing to possible explanations. Show less
