Indian agriculture is widely believed to be in crisis. There is broad consensus among scholar, policymakers and activists that economic hardships and the changing climate have made sustaining a... Show moreIndian agriculture is widely believed to be in crisis. There is broad consensus among scholar, policymakers and activists that economic hardships and the changing climate have made sustaining a livelihood through farming increasingly untenable. There is a strong sense that something has to be done to help farmers deal with the crisis, and in recent years agricultural insurance has been presented as a possible fix for rural distress. This dissertation studies how a new agricultural insurance scheme called PMFBY becomes part of everyday social interactions and experiences. Insurance companies often assert that quantified procedures can accurately - and fairly - calculate the extent of agricultural risk, attach a price tag to it and protect against it. Can quantification really be the antidote to crisis? To answer this question I explore how insurance numbers translate to the everyday experiences of rural people in central Maharashtra. I find that, when seen from the perspective of those encountering them in their daily lives, the numbers are anything but straightforward. The effects of quantification were often arbitrary, and despite promises of transparency, they had a tendency to obscure rather than clarify. In short, the numbers turned out to be inconsistent and ambiguous. The dissertation describes how people attempt to make sense of this ambiguity through their moral understandings. It focusses on the (often heated) discussions, the collective pondering such discussions led to, the personal dilemmas it posed as well as the dreams and aspirations numbers became entwined with. I explore how such quandaries unfold and argue that a focus on the morality of quantification brings to light the social life of numbers beyond their 'objective' factuality. Show less
Sustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable,... Show moreSustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. This paper synthesises insights from the development of a community of practice on social-ecological systems (SES) research in southern Africa over the past decade, linked to the international Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS). This community consists of a network of researchers who carry out place-based SES research in the southern African region. They interact through various cross-cutting working groups and also host a variety of public colloquia and student and practitioner training events. Known as the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), its core objectives are to: (1) derive new approaches and empirical insights on SES dynamics in the southern African context; (2) have a tangible impact by mainstreaming knowledge into policy and practice; and (3) grow the community of practice engaged in SES research and governance, including researchers, students and practitioners. This paper reflects on experiences in building the SAPECS community, with the aim of supporting the development of similar networks elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Global South. Show less
Sustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable,... Show moreSustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. This paper synthesises insights from the development of a community of practice on social-ecological systems (SES) research in southern Africa over the past decade, linked to the international Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS). This community consists of a network of researchers who carry out place-based SES research in the southern African region. They interact through various cross-cutting working groups and also host a variety of public colloquia and student and practitioner training events. Known as the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), its core objectives are to: (1) derive new approaches and empirical insights on SES dynamics in the southern African context; (2) have a tangible impact by mainstreaming knowledge into policy and practice; and (3) grow the community of practice engaged in SES research and governance, including researchers, students and practitioners. This paper reflects on experiences in building the SAPECS community, with the aim of supporting the development of similar networks elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Global South. Show less
Decarbonisation in moderate and cold climates is reliant on the replacement of existing heating technologies with electric heat pumps. Heat pumps work differently from incumbent technologies,... Show moreDecarbonisation in moderate and cold climates is reliant on the replacement of existing heating technologies with electric heat pumps. Heat pumps work differently from incumbent technologies, including in how they are controlled, their distribution of heat around the home and their space requirements. Despite evidence that domestic practices and interests associated with women played an important role in previous heating transitions, policy and research have not yet considered how heat pumps might interact with traditionally gendered needs and concerns. This could have significant implications for the success of the heat pump transition. This synthesis uses a framework of evidenced heating needs, incorporating wellbeing, resources, ease of use and relational dynamics, to structure a narrative literature review on how experiences of heat pumps may be gendered. Indicative evidence suggests that heat pumps have the potential to improve female thermal comfort, but that other possibly gendered heating needs such as minimising perceived waste and easy controllability are not always addressed. Amidst a lack of empirical studies exploring women’s needs, and whether they are met by heat pumps, a series of recommendations is provided for multidisciplinary research on the topic and to enhance consideration of gendered needs and experiences in policy development. Show less
The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has opened up new frontiers of technological possibilities, yet the traditional education system in Indonesia has largely remained entrenched... Show moreThe rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has opened up new frontiers of technological possibilities, yet the traditional education system in Indonesia has largely remained entrenched in con- ventional practices. Despite Indonesia’s recognition for its vibrant AI innovation scene and its diverse student population, there is a signifi- cant gap in exploring the multifaceted implications of AI in, for, and by education within the country. This paper aims to address this gap by delving into three key areas: AI tutors, governance, and (virtue-based) ethical considerations. Drawing insights from both global and Islamic literature, we first examine the discourse surrounding AI tutors within Indonesia’s education system. Next, we discuss the potential applications of AI in governance, including the role of the government and the emer- gence of AI-related education in Indonesia. Thirdly, we contemplate an ethical framework encompassing issues of inequality, public policy, and Islamic-based principles. Throughout, this paper emphasizes the critical importance of examining these three facets of AI’s impact in education. Ultimately, this research raises the intriguing question of how education and AI will mutually shape each other in the future, urging further ex- ploration of this dynamic relationship. Show less
Palliative care has been developing since the 1960s as a form of caregiving that focuses on the relief of suffering when there is no prospect of a cure or when a patient is at the end of life....Show morePalliative care has been developing since the 1960s as a form of caregiving that focuses on the relief of suffering when there is no prospect of a cure or when a patient is at the end of life. Originating in the UK and US, palliative care has been taken up by global institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and implemented in various cultural and socioeconomic settings. Anthropological studies have long been highlighting the wide variety of experiences and needs in illness and dying and have problematised the supposedly universal ideas behind palliative care. After a brief discussion of the historical and institutional development of palliative care, this entry highlights the links between palliative care principles and notions of a good death. It then turns to the medicalisation of death and the primacy of choice in palliative care discourses. It elaborates on anthropological studies that have observed how palliative care comes to relate to existing end-of-life care practices and the diversity with which local practitioners and care recipients give shape to this new care paradigm. Finally, it discusses various cultural and moral attitudes towards disclosure and concealment of dying as a site of friction in palliative care. Show less
Skaters horen bij de stad, als gangmakers, als creatievelingen én als steeds belangrijkere doelgroep voor planologen. Maar het is niet al goud wat er blinkt. Skatestoppers - van die uitstulpingen... Show moreSkaters horen bij de stad, als gangmakers, als creatievelingen én als steeds belangrijkere doelgroep voor planologen. Maar het is niet al goud wat er blinkt. Skatestoppers - van die uitstulpingen op straatmeubilair om skaters en andere ongewenste mensen te weren - maken vooral zichtbaar dat moderne steden en structurele uitsluiting hand in hand gaan. Show less
This article examines court cases brought by clients against private health insurance companies and against Brazil’s public health system. When clients take private health insurers to court, they... Show moreThis article examines court cases brought by clients against private health insurance companies and against Brazil’s public health system. When clients take private health insurers to court, they successfully claim that the insurer violated their dignity, which entitles them to a moral damage payment. Similar cases against the state did not include moral damage claims. In relation to public healthcare, it is somehow not possible to equate dignity with economic value. One might conclude that the dignity of consumers in the market is worth more than that of citizens vis-à-vis the state. Instead, I argue for a more subtle approach by concentrating on the ethics of incommensurability. What legal and ethical considerations lead to such a fundamental incommensurability between personhood and economic value? How do the actors involved in court proceedings (claimants, prosecutors, judges, and insurers) perceive the differences between cases against insurance companies and against public health authorities? What can we make of the differences between the legal and everyday understandings of dignity and morality? Show less
The Spirit of Matter discusses excessive objects: those things that move people but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking about ‘mind over matter’, and that things are... Show moreThe Spirit of Matter discusses excessive objects: those things that move people but whose existence is often denied by modern wishful thinking about ‘mind over matter’, and that things are supposedly ‘dead’. Such wishful thinking can be traced back to Protestant Christian influences, that were secularized in the course of modern and colonial history. A range of excessive objects – exhibits of human remains or live people, fetishes, objects in a Catholic museum, exotic photographs, commodities, and computers – demonstrate a subordinate modern consciousness about powerful objects and their ‘life’. If humanity wants to survive current planetary socio-ecological crises, it should learn from its humility towards both artefacts and non-human things. Show less
Images have low priority in the study of Islam, despite their ubiquitous proximity to lived experience. This chapter argues for an exploration of images in contemporary Islam. It proposes a dynamic... Show moreImages have low priority in the study of Islam, despite their ubiquitous proximity to lived experience. This chapter argues for an exploration of images in contemporary Islam. It proposes a dynamic approach towards the relationship between Islam and the image by engaging with the concept of provocation. The chapter proposes that provocation helps us to draw attention to a multiplicity of emotions that images may engender, from feelings of joy and enlightenment to terror and rage, and from mixed feelings and feelings of indifference to a sense of shame. The chapter suggests that provocation helps to map how Muslims navigate and make sense of the overwhelming abundance and multiplicity of sounds and images in the religious public sphere today. Show less
The anthropology of citizenship has sought to understand citizenship beyond formal-legal definitions, including a focus on how those who are legally without citizenship rights also engage in... Show moreThe anthropology of citizenship has sought to understand citizenship beyond formal-legal definitions, including a focus on how those who are legally without citizenship rights also engage in everyday acts of political claims-making. While this emphasis on the enactment of citizenship has expanded our understanding of who counts as a political being, it has also been obviously human centered. Might we also understand animals’ acts, their presence and movements, as having the potential to constitute political constituents? This article develops a more-than-human perspective on political claims-making by connecting insights from human-animal studies to the anthropology of citizenship. We draw on research on rats in Amsterdam to propose an understanding of these animals’ interventions in the urban built environment as more-than-human “acts of denizenship.” Focusing on different forms of rat behavior, we analyze rats’ mundane interactions and relations with the city's residents, infrastructure, and other animals as forms of claims-making. We see the behavior as efforts that are partially recognized by humans and that, as such, can be understood as enacting a relation of denizenship. Such attention to how rats act in and on urban space, we suggest, can help us conceptualize political agency and the formation of political belonging in ways that extend beyond the human. Show less
In this article, we pursue a route for understanding the decentralisation of wastewater treatment that moves away from thinking in terms of individual responsibility and technical determinism and... Show moreIn this article, we pursue a route for understanding the decentralisation of wastewater treatment that moves away from thinking in terms of individual responsibility and technical determinism and mobilises the analytical lens of care to articulate more-than-human relationality as an organising principle of governing environmental infrastructures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Dutch Flevopolder, we focus on the mundane practices of handling wastewater. We show how households are entangled in a multispecies infrastructure: they engage with wastewater as users of toilets, guardians of bacteria and reed beds, and technology-assisted monitors of pollution. We argue that these infrastructural relations are variously cared for in practice, but remain neglected as part of formalised wastewater management. Finally, we advocate a form of environmental governance that recognises and engages with the waste work undertaken by all stakeholders, as they configure an infrastructure in which unruly processes unfold, in a caring, rather than controlling, mode. Show less
