Bertus Haverkort groeide op in een boerengezin in Slagharen. Hij genoot van modernisering op de boerderij van zijn jeugd, omdat dit het werk verlichte en de opbrengsten verbeterde. Met in zijn... Show moreBertus Haverkort groeide op in een boerengezin in Slagharen. Hij genoot van modernisering op de boerderij van zijn jeugd, omdat dit het werk verlichte en de opbrengsten verbeterde. Met in zijn bagage een dosis moderne landbouwkennis uit Wageningen, werkte hij aan programma’s in de tropen waarbij overdracht van westerse kennis het doel was. De aanpak blijkt niet te werken. Hij plaatst vraagtekens bij de toepasbaarheid van de westerse kennis in situaties waar de ecologie, economie en cultuur zoveel verschillen. In samenwerking met lokale deskundigen uit India, Bolivia en Ghana wordt onderzocht hoe lokale wereldbeelden, waarden en kennis een rol spelen. Daarvoor wordt gewerkt aan een onderwijsmethode voor endogene ontwikkeling en aan een benadering voor co-creatie van wetenschappen uit verschillende tradities en wereldstreken. De internationale ervaringen worden in verband gebracht met de huidige crisis in de landbouw in Nederland en monden uit een pleidooi voor klimaat- en natuurvriendelijke landbouw. Show less
Common Threads explores the ties that bind India and Africa through the material medium of cloth, from antiquity to the present. Cloth made in India has been sold across African markets for... Show moreCommon Threads explores the ties that bind India and Africa through the material medium of cloth, from antiquity to the present. Cloth made in India has been sold across African markets for millennia, by Indian, African, and European traders. The history of this trade offers perspectives into the rich stories of bi-directorial migrations of peoples, across the Indian Ocean, the exchange of visual aesthetics, and the co-production of cultures in the two geographies. Common Threads uses photographs to tell the story of the creation of these textiles in India, which today is concentrated in the small town of Jetpur in the Rajkot district of Gujarat. It sheds light on the artists and the agencies in India that are involved in the design, production, and logistics of this enterprise. Most significantly, it highlights the role of African consumers in defining the evolution of these genres of fabric, and the centrality of people-to-people connections in sustaining the continued cosmopolitanism of these transoceanic connectivities Show less
The remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to... Show moreThe remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to Early Modern European expansion? The Company Fortress takes on this question by studying the system of fortifications built and maintained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in present-day India and Sri Lanka. It uncovers the stories of the forts and their designers, arguing that many of these engineers were in fact amateurs and their creations contained serious flaws. Subsequent engineers were hampered by their disagreement over fortification design: there proved not to be a single ‘European school’ of fortification design. The study questions the importance of fortification design for European expansion, shows the relationship between siege and naval warfare, and highlights changing perceptions by the VOC of the capabilities of new polities in India in the late eighteenth century. Show less
How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia... Show moreHow do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous communities take on radically new significances. Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia shows how in the portrayal of indigenous groups by both ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ imaginations of indigeneity and nation become increasingly interlinked. Indigenous groups, typically marginal to the nation, are at the same time part of mainstream polities and cultures. Drawing on perspectives from media studies and visual anthropology, this book compares and contrasts the situation in South Asia with indigeneity globally. Show less
