This in-depth study explores how women navigate corporate careers and take decisions in pursuit of a meaningful work and personal life. It analyzes the lived experiences of female employees working... Show moreThis in-depth study explores how women navigate corporate careers and take decisions in pursuit of a meaningful work and personal life. It analyzes the lived experiences of female employees working at major firms in Japan and South Korea to reveal how women's agency interacts with a changing environment inside and outside the workplace. It applies the comprehensive Gender Organization System's framework and interpretive approach with life story interview method to identify constellations of factors that influence women's work-family behaviors and attitudes over time. The careful analysis of individual interviews with 24 Korean and 39 Japanese women underscores that we must first understand the specific contexts individuals deal with in localized settings and explore women's personal interpretations of broad concepts to advance the increasingly broad theories in the gender and work literature. The findings suggest that dynamics and conditions at the work group level, and particularly the role of immediate supervisors, are of higher significance than the general organizational or socio-institutional context. Show less
This thesis examines the practice and effects of the Chinese Communist Party’s religious and minority policies in Xinjiang on the eve of the wholesale repression of Islam and Uyghur culture after... Show moreThis thesis examines the practice and effects of the Chinese Communist Party’s religious and minority policies in Xinjiang on the eve of the wholesale repression of Islam and Uyghur culture after 2016. Based on government papers and speeches, publications and communications by the China Islamic Association, as well as fieldwork in Xinjiang itself and among the Uyghur diaspora in Europe between 2013 and 2018, this thesis specifically looks at the shift in the Chinese Communist Party approach to Islam in the context of the “Xinjiang problem”. State restrictions on Uyghur religious life and the state’s apprehensions of Islam as a vessel and cause of Uyghur unrest already existed since the 1990s. The policies of repression and control in Xinjiang have been addressed by several studies, showing that they fueled the use of Islam as an anti-Chinese symbol of resistance. But there was also a state-backed positive policy on Islam, which sought to bind religious communities more firmly to the Party-state, using Islamic scripture and Islamic authority figures to stimulate cultural and political loyalty among Muslims. This thesis looks at this “functionalization” of Islam by the Chinese state to understand what exactly changed in the CCP’s approach in the 2010s, why it changed, and whether the new policies in Xinjiang constituted a deeper shift in the Party’s dealing with religion. Show less
Egypt became a province of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire in 526 BC. In the decades thereafter, some inhabitants of the Delta and Nile Valley rebelled against their Persian overlords. Though... Show moreEgypt became a province of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire in 526 BC. In the decades thereafter, some inhabitants of the Delta and Nile Valley rebelled against their Persian overlords. Though these rebellions are well known, they have been little studied. The present thesis provides an in-depth study of the first two rebellions of Persian-Period Egypt: the rebellion that began in ca. 521 BC, and which may have lasted until 519/18 BC, and the rebellion that began in ca. 487/86 BC, and which may have lasted until 485/84 BC. Show less
This dissertation focuses on the creation of loyalty networks in the Mongol Empire and its successor states during the 13th and 14th centuries. It uses the framework of ‘categories of loyalty’ to... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the creation of loyalty networks in the Mongol Empire and its successor states during the 13th and 14th centuries. It uses the framework of ‘categories of loyalty’ to examine how political actors made loyalty decisions. These categories can be broadly divided into two types: ideal loyalties and loyalties of self-interest. This work shows how these loyalties interacted, and how people explained their decisions, as well as how contemporary historians framed these actions. Show less
This dissertation deals with the legitimacy of Muslim women as Islamic scholars (ulama) and the right ascribed to them by society to interpret religious texts and issue fatwas. The study is... Show moreThis dissertation deals with the legitimacy of Muslim women as Islamic scholars (ulama) and the right ascribed to them by society to interpret religious texts and issue fatwas. The study is therefore concerned with the concept of religious authority and how this is modulated through gender. Using a combined anthropological, religious studies, and gender lens, it examines how and why women issue fatwas in different spaces of interaction including women’s branches of Islamic organizations and institutions, local communities, and women’s magazines. The main argument of this dissertation is that, both at the grassroots and in the public sphere, Muslim women in Indonesia play an increasingly influential role as ulama. Although their role is not often recognized by men, once we privilege the perspective of women a completely different picture emerges, one in which women are granted religious authority that turns out to be as strong as that of male ulama in issuing fatwas. Their authority is, on the one hand, a community-based authority contingent on local concerns and networks of knowledge. Yet on the other hand these women also contribute to a larger effort, namely the creation of a national network of Indonesian female ulama. Show less
This dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the... Show moreThis dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the implementation of the infitāh policies in 1976 by Anwar Sadat. Beyond Departure: The Greeks in Egypt, 1962-1976 explores the Greeks’ multiple personal, local and institutional histories that make up the Greek presence in history after 1962. It reveales the diversity of Greek experiences based on geographical, socioeconomic and individual context. It analyzes the motivations and strategies they employed to respond to the economic and social changes in Egyptian society, such as the end of the Capitulations, WWI and WWII, the formation of the post-colonial state, and the 1961 Nationalization laws, among others, and the relations these events formed between Egyptian nationals and non nationals and the Egyptian state. It also explores how Greeks negotiated their presence, identity and feelings of belonging, in mind and practice, as a diaspora with a transnational agency. Show less
This dissertation investigates the arts of the book in the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty. Often and inaccurately called Shībānid, the Abū’l-Khairids occupied what would become Uzbekistan and surrounding... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the arts of the book in the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty. Often and inaccurately called Shībānid, the Abū’l-Khairids occupied what would become Uzbekistan and surrounding territories across the sixteenth century. It focuses on specific illustrated works of battles and biographies composed in Persian and Turkish; the manuscripts encompass Shāhnāma productions and other works of epic poetry and dynastic history. The political and artistic strength of the Abū’l-Khairids was short-lived, but significant. Their leaders exchanged embassies with the Ottomans in Turkey and Mughals in India, and sparred with the Safavids in Iran. Although the official dates of the Abū’l-Khairid dynasty span 1500–1599, the examination extends the margins by two decades on either side. The focus is on the copyists and illustrators who contributed to the book creations, even if they worked in other artistic centers and political regions at other times.These manuscripts, and the scribes and painters contributing to them, fostered extended cultural exchanges between khans in Central Asia and their regional counterparts: Safavid shahs, Ottoman sultans, and Mughal emperors. These interactions were not confined to high echelons, however, and the study also traces the migrations of artistic talent across courts and commercial hubs during periods of dynastic rivalry and economic strain. Ambassadors, pilgrims, merchants, scholars, and artisans transported the objects. In the analysis, art is not separate from political, religious, economic, or intellectual matters but synthesizes art, history, geography, politics, economics, the movement of manuscripts, and the social relationships of the individuals engaged in their manufacture and transit. Show less
This book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality... Show moreThis book discusses the dynamic intersection of three bodies of law; adat, Aceh Shari’a and national penal law, and the institutions applying them. It focuses on how these address public morality and criminal offences of a sexual nature as they play out in the Gayonese community of Central Aceh dan Bener Meriah districts, Indonesia.The author argues that these three legal systems have complemented and become alternatives to one another. The state, non-state legal actors and adat officials observe certain limits of each legal system and shop the forums available or apply legal differentiation. Among the actors involved, the police is the most influential in directing the use of the three legal systems. They decide which legal system suited best for the victims’, offenders’ and their own interest and they are the bridge between legal systems in the pluralism of penal law in Aceh. These legal developments in Gayo suggest that state recognition of non-state law (adat law) as part of the state legal system may give a high degree of autonomy to adat institutions. This goes against the frequent claim that recognition of adat always leads to more control by the state. Show less
This thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted... Show moreThis thesis investigates the formation of the Japanese nation-state from the angle of children’s literature. On the one hand, it elucidates how premodern warrior legends were canonized and adapted in children’s literature and textbooks of the Meiji (1686-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926) period to shape the dispositions of young citizens according to various modern ideals. On the other hand, it analyses the role of children’s literature in Japan’s transition to modernity and the identity-formation of the adults involved. This thesis challenges the idea that ‘books for children’ did not exist before the Meiji period by placing the material within the contemporary context. Focusing on the work of the author Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933), it consequently re-assesses the development of modern children’s literature in Japan through the lens of Yuri Lotman’s theory on cultural memory. The re-appropriation of warrior legends in a modern literary genre for young citizens contributed to the coherence of culture during Japan’s transition to modernity. The new genre moreover signified Japan’s status as a modern society that separates the sphere of childhood from adulthood, thereby providing the latter with a sense of Selfhood and the right to guide both real and metaphorical children in their development. Show less
This dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical... Show moreThis dissertation analyzes the changing discourses of Turkish nationalism between 1950s-1980 through the reproduction of political myths in nationalist action/adventure films with historical settings. How myths narrate the nation’s spatial, ancestral, temporal roots, present situation, future, and mission is examined in seventy-one films that recreate the past within the frameworks of different historical-political contexts. The central question is: How does the depiction of the past change through time with the increasing polarizations hence nationalist militancy in the country? With a close reading in combination with film analysis, the depictions of the ideal representative of the Turkish nation, the national leader, warrior, enemies, friends, women, children, the national space, religion, and national mission are revealed. Show less
This thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the ... Show moreThis thesis examines how innovation is practiced, imagined, mobilized, and reinterpreted by China’s local developers and its subjects. The Chinese innovation movement is not the same as the “disruptive innovation” of recent years mainly driven by digital technology in the European and North American contexts. The state plays a very salient role in innovation, investing in the social and economic system to provide a constant demand for innovation to unleash the dynamism of development.The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the state’s role in socio-economic transformation and its governance model in innovation activities. This thesis discusses the state-market-society relationship not merely from an institutionalist perspective that focuses on the interplay between the state, the market, and society. I discovered that the state creates a range of government institutions to regulate and shape society. Further, in recent years the local state has been an important producer of the emergence of China’s new civil society that drives innovation and entrepreneurship as ways to enhance social mobility. Show less
The late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different... Show moreThe late 1990s saw the emergence on the Chinese poetry scene of a phenomenon called “Poetry of the Nineties” (九十年代诗歌). This happened before the decade in question had reached its end. Different from what one might expect, the expression does not denote a simple calendar chronology – as in poetry written in the 1990s – but instead points to a literary-critical category, and more specifically to a particular poetics and a network of associated authors and critics. This discrepancy of calendar chronology and literary criticism offers a point of entry into a pivotal moment in critical discourse on contemporary Chinese poetry. Pivotal as it may be, this moment has remained underresearched to date, especially as regards its history, which goes back to the 1980s, and as regards its consequences, which continue to affect scholarship today. The present study addresses this blind spot by asking: What does “Poetry of the Nineties” signify, to whom, and to what effect? It engages with this question by investigating how poetry written in the 1990s is represented in 21st-century Chinese scholarship, and how this representation can be explained. Show less
This dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era... Show moreThis dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era between 2008 and 2012. It examines how Chinese audiences express online nationalist sentiments, representing whether the communication of media events meets the social demands established by “dream discourses.” Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, it focuses on two case studies: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. The dissertation finds that these mass media events play a significant role in shaping Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism. The related mass communication helps the Chinese government increase or, at least, maintain its legitimacy through various strategies. The findings of this dissertation also show that as Chinese audiences have increasingly voiced themselves in the information age, the government will keep treating the robust, uneasy entanglement of nationalism, globalization, and digital media more cautiously for its social development and stability. Show less
De primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het... Show moreDe primaire focus van dit proefschrift is het onderzoeken van de politieke ideeën van BG Tilak (1856-1920), de congres-extremistische leider van de Indiase nationalistische beweging en, in het proces, de politieke en intellectuele geschiedenis van Maharashtra en India te reconstrueren tijdens de late 19e en begin 20e eeuw. Deze dissertatie daagt de oudere stijlfiguur uit die Tilak binnen de reikwijdte van de meerderheid van de hindoe-nationalistische politiek plaatst. Het plaatst zijn sociale conservatisme in de heersende sociale overtuigingen van en liturgische lezingen aangeboden door de laat 19e-eeuwse Marathi openbare intellectuelen. De belangrijkste agenda van Tilak was de creatie van een gecollectiviseerd en geradicaliseerd hindoe-zelf, geponeerd tegen het Britse kolonialisme. Zijn creatieve versmelting van moderne westerse historische exegese met Sanskriet kennissystemen in het pleiten voor hoge oudheid voor de Arische beschaving worden onderzocht. Zijn commentaar op de Bhagavad Gītā bood een infusie van ethische principes in massaal politiek activisme. Tilak slaagde erin om provinciale parochialisme ten opzichte van pan-nationale identiteiten te verminderen. Ten slotte stelt dit proefschrift dat het nationalistische ideaal van Tilak beperkt was tot Svarājya of Zelfbeschikking voor India binnen het Britse Gemenebest. Show less
Within the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history,... Show moreWithin the framework of a larger debate on literary history and censorship studies, this research delves deeper into the role of literature in narrating Indonesia’s bleakest pages of history, namely the events of 1965-66 and the mass killings that followed. The historical legacy of the events was a matter of grave contention within Indonesia and to speak directly and write with honesty about them could become fraught with danger. Throughout most of the 1970s, creative literature in Indonesia was almost totally silent on the background and meaning of the killings of 1965-66, the very specific topic that did not collocate with the values of the authoritarian New Order regime. The aftermath in the lives of individuals who witnessed this tragedy was also skipped over in Indonesian literature. In addition, the traumatic nature of the experience seemed to have been expunged from the memories of witnesses and inhibited a wider group of people from talking. However, against all odds, a few literary authors spoke up and openly addressed this theme in their novels. They were even sympathetic in portraying the victims even though the regime was at the height of its power and exerting maximum social and political control through rampant censorship. In this regard, this dissertation addresses the broader question about what this case of literary production tells us about the nature of censorship under the New Order. Show less
Dr. Taufiq Canaan gathered many amulets from 1905 to 1947 in rural areas and towns of Palestine. Among the amulets he collected, the largest group is at Birzeit University and it is known as the... Show moreDr. Taufiq Canaan gathered many amulets from 1905 to 1947 in rural areas and towns of Palestine. Among the amulets he collected, the largest group is at Birzeit University and it is known as the Tawfik Canaan Collection of Palestinian Amulets. It contains a wide variety of objects, a unique group of uninscribed amulets, and extensive documentation of all the items. In my thesis I conclude that the amulets in this Collection do not only deserve our attention as museum objects, but as living objects that have a life and have gone through different phases. These phases become clear by analysing Canaan’s collecting process throughout the years in relation to his multifaceted life as a modern physician, anthropologist, folklorist, collector, social figure, and political activist. In every chapter I explore and contextualise each phase and highlight the amulets’ functions in the networks in which they circulated; from healing and protective remedies used by Canaan's patients in the first half of the 20th century, to becoming tokens of a Palestinian national identity when they were catalogued and exhibited in 1998. The importance of this research lies in the shift of focus from the Collection as a unit to the objects's functions and circulation disclosing the social, cultural and political conditions of the manufacture, use, trade, ethnographic study, and collection of amulets. Show less
In this dissertation I have explored contemporary modes of displacement and citizenship in India. Rather than large-scale spectacular dislocations which are a focus of ‘refugee’ studies or set... Show moreIn this dissertation I have explored contemporary modes of displacement and citizenship in India. Rather than large-scale spectacular dislocations which are a focus of ‘refugee’ studies or set patterns of ‘voluntary’ population movement which come under the rubric of ‘migration’ studies, I am interested in low-key everyday forms of displacements which fall through these categories of understanding, are invisible, and remain undiscussed. I have explored everyday forms of displacement through Oren Yiftachel’s (2020) concept of displaceability. I draw on two case studies of two different displaced groups in Calcutta and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal: i) East Bengali dalit refugees coming from East Bengal (present day Bangladesh) to West Bengal and ii) a group of peripatetic impoverished rural people coming from the villages of Bangladesh and West Bengal to the urban agglomeration around Calcutta. The time frame of the dissertation is from the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 till the present. I have utilised the concept of displaceability to show how these groups are kept in a condition of permanent temporariness through deliberate state policies and how this erodes their citizenship. Displaceability expands understanding of displacement from an act to a systemic condition of informal urban living. In displaceable conditions actual displacements or the potential threats of it are utilised as an administrative tool to extract services from the urban poor and coerce them into participating in unequal political exchanges. My study shows that while these refugees and migrants become displaceable through state mechanisms, they negotiate this condition through their own brands of politics from below. Show less
In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in... Show moreIn this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China Seas. Between these two stages, there was a gustatory revolution energised by debates in Chinese medicine from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Through that revolution, a transformation from the world of pepper to the world of sea cucumbers took place. Show less
This dissertation is about the broadcasting of dakwah on Indonesian TV stations. It deals with the production and circulation of dakwah programmes on TV and elucidates the social and educational... Show moreThis dissertation is about the broadcasting of dakwah on Indonesian TV stations. It deals with the production and circulation of dakwah programmes on TV and elucidates the social and educational backgrounds of popular TV preachers in order to understand the rise of the programmes in post-Suharto Indonesia. Furthermore, this dissertation discusses the competition among various Muslim organisations to influence the production of dakwah programmes and the formation of religious authority through the broadcasting of dakwah programmes on TV channels. This dissertation is based on one-year ethnographic fieldwork in Jakarta, Medan, and Bali, which includes observations and interviews with the producers, preachers, and audiences of dakwah programmes, Muslim leaders, and members of Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI). This dissertation shows the important role of TV in the construction of religious authority, which becomes more fragmented in Muslim societies like in Indonesia partly because of televised dakwah. Most of the current researches on dakwah activities focus mainly on social media like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram but neglect the role of other media like TV. In fact, TV still plays an important role in daily activities of Indonesian society with its programmes. Muslims watch TV programmes such as dakwah, news, soap operas, talk and reality shows during their leisure and busy time. Muslim leaders make use of TV to disseminate their teachings and enhance their charisma among Muslim audiences. Presidential candidates and political leaders use TV stations to promote their political agendas to gain supports from the society. Show less
This micro-history of Jewish life in Roermond and Middle-Limburg is simultaneously European history. One reason for this is that in the course of time many European peoples or nations played a role... Show moreThis micro-history of Jewish life in Roermond and Middle-Limburg is simultaneously European history. One reason for this is that in the course of time many European peoples or nations played a role in Roermond and its surrounding area. Yet it is also important to note that for centuries similar processes of acceptation and distancing with respect to Jews have occurred in many places in Europe. The central question of this study is: how did the attitude of the environment, strongly determined by Christianity, affect the position and status of the Jews in Roermond and Middle Limburg, from the late Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century? Because the Middle-Limburg region has throughout the centuries been predominantly Roman-Catholic, one of the main questions in this dissertation concerns the attitude of the Catholic Church as an institution over the course of time – and not only during the years 1940-1945 –, and the concomitant attitude of the Catholic press. The developments involved necessitate to address fundamental issues such as the relation between religion and society, and its importance for the status and position of minorities. Show less
