The Emic – Anthropological stories from the field

Rahil Roodsaz is an assistant professor at the anthropology department of the University of Amsterdam. She studies gender and sexuality, particularly focusing on feminist, queer, and decolonial viewpoints. In 2023, she was awarded an NWO-Vidi grant for the project Rhythms of Love, which aims to explore how people in midlife (age 35-60) maintain long-term romantic relationships during life transitions. It seeks to understand the complexities of enduring love in the face of societal challenges like work stress, parenting, and societal pressures.

In this episode of The Emic, Roanne shares her experiences as a young anthropologist conducting fieldwork in Greenland, where she lived among Inuit hunters and fishers while studying the impacts of climate change.

Whilst living among these families, she had the opportunity to witness parents interacting with their children. The parenting styles in the community initially led her to be critical. A wise lesson from an elder, which she didn't fully grasp at the time, emphasized that the most important task of a parent is to make their child laugh. This insight resonated later when she heard a child psychologist discuss the significance of a strong emotional bond between parents and children.

Now, as a mother of a toddler herself, Roanne reflects on these lessons, highlighting the importance of connection and joy in her parenting journey. 

Sometimes, the places in which we live appear to be exotic, if we learn to look at them in a new way. Professor Klaus Hoeyer rediscovered his own country of residence, Denmark, after it had become world famous for its digital governance and digital healthcare. But why did everyone in the country disagree on whether digitization was a positive, or negative trend? And why were all the stories about the impact of big data so confusing? 

Klaus Hoeyer is professor of medical science and technology studies at the Centre for Medical STS (MeST) and the Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen. He has his background in social anthropology, African Area Studies and medical ethics, and he has worked with, e.g., research biobanking, stem cells, property issues, forensic biobanking, bone and organ transplantation, public-private partnerships, ethics regulation, EU health regulation, data-intensification and public perceptions of genetics, organ transplantation and, most recently, data politics.

Klaus also published a book on this topic "Data Paradoxen: The Politics of Intensified Data Sourcing in Contemporary Healthcare". You can read more about it or order it here. 

Beatrice Bonami is a Brazilian author, educator, social researcher, and innovator. She has extensive multi-country experience in a variety of multicultural settings, including government, educational environments, and indigenous territories. Governmental advisor, researcher and teacher, Dr. Bonami is specialist in tech decolonization, digital education, transformation, and ethics in cutting-edge innovation. Holding a Ph.D. in Education Innovation and International Development from the University of São Paulo [Brazil], University College London [United Kingdom], and Universita La Sapienza di Roma [Italy], her expertise is rooted in a global perspective. As a Youth Ambassador with UNESCO representing Latin American countries, she has actively worked with UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization [WHO]. Currently, Dr. Bonami is a teacher and Senior Researcher [Universität Tübingen], having secured research grants with the German Government and the German Research Foundation. Her ongoing project "Framework for Decolonizing Transformation in Non-Western and Southern Innovation and Technology [TnWiST]," underscores her commitment to advancing non-Western and Southern knowledge and fostering positive change in technology development and appropriation on a global scale.

Tina Harris is Associate Professor of Anthropology and a member of the Moving Matters research group at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a PhD from the City University of New York Graduate Center, and her research focuses on aviation, infrastructure, cross-border mobility, and the circulation of commodities across borders. She is the author of Geographical Diversions: Tibetan Trade, Global Transactions (University of Georgia Press, 2013), is co-Managing Editor of Roadsides journal, and is one of the main organisers of the Asian Borderlands Research Network.

Danielle went to Iran to investigate the relationship between carpetmakers and their bias but learned something completely different: how to utilize the headscarf to give secret messages to whomever she talked to.

During fieldwork in hospitals, Roanne discovers that technology is not just impacting the way in which we experience time, but also the extent to which we find waiting tolerable. 

Due to new technologies, physicians can work faster, which means they can help their patients quicker, too. But there is an important downside to these developments, that is too often overlooked.

Spanish design anthropologist Miguel Gómez Hernández went to Australia to investigate how industry experts envision the future designs of houses for the elderly. This future vision was all about safety and health, including iPads on the fridge to help people see what to eat, and no carpets or other things that create a risk of falling. But then he started visiting the houses of elderly people and found that they resisted these ideas. For them, there are different things that matter than safety and comfort, namely the joy of a colourful carpet and the need for photos where they can be seen.

Miguel is a design-anthropologist teaching and pursuing his PhD at Monash University, Australia. He is researching how older adults and the AgeTech industry envision future older people’s lives with smart-home technologies. He has also taught courses on anthropology, health humanities, usability, and design thinking. Previously, Miguel researched and developed guidelines to design mobile apps and sensors for older people, primarily in the e-health domain. His academic background is an MSc in technology-anthropology in Denmark, and a Dual BA in sociology and political science in Spain and Finland. He also lived in Russia.

How does one drink riverwater in a way that is sustainable? Not in the way a thirsty anthropologist, traveling on a steppe does. Hint: the right way involves a Mongolian God and a beautiful cup.

As a corporate anthropologist, Ludo conducts anthropological research within companies and organisations. He provides and supports trainings and learning paths within the academy. Ludo specialises in cultural issues between generations in the workplace and in creating meaning in organisations. Ludo is also involved in societal research conducted by the Guild of Polder Anthropologists. Previous research projects in his academic career were in central Uganda, Spain and western Mongolia, as well as on the Zuidas in Amsterdam and in Silicon Valley in California. 

Want to learn more about Roannes' fieldwork, see her notes, photos or drawings from the field? Then subscibe to her monthly letters at www.anthropologyofthefuture.com/the-emic

For an overview of Roanne's work, you can also visit her LinkedIN page: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/roannevanvoorst 

In this episode of the Emic, I share the lesson that was taught to me by one of the poorest people in the world. He helped me understand how I can live, and wholeheartedly enjoy, a rich life, without looking away from the suffering and poverty that so many other people live in. As I explain in the episode, this lesson still helps me on a near-daily basis, for example when I see the news from Gaza. Hope it helps you too: you can download the Emic here and listen to it whenever you have circa 10 minutes available - as always, it's best to listen when you're in a quiet spot, to appreciate the sound effects - this time, you will hear recording that I made during fieldwork in a Jakartan riverbank settlement