Nina de Bakker
An ethnographic field study in Amsterdam Southeast on how a neighbourhood and its active citizens and organisations strive to reduce health inequalities while dealing with sustainable transitions
Athena Institute, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Supervisors: Dr. Evelien de Hoop (co-promotor), Dr. Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (promotor), Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Broerse (promotor)
Background
Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Occupational Therapy, HvA (2009 – 2013)
Worked as an Occupational Therapist within neurorehabilitation, Reade, WzH, OLVG, AMC
(2013 – 2020)
Premaster & Master in Social Policy and Public Health, UU (2020 – 2022)
Thesis Premaster: ‘A neglected perspective: Consequences of negative attitudes
towards refugees on labour market participation in the Netherlands.’
Thesis Master: ‘Post-Empowerment: A qualitative fieldwork study in the Indische
buurt of Amsterdam on how active people within the community shape their neighbourhood
after the Empowered Neighbourhoods Program finished.’
Research Assistant Capability Study, RadboudUMC (2020-2022)
Young Innovators Program, UU (2021 – 2022)
Content
Within this study I look at neighbourhood initiatives and active citizens in Amsterdam Southeast in order to see how they strive to reduce health inequalities whiledealing with sustainable transitions. This study takes an ethnographic approach with participation as a base. I will look at how what such initiatives do from the inside, what they stand for and propagate and what this means for the neighbourhood itself. Also, what problems do they encounter and how do they move forward within the field. Furthermore I am interested in how such initiatives do (not) work together and what it means if certain (dominant) ideas get or take space. Lastly, I will also take a look at power relations and how those active people and organisations within the neighbourhood interact and work together with powerful players (such as the council, government or other big organisations ‘coming in from outside’ the neighbourhood). Thus, this study looks from three different angles, 1) a micro perspective (what grassroot initiatives and active citizens do in their neighbourhood), 2) a meso perspective (how those initiatives and citizens work and move together in the neighbourhood), 3) a macro perspective (what power relations are at play and what does this mean for the neighbourhood).
