• Ashley Mears

Coming from economic, gender, and cultural sociology, I research how societies value people and things.  My current book project, called Now You See Me:  The Economy of Misdirection traces the labor and economics of the attention economy. How has attention become a prized commodity and what digital labor practices have emerged to capture it?  The book draws from four years of qualitative research, including 18 months of immersive ethnography at a content creation company and 80 interviews with content creators and managers. To date, this ethnography has produced three research articles (two co-authored with doctoral students), appearing in Social Media + Society (recipient of the ASA CITAMS Best Paper Award), Social Problems, and Work & Occupations.

• Chenchen Zho

This PhD project examines migration experiences, career development, and artmaking practices of young diasporic Chinese artists in the Netherlands and France, under the supervision of Prof. Olav Velthuis and Prof. Jeroen de Kloet. Given the growing trend of Chinese artists studying and working abroad since the early 2000s, my research explores how their transnational social and artistic experiences are shaped by politics, cultural economies, and national-state contexts in Europe and post-socialist China. Based on ethnographic research conducted with young diasporic Chinese artists in Amsterdam and Paris, this project addresses issues of artistic migration, cultural politics, transnational networks, and creative labour experiences.

• Olga Sezneva

This project explores how people and communities make sense of the past when their worlds are violently disrupted by war, forced displacement, and changing borders. In particular, it investigates how things such as everyday objects, houses, or urban spaces, carry memories and foster new belonging, and do so long after historical ruptures. COCH focuses on the transformation of Bunzlauer pottery, a ceramic tradition rooted in a German-speaking region of Schlesien, into what is now known as Bolesławiec pottery following the post-1945 territorial transfer of the region from Germany to Poland. As German ceramic producers were expelled, Polish settlers took over workshops, clay mines, and production techniques. They continued, innovated, and rebranded the craft as part of a new national heritage. Combining sociological research with film, the project engages with issues of cultural appropriation, nation-building, and material politics. This research is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), SSH Open Competition M 2024.

• Bowen Paulle

While much research has documented the direct effects of prison rehabilitation programs on participants, this project investigates the often-overlooked indirect effects. Drawing on interviews with GRIP graduates, family members, crime survivors, and correctional staff (including former wardens), the study examines how this California-based rehabilitation program affects the broader ecosystem of people connected to incarcerated individuals. Findings reveal that GRIP's benefits extend far beyond prison classrooms, producing what interviewees describe as deeply meaningful, healing effects. The research challenges conventional metrics (e.g., recidivism rates) and highlights potentially immense yet hard-to-quantify ripple effects both within and beyond prison walls.

• Gökçe Sanul Diner

This project focuses on the increasing mobility of creative professionals from urban to non-urban areas in the post-pandemic period. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with digital research methods, the HL-EXURB project examines how creative ex-urbanites connect urban, rural, and digital spaces; and how their creative, and digital practices shape non-urban areas and communities. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the project will, for the first time, develop and publish a toolkit designed to assess the cultural impacts of these communities in non-urban areas.

Developed in a participatory manner and in collaboration with academics, creative practitioners, and local authorities working in non-urban areas across Europe, it will provide both a conceptual framework and a set of indicators to support a reflective and context-sensitive understanding of the spatial and socio-cultural transformations creative ex-urbanites generate.

• Kobe de Keere

Over the last decades, the world of work has been slowly tilting on its axis, forcing many to reconsider their self-image as workers. The rise of robotics and A.I., growing experiences of mental exhaustion, and the collective Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to what is now called the “great resignation” across Western countries, indicating a broader search for alternatives to paid work. This project aims to uncover how work and post-work are being imagined in contemporary society by examining career trajectories, perceptions of job replacement, and willingness to engage in or withdraw from paid labor. It combines survey research (LISS panel), in-depth interviewing, and historical research to analyze the diverse strategies through which people imagine or pursue alternatives to paid work, shaped by social position and available resources.

The project is collaboration with dr. Josien Arts and dr. Dragana Stojmenovska has been funded by a Stimuleringsbeurs of the Dutch Government.

• Kobe de Keere

This project examines the cultural drivers underpinning the cryptocurrency market. It involves a multisited and ongoing investigation into crypto-asset valuation and market practices. Drawing on online and offline ethnographic research in the Netherlands and the UK, as well as interviews with Russian crypto holders, the research unpacks how moral and cultural beliefs intersect with technological capabilities to produce not only new markets but also the further financialization of everyday life. In addition to several academic papers and blog posts, the main output of the project is a single-authored monograph under the working title Short Circuits: Why people buy into crypto, currently under contract with Stanford University Press.

The project has been funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO, Open Competition XS grant) and the Research Priority Area Global Digital Cultures (UvA).