Amsterdam School Research Articles

Negotiating the Progressive Paradox: Middle‐Class Parents in Majority–Minority Primary Schools in Amsterdam

Across Western Europe, progressive issues take centre stage within integration debates and discourse. This article addresses the paradox middle‐class progressives get caught up in when arguing for openness towards diversity, while also expecting adaptation to the progressive “modern” norm on sexuality, especially from Muslim Others. Going beyond existing literature, this article demonstrates the understudied manifestations of this paradox in everyday life, within a diverse majority–minority primary school context in Amsterdam. Taking sex education as a case, the authors reveal three different approaches—confrontational, continued discussion, and compromise—with which middle‐class parents without a migration background negotiate difference, each emphasizing different aspects of the paradox. The results show how, despite being a local numerical minority, progressive parents still enact their power position at large arguing for (gradual) adaptation to “modernity.” However, some parents provide solutions to difference that move away from consensus and envision a future that allows for multiple norms to exist.

Fashion as a cultural analysis object

I reflect upon working on diverse fashion(-related) cases in the context of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. Drawing on Mieke Bal’s understanding of cultural analysis (characterized by interdisciplinarity, among others), I refer to some fashion and material objects I have looked at (e.g. a contemporary video by a Dutch designer, a wardrobe-suitcase of 1919 or the pandemic mask), while insisting on considering them as theoretical objects through the practice of clothes-reading. Rather than establishing programmatic grids to study fashion, I share my observations and interrogations on working with and through fashion. What follows resembles an ongoing inventory of my fashion interests, aspirations and inspirations as well as choices and doubts that altogether echo the performative gesture of research.

The effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns on motor skill development of 6- and 7-year old children in the Netherlands: a longitudinal study

BackgroundThe closing of schools and sports clubs during the COVID-19 lockdown raised questions about the possible impact on children’s motor skill development. Therefore, we compared motor skill development over a one-year period among four different cohorts of primary school children of which two experienced no lockdowns during the study period (control cohorts) and two cohorts experienced one or two lockdowns during the study period (lockdown cohorts).MethodsA total of 992 children from 9 primary schools in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) participated in this study (age 5 – 7; 47.5% boys, 52.5% girls). Their motor skill competence was assessed twice, first in grade 3 (T1) and thereafter in grade 4 (T2). Children in control group 1 and lockdown group 1 were assessed a third time after two years (T3). Motor skill competence was assessed using the 4-Skills Test, which includes 4 components of motor skill: jumping force (locomotion), jumping coordination (coordination), bouncing ball (object control) and standing still (stability). Mixed factorial ANOVA’s were used to analyse our data.ResultsNo significant differences in motor skill development over the study period between the lockdown groups and control groups (p > 0.05) were found, but a difference was found between the two lockdown groups: lockdown group 2 developed significantly better than lockdown group 1 (p = 0.008). While socioeconomic status was an effect modifier, sex and motor ability did not modify the effects of the lockdowns.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 lockdowns in the Netherlands did not negatively affect motor skill development of young children in our study. Due to the complexity of the factors related to the pandemic lockdowns and the dynamic systems involved in motor skill development of children, caution must be taken with drawing general conclusions. Therefore, children’s motor skill development should be closely monitored in the upcoming years and attention should be paid to individual differences.

The Effects of the Jump-In Whole-School Intervention on the Weight Development of Children in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This study assessed the effects of the "Jump-in" whole-school intervention in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on children's weight development by comparing children exposed to the intervention and controls from 3 other large Dutch cities. Jump-in is a comprehensive intervention that aims to stimulate healthy nutrition and physical activity in children at primary schools in Amsterdam. In addition, the relationship between the intervention's implementation degree and its effectiveness was studied. Demographic and anthropometric data, collected by youth health care professionals via routine health checks at T0 (2014) and T1 (2019), were used to analyze possible intervention effects by comparing the weight development of children exposed to the Jump-in intervention versus unexposed controls. Implementation logs from health promotion professionals were used to determine intervention effects per implementation degree. Multilevel regression analyses were used for all analyses. In total, 4299 children were included mean age ± 5.5 years (T0), 10.6 years (T1), and ≈50% boys/girls at both times. Receiving the fully implemented intervention resulted in a decline in standardized body-mass index (zBMI) compared to the controls (-0.23, confidence interval [CI] -0.33, -0.13). It also led to higher odds to move into a healthier weight category over time (odds ratio [OR] 1.36, CI 1.06, 1.74), yet no statistically significant shift towards a healthy weight was found. Relative to the controls, children exposed to the intervention showed positive zBMI developments, with stronger effects when the implementation degree was higher. Despite positive results, creating more impact might require the further integration of school-based programs into whole-systems approaches that include other energy-balance behaviors.

Exhibition Review: Anne Imhof: YOUTH

Review| March 01 2023 Exhibition Review: Anne Imhof: YOUTH Anne Imhof: YOUTH. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands. October 1, 2022–January 29, 2023. Meital Raz Meital Raz Meital Raz is an art critic, curator, and a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, where she concentrates on exhibition research. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2023) 50 (1): 49–54. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2023.50.1.49 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Meital Raz; Exhibition Review: Anne Imhof: YOUTH. Afterimage 1 March 2023; 50 (1): 49–54. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2023.50.1.49 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search Visiting Anne Imhof’s exhibition YOUTH is a bewildering experience. On the one hand, it triggers a disturbing and disorienting feeling, and on the other hand, it evokes a peculiar sense of at-homeness. I have been here before, I know my way around here—this thought comes to mind while meandering through the 1,100-meter square labyrinth Imhof had built in the basement gallery of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, a space that usually houses the museum’s permanent collection. This fundamental tension between the feeling of home and the feeling of estrangement is at the heart of the labyrinthine exhibition, a genre that has its roots in the 1930s Surrealist shows and that reached its apex in Europe in the 1960s. Historically, the labyrinthine exhibition marked the transition from the traditional exhibitionary format of visual display toward dynamic and participatory forms. The visitor in the labyrinthine exhibition is not just a passive spectator... You do not currently have access to this content.

Characterizing Elite Scholars of Library and Information Science: A Bibliometric Analysis

Publication metrics have become crucial to measure the productivity and impact of individuals and organizations for highlighting their influence upon the knowledge world. This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of the top two percent highly cited Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers in the Stanford University list of the top two percent researchers of various disciplines published in 2021. We have used the bibliometric method to analyze 254 highly cited LIS researchers. The findings show male dominance and female underrepresentation in LIS research. Leydesdorff, Loet is the most highly cited researcher of the LIS field. The Amsterdam School of Communications Research, Netherlands, is the most highly cited organization of LIS based on the highly cited researchers affiliated with it. The majority of LIS researchers belong to USA and UK. There is a meager contribution of Asian, Australian, and African countries producing highly cited LIS researchers. Highly cited LIS researchers are more familiar with publishing research in information retrieval, information seeking, and bibliometrics. Positions of researchers at different ranks by different measures depict their productivity, impact, h- index, and a composite score. A strong correlation exists between total publications and total citations. The study, in its nature, is unique and will provide an insight for young and emerging researchers for selection of research direction, persons for research collaboration, and a motivation to invest more efforts for impactful research.

Transnational Rivalries and Left Politics: An Amsterdam School Perspective on Turkey's “Ergenekon” Trials

The Ergenekon trials were among the most controversial issues in the recent political history of Turkey. It is still worth reconsidering the liberal, nationalist, and socialist-left circles' variegated responses to the subject matter. The first two were doomed to fail since each attached itself to one side of the intra-state struggles. Although the socialist left's approach was enlightening in many ways, there is a significant shortcoming in its theoretical references to explain the inherent transnational rivalries. An alternative research agenda offered by the Amsterdam School could enrich its conceptual toolkit in more comprehensive ways. To evaluate this potentiality, we need to engage in two conceptual problems regarding the theory: 1) Could the concept of state-class be helpful to analyze the political economy of Turkey's Ergenekon trials? 2) Could any key social/class force be distinguished to shed light upon the transnational aspect of the process?

Bricks as arguments

Abstract This study applies Leo Groarke’s (2019) ART approach and KC (Key Component) table method to social housing buildings designed by a significant Dutch architectural movement during the early twentieth century – the so-called Amsterdam School. Unlike members of other contemporary architectural movements, architects of the Amsterdam School seldom wrote about their theories or beliefs, leaving very little evidence about their feelings and attitudes apart from the architectural forms they constructed. The expressive designs of Amsterdam School social housing buildings Het Schip and De Dageraad present promising opportunities for theoretical reflection on architecture as a form of embodied visual and multimodal argumentation (‘bricks as arguments’), however, other theoretical tools may be necessary to supplement the ART approach in order to fashion a critical method capable of apprehending the full scope of argumentation in the complex and rich Dutch polylogue.

Renaturing the city: Factors contributing to upscaling green schoolyards in Amsterdam and The Hague

To increase urban climate resilience, the renaturing of cities plays an important role. One strategy is the greening of schoolyards to increase climate resilience and bring additional benefits such as nature education and a healthy environment. While these are small projects, they could make a significant impact if they can be upscaled. With the intent of identifying the local barriers to the upscaling of green schoolyards, this research applies an upscaling framework to analyze and compare two initiatives that incentivize the greening of schoolyards by providing funds to local schools in Amsterdam and The Hague. There is not one barrier but a combination that seems to prevent upscaling, so it is a combination of factors that prevents the successful up-taking of green schoolyards: lack of environmental awareness, difficulties in acquiring monetary funds, lack of time and expertise from the demand-side, complexity of the bureaucratic processes, and lack of political will.

Local context and immigrant bureaucratic incorporation: insights from Amsterdam and New York City

ABSTRACT This article explains how bureaucratic inertia and resistance to accommodating immigrants were overcome in Amsterdam and New York City. Scholarship on ‘immigrant bureaucratic incorporation’ is based largely on research conducted in U.S. suburban and rural areas and tends to highlight the importance of bureaucrats’ professional ethos – at times amplified by inclusive state and federal policies. Building on this work, our examination of Amsterdam school policies and New York City language access policies underscores instead the importance of local political and civic context in explaining why and how bureaucracies responded to the needs of immigrant communities in these established gateway cities. While Amsterdam and New York City bureaucrats initially resisted accommodating immigrants’ needs largely due to big-government inertia, their interactions, synergies, and conflicts with other local governmental and nongovernmental actors active on immigrant issues eventually resulted in more inclusive school and language access policies and practices.

Gramsci in Amsterdam: a critique and re-appraisal of the Neo-Gramscian transnationalism

ABSTRACT The so-called Amsterdam School has been a pioneer in developing a theoretical framework for the transnational class dimension of the hegemonic world orders based on Gramscian core concepts and motives. Surprisingly, however, a dedicated analysis and assessment of the use of Gramsci’s key concepts by the School of Amsterdam still lack in the available literature, including the most recent comprehensive reviews. This contribution thus aims at adding a missing piece in the mosaic of the Neo-Gramscian approaches. As it is maintained here, a lacking conceptualization of the relationships between political power and transnational class agency constitutes the main shortfall in the Amsterdam School’s approach. A critical engagement with the Prison Notebooks’ hegemonic theory is thus needed to recast the Neo-Gramscian conceptualization of the transnational and to overcome the dichotomy between the globalization and inter-State approaches, by resolving the main theoretical flaws of the Amsterdam School theorization.

The Healthy Supermarket Coach: Effects of a Nutrition Peer-Education Intervention in Dutch Supermarkets Involving Adolescents With a Lower Education Level.

Supermarkets located near schools influence adolescents' food consumption. The aims of this study were (1) to measure dietary behaviors during school hours, (2) to investigate the effect of a nutrition peer-education intervention in supermarkets within walking distance to secondary schools on nutritional knowledge and attitudes toward healthy eating, and (3) to assess how the intervention was appraised by adolescents with a lower education level. The participants were adolescents aged 12 to 14 years from four secondary schools in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (n = 432). Cross-sectional analyses were performed to establish dietary behaviors (pretest). A quasi-experimental pre-post design with a comparison school was used (n = 3 intervention, n = 1 comparison). Intervention schools received the intervention in a supermarket near their school. The comparison school received no intervention. The appraisal of the intervention was assessed in the intervention schools (posttest). Most of the adolescents who purchased foods from retail food outlets near the school (71.1%) did so from supermarkets (88.6%). The nutritional knowledge scores (β = 0.69, 95% CI [0.23, 1.15], p = .003) as well as the attitudes toward healthy eating (β = 0.17, 95% CI [0.04, 0.29], p = .009) of adolescents from the intervention schools were statistically significantly higher after the intervention, relative to the comparison school. Nutrition peer education in supermarkets can improve nutritional knowledge and attitudes toward healthy eating among adolescents with a lower education. Future research on the short- and long-term effects of nutrition peer education on food purchases and dietary intake of adolescents is needed.

On the Importance of Questioning Within the Ideal Model of Critical Discussion

Both questions as abstract objects and the speech acts, here called requests, by which we ask them play an enormous role in all argumentative practices. Nonetheless, there is hardly a proper systematic treatment of questions and requests in current argumentation theories. This paper is a first attempt at providing such a systematic treatment. This is achieved by following the ideal model of a critical discussion as elaborated over the years by the Amsterdam school of pragma-dialectics. After introducing the distinction between questions and requests, the paper sets forth and illustrates the norms of questioning which implicitly underlie the four stages of a critical discussion in the standard order: confrontation, opening, argumentation, and conclusion. Among other things, it is shown that crucial insights of pragma-dialectics are illuminated by the questioning perspective, in particular the distinction between single and multiple differences of opinion, the duties of the antagonist and protagonist roles, the precise character of the argumentation stage, and the different ways in which a disagreement can be resolved.

Remembering Thomas Elsaesser and Peter Wollen

Late in 2019 film studies lost two of its founding members that help define the field as a discipline with their work in the last 50 years. Thomas Elsaesser was one of the founding members of the editorial board of CINEJ Cinema Journal. His contribution to the study of German Cinema, founding of Amsterdam School of Cultural Studies and training of countless PhD students in the field will be a long-lasting legacy for this giant figure of cinema and media studies. Peter Wollen will be remembered for his Signs and Meaning in the Cinema and as the father of structuralism in film studies. Along with his partner Laura Mulvey he will also be remembered as a pioneering experimental media producer.

Using Admission Lotteries to Estimate Heterogeneous Effects of Elite Schools

This paper studies the effects of enrollment in an elite school on students’ achievement. We use that elite schools in Amsterdam are often oversubscribed and admission is based on lotteries. Our results show that elite schools have negative effects on achievement of students who just qualify for the highest academic track and positive effects on achievement of students from the top of the baseline ability distribution. These results reconcile contrasting findings from previous studies that use regression discontinuity designs. We also find that value-added estimates of the effects of elite schools are severely biased.

‘Ik ben een beunhaas in de criminologie’

In this article Tom Daems and René van Swaaningen discuss work and life of the late Dutch historian Pieter Spierenburg. The article is based on an interview the authors conducted with Spierenburg in November 2018 as well as his published work and excerpts of an unpublished biography. The article discusses in particular themes related to his interest in, and contributions to, the history of crime and punishment, in particular Spierenburg’s path-breaking book The Spectacle of Suffering (1984), his relation to Norbert Elias and the Amsterdam School and his critique of Michel Foucault.

The Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study: how important is physical activity in youth for later health? (ELS 33).

Three important results came from the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study (AGAHLS). This study followed three birth cohorts (1962, 1963 and 1964) of boys and girls in the Amsterdam region in the Netherlands. The follow-up period was 25 years, with 10 measurements from age 12 to 42 years. The main purpose of the AGAHLS was to detect changes in health and lifestyle over time during the teenage and young adult period. In total, 617 subjects were recruited from two secondary schools in Amsterdam and Purmerend. We measured aerobic fitness (VO2 peak), bone mineral density (BMD), obesity from body mass index (BMI) and body fatness from the sum of four skinfolds (S4S). Daily physical activity (DPA) was measured from heart rate, pedometers and an interview. Daily food intake (DFI) was measured by a cross-check dietary history interview. Longitudinal data analyses revealed that: (1) aerobic fitness, as measured by direct measurement of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), increased more significantly in the physically active percentile (P > 75) of males and females than in the physically inactive percentile (P < 25), (2) BMD, as measured with dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in the wrist, hip and lumbar region, showed that physical activity in youth with a high mechanical load on the bones (mostly weight bearing) increased bone formation in the hip and lumbar region of males and females in adulthood, (3) the longitudinal relationship between DPA and DFI with the development of overweight and obesity (measured from BMI and S4S) showed that more DPA resulted in significantly lower fat mass, but no relationship could be demonstrated with DFI . The main conclusion from this 25-year longitudinal research is that the promotion of physical activity (including physical education and sport) in adolescence can potentially be a strong tool to prevent chronic diseases and reduce healthcare costs later in life.

Corporate Communication. A guide to theory &amp; practice

The book that is to be present has been written by the professor Joep Cornelissen in Corporate Communication at the VU University in Amsterdam and Leeds University Business School, as well as Visiting professor at the IE Business School in Madrid and the University of Southern Denmark. Among the book, the author summarise what his studies have through in Corporate Communication, both theoretic and practices aspects, focusing in students of Communication that wants to develop their careers in this area or professionals that look for a knowledge refresh or in those that are looking for some inspiration in the practice examples provided in this book for their future projects. The study is divided in 5 different parts.

Sociodemographic differences in 10-year time trends of emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents attending secondary schools in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Societal change in western societies may impact emotional and behavioural problems of adolescents. Firm epidemiological evidence of changes in emotional and behavioural problems during the last decade is lacking. Insight into secular changes in emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents from various sociodemographic groups is crucial for adequate and targeted policy making. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine 10-year time trends in emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents, and potential differences in time trends between sociodemographic groups. Analyses were based on annually repeated cross-sectional data including 56,159 multi-ethnic students (13–14 years old) in the second year of various levels of secondary education in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, using the internationally validated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. In general, emotional and behavioural problems increased over a 10-year time period (i.e., relative increase of total difficulties by 19%). This increase was mainly due to an increase in hyperactivity/inattention problems, while peer-relationship problems decreased. Time trends differed somewhat by sex: total difficulties and emotional problems increased in girls but remained fairly stable in boys. In Amsterdam, emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents seemingly increased over time, especially hyperactivity/inattention problems. Further research is needed to clarify the underlying causes. We cannot totally exclude potential confounders underlying our findings. Our findings can inform policies to target health programs at sociodemographic groups at increased risk.

Bilderberg Group and Transnational Capitalist Class: Recent Trends in Global Elite Club as Vindication of neo-Marxism

As a contribution to several social sciences, this paper focuses on significant, but under-researched Bilderberg Group as a prominent private network, which serves for annual meeting and coordinating of the Euro-Atlantic elites. The article extends the current knowledge by investigating the last seven Bilderberg conferences from 2010 to 2016. Based on fresh data from new official Bilderberg website, the study provides both quantitative and qualitative insights into the composition of recent Bilderberg attendees as well as into the topics discussed. These empirical findings are explained as validation of neo-Marxist theory of the transnational capitalist class as advanced by critical sociologists and members of the Amsterdam school of International Relations.