The Emic - Anthropological lessons from the field Roanne van Voorst, PhD. Dr. Anthropologist

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. 

Why don't police officers report each other to their managers, even in cases of misconduct or behavior that deserves to be reported? That was one of the research questions that Dr. Danielle Braun began her fieldwork with. For a long time, she conducted research within the Dutch police force: she rode along in their cars during shifts, hung around the office, and went out with them after receiving a report of a major fight in a bar. And during that intervention, she learned something, or rather, felt something, that answered her research question. Listen to her story to find out what that was!
 
Dr. Danielle Braun is a corporate anthropologist, speaker, Director of the Academy for Organizational Culture, and author of popular books on anthropology (including Corporate Tribe, Building Tribes, Tribal Office Behavior, Patterns, and That's Crazy). She studied cultural anthropology and then spent 25 years as a corporate executive. Nowadays, Danielle still travels the world in search of ways to learn lessons on leadership and organizational culture, which she enjoys passing on to organizations and boards. At the Academy for Organizational Culture, she and her team help organizations improve and become more inspired, and provide courses. https://academievoororganisatiecultuur.nl/
 
For more information about Roanne: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com 
 
If you want to receive additional photos from the field, personal drawings and behind-the-screens information accompanying the episodes of The Emic, subscribe to Roanne's free newsletter: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com/the-emic

In this episode, Roanne talks about her research among mountaineers and rock climbers. She struggled immensely with vertigo when trying to learn climbing, but these people seemed to be immune to it. It didn't come from a denial of the risk, nor from naivety, she quickly noticed - many of the athletes she spoke to experienced serious accidents or lost colleagues and friends to the sport. One of them - the world-renowned Edurne Pasaban, who inspired this episode, lost 14 people in the mountains herself, and she almost died as well. Yet she continues to climb. During an interview with Edurne, Roanne tries to understand how she does it without being overwhelmed by fear, the conversation takes a surprising turn, and Roanne learns a lesson that will not only help her climb better but also help her in her work and remain calm under high pressure. Listen here to the story, or order Roanne's interview collection FEAR! which includes the full story about Edurne Pasaban, as well as interviews with the other athletes from Roanne's research: Fear!, Roanne van Voorst | 9781628654363 | Boeken | bol
 
For more information about Roanne: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com 
 
If you want to receive additional photos from the field, personal drawings and behind-the-screens information accompanying the episodes of The Emic, subscribe to Roanne's free newsletter: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com/the-emic

In this episode, anthropologist Oskar Verkaaik describes his research on the designs and interiors of mosques in the Netherlands. He shares how he aimed to understand why mosques almost always look more or less the same, both inside and out - at least, that's what he had read in literature and what many designers had told him. According to them, a mosque should resemble a reminder of the country of origin of its visitors. There seemed to be some truth in that, until an imam made him realize a completely different function of the appearance of a mosque. Listen here to the story of Dr. Oskar Verkaaik.
 
Oskar Verkaaik teaches anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on a range of topics, including ethnic-religious politics in Pakistan, secularism and cultural citizenship in the Netherlands, contemporary religious architecture, and heritage breeds in the context of sustainable dairy-farming. He is currently working on invasive species politics. 
 
For more information about Roanne: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com 
 
If you want to receive additional photos from the field, personal drawings and behind-the-screens information accompanying the episodes of The Emic, subscribe to Roanne's free newsletter: www.anthropologyofthefuture.com/the-emic

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