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Enkele dagen voordat er officieel acht miljard mensen op aarde waren, organiseerden de bevolkingsorganisaties van zes Europese landen een conferentie in Brussel om te bespreken hoe best een bevolkingskrimp te realiseren. Een brede waaier aan politieke opvattingen komen terug in het bevolkingsactivisme, van gendergelijkheid en groene mobiliteit tot anti-migratie en omvolking. Deze studie onderzoekt via etnografisch veldwerk bij Vlaamse bevolkingsactivisten wat het betekent over een teveel aan mens na te denken. Wat betekent het de wereld als (over)bevolkt te begrijpen? Hiervoor wordt gewerkt met een ‘affect van teveel’. Er is een teveel aan auto’s op de baan. Een teveel aan autismediagnoses. Een teveel aan keuze in de supermarkt. Een teveel aan exponentiële curves. Het land wordt volgebouwd. Dit onbehagen met onder andere menigtes, ongelijkheid en vooruitgangsgeloof krijgt stem langs verschillende kanalen, waar bevolkingsactivisme een van uitmaakt. In de bredere maatschappij bestaat argwaan ten opzichte van de ideologie. Bevolkingsactivisten beschrijven hun ideeën vaak als een taboe. Om deze narratief te verstoren trekt deze studie parallellen met andere bewegingen. Aan het verhaal van teveel worden automobiliteit, verstedelijking, baarschaamte, euthanasie bij psychisch lijden en dergelijke meer toegevoegd, om met een bredere lens te vatten welke rol ‘teveel’ speelt in het seculiere Vlaanderen. Deze studie doet dat langs vier hoofdstukken: kennis en gevoel, ruimte en menigtes, voortplanting en schaamte, en toekomst en verbeelding. Wat vaak voorkomt in deze hoofdstukken zijn vertalingen naar een wetenschappelijke, becijferde logica. Kinderen worden de koolstofdioxide die zij zullen uitstoten. Migranten worden een klimatologische, ecologische en biologische uitdaging. Langs het perspectiefloos kijken van infographics, grafieken en kaarten doen bevolkingsactivisten aan kennisproductie. Er wordt bevraagd op welke manier in het discours overweldigende menigtes en overtollige populaties elkaar kruisen. Langs een etnografie van Vlaamse bevolkingsactivisten verlangt deze studie een zinvolle bijdrage te leveren aan de antropologie van secularisme. Met theoretisch gereedschap uit STS(Science, Technology and Society) wordt affect opnieuw ingeschreven in de kennisproductie van het bevolkingsactivisme. Dit brengt allerlei diepere inzichten over het seculiere in Vlaanderen naar het oppervlak. Het affect van teveel verbindt dualiteiten zoals objectiviteit en emotionaliteit, compassie en repressie, vooruitgangsgeloof en de Apocalyps. Deze verwikkelingen maken dat er medeplichtigheid bestaat tussen de academische structuren van de antropologie en het bevolkingsactivisme. In de woorden van Latour verzeilt elke discussie over bevolking in een strijd tussen ‘vals geloof’ en ‘echte wetenschap’. Dit kan enkel overkomen worden langs de vertaling van onderzoek naar een alternatief medium. Via speculatieve fictie ga ik op een nieuwe, meer oprechte manier een engagement aan met de bevolkingsactivisten die ik sprak en hun bredere omgeving. In ‘Eeuwige Groei’ wordt de becijferde logica van de bevolkingswetenschap gegoten in het lijf van een individu. Safiya Rich blijft maar groeien, steeds sneller. Haar vlees breidt uit in het oneindige. Langs dit absurde verhaal verlang ik een nieuwe discussie over bevolking te starten, die niet vertrekt vanuit kaarten, grafieken of infographics. De exponentiële curve wordt kunst.

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The purpose of this ethnography of space is to negotiate and reimagine an alternative social genealogy by weaving and assembling a litany of stories unfolding at Lagrange Points, a bookstore and cultural space formerly located in Marolles, Brussels. Through tracing transmigrants’ storylines and personal narratives unveiling within Lagrange Points as a social space, I craft a genealogy encompassing three theoretical notions: placemaking, liminality and homemaking. By weaving together these theoretical frameworks and transmigrants’ narratives, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in the creation and significance of social spaces such as Lagrange Points. Firstly, I utilize the notion of placemaking as an entry point to delve into Lagrange Points as a social space, observing the processes of social production and construction of space and place. Secondly, I explore the manifestation of liminality within the space, seeking to apprehend how it is experienced by transmigrants in-relation to Lagrange Points. Thirdly, I reimagine the notion of home and belonging, which is reflected in the collective practices of homemaking at Lagrange Points, particularly through acts of collective remembrance that reconstruct the space. To achieve this analysis, an engaging and collaborative method of anthropology is employed. In this research, I utilize transmigration as an analytical lens to explore the diverse trajectories of transmigrants. Each story reflects a lived history shaped by a multiplicity of diverse social relations. Tracing these social trajectories leads to a documentation of transmigrants’ narratives and stories. Through this ethnography, I imagine how these lived realities negotiate spaces, challenging conventional notions of nation-states and borders. Thus, reimagining the connection between the global, local, and transnational dimensions. The existence of these lived realities replaces static notions of center and periphery, leading to the reconstruction of social and political spaces.

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Lumad is a pan-Mindanao political category used to refer to non-Muslim Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao, southern Philippines, which emerged alongside global Indigenous movements in the 20th century (Quizon, 2012). Using a discursive approach, I attempt to outline and sketch how the concept of Lumad is constructed and negotiated within the Indigenous-Catholic “Kapawa hu Paglaum” (Light of Hope) Scholarship and Formation Program. A multicultural program that aims to have its scholars rooted in their indigenous culture－also envisioned as future leaders of their communities. Further, I explore how these articulations dialogue and interact with institutional discourses of indigeneity on the international and national level; participating in the global ecological discourse (framed as a Catholic imperative), but foregoing nationalistic discourses of “Filipino-ness”. Constructed in light of the Catholic tradition, lumad-ness is primarily articulated as a process of becoming, than simply of being, lumad. As such, the performativity of lumad-ness goes beyond the more apparent indigenous markers of language and dress, and is instead advocated as an embodiment and living out of values. These values are seen as a counter culture to the ills of modernity, and in doing so, the Kapawa program engages in normative discourses of indigeneity. Despite their seeming antagonism, especially since Catholicism’s legacies in the Philippines are entangled with colonialism, my interlocutors assert their compatibility in the alignment of their core values, via the Batasan hu Lumad, and the performance of rituals. As such, one can co-identify as lumad and Catholic simultaneously. Indigeneity thus still gains an articulation within a Catholic tradition that has been increasingly challenged and fraught.

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In Indonesia, the four-year-long war of independence or the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1949 holds a narrative of hard-earned triumph, glory, and inspiration. However, for many Indo-Dutch people among the thousands of repatriates, this revolutionary period carries stories of loss, homesickness, and trauma. For years after their immigration, their story is silenced and collectively ignored. Yet, their memories endured, giving birth to various cultural forms. Over the past three years, state recognition over the Dutch colonial past is creating impact. The goal of this thesis is to discover how Dutch postcolonial narrative is conveyed and sustained in the Indo-Dutch community. By analyzing life story interviews with five second- or third-generation Indo-Dutch individuals, this thesis explores how stories are transmitted over generations and become ingrained in cultural memory, helping postcolonial narrative to be conveyed over time. In addition, through participant observation and ethnographic accounts, the linkages of the postcolonial narrative within a broader social context in the Indo-Dutch community are examined in this thesis. The state recognition over colonial past, have led various space to open, facilitating people from the Indo-Dutch community for articulating their own narrative. Challenging the pre-existing national narrative, a reconstruction of postcolonial narrative that centres around breaking the silence was born. This ‘new’ or ‘emerging’ narrative, consisting of interwoven personal and collective memory, is carefully conveyed through art, literature, storytelling, discussions, collaborative curatorial works, and visual work such as films. The ‘new’ narrative that are embedded in these mediums are then crystallised or memorialised by museums and establishments alike. Moreover, community engagement within the broader Indo-Dutch social framework is what seals and sustains the narrative.

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Belgium, being a migration hotspot, currently has one of Europe's largest Muslim populations and nurtures demographically diverse Muslim communities. The Twelver-Shia of Belgium are one of the most major minority groups among these Muslim communities. While the community has managed to connect with believers and expand its reach (e.g. attracting converts, in Bendadi and Vandormael 2009), their minority status inevitably leads to a degree of marginalization or, in some cases, discrimination and violence, including a violent attack in 2012 (Bartunek 2012). Phenomena as such have the potential to influence how individuals feel, behave, and express their identity and sense of belonging. As a result, the (Non)Belonging: Politics of Identity among Shi’ite Women in Brussels project is not a study of Islamic philosophy, but rather a study of bodily and spiritual experiences of belonging, belief and identity among a specific group of women belonging to a rather overlooked community in the capital of Belgium. Shi'ite women in Brussels come from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and national origins, which complicates and enriches their perceptions and experiences of belonging and identity. This study, which integrates an autoethnography with an ethnographic project involving two Shi'ite spaces and five research participants, aims to bring into the spotlight how these women's belonging and identity are established, navigated, and negotiated in their experiences of living and practicing Shi'ism in Belgium, particularly in relation to migration, representation, linguistics, ethnic culture, and gender. It finds that the construction of a Belgian Shi'ite identity is inextricably tied to migration, and that representing the Belgian Shia is impossible without reference to (Belgian and international) politics and sectarian boundaries. Furthermore, membership in the (sub)community is strongly related to a member's linguistic and ethnocultural background. Last but not least, Shi'ite women in Brussels experience social and political engagement differently than their male counterparts.