Amsterdam Research Seminar: Exploring Dutch Society & Culture

Center:

Amsterdam

Program(s):

Amsterdam - Study Amsterdam [1]

Discipline(s):

Research Seminar

Course code:

RE 395

Terms offered:

Fall

Spring

Credits:

Language of instruction:

English

Instructor:

Letje Lips, MA

Description:

In this course students choose, design and execute their own field project on a topic of academic and/or personal interest and by doing so chart their own course in Dutch society. As preparation for their individual explorations, students are firstly introduced to contemporary Dutch society and culture and to the historical and physical forces that shaped it. This will allow them to put their individual experiences into a broader perspective and will make them more sensitive to the community they are exposed to. Secondly, they will be introduced to some basic methodologies of qualitative research and other concepts, skills and competences that will support them in their project and in life. To trace and intensify their learning experience students keep an Intellectual Diary (ID). The ID takes Kolb’s learning cycle as a starting point and describes their activities, their observations, their analyses and conclusions.

Prerequisites:

None

Learning outcomes:

Students will have gained a general knowledge of contemporary Dutch society and culture and the historical and physical forces that shaped it.
Students will have obtained specific insights into one or more aspects of Dutch culture.
Students will have developed the ability to reflect on their own culture as well as observe the host culture in which they are living, thereby increasing their cultural sensitivity. Given the general character of the course, it is an opportunity for students to bring coherence to their study abroad experience as a whole.
Students will have developed skills that will support them in their independent field research: skilful observation, accurate reporting, cross-cultural analysis, interview techniques, and project management skills.
Students will have discovered personal authenticity as a source of intrinsic motivation, meaning, personal power, effectiveness and confidence which will support them in charting their own course after college.

Method of presentation:

Lectures, seminars, individual meeting(s), practicum, discussions, student presentations, guided field research assignments, and individual field research.

LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English

Required work and form of assessment:

• (Mandatory) class attendance and active class participation 15%
• Field Research Journal/ID 25%
• Written reflections, analyses based on readings and research 25%
• Bibliography and literature review for final research paper 10%
• Final paper & Presentation 25%
(15 pages minimum; 30 minutes presentation minimum)

Class Hours: Classes meet an average of 3 hours per week and students are expected to spend an average of 3 hours a week on their field research project.

content:

WEEK 1. INTRODUCTION
• Getting acquainted and interviewing fellow students
• Course introduction

• Lecture: Dutch society and culture - an introduction

Required reading:
• Shetter, William Z: The Netherlands in Perspective: the Dutch Way of Organizing a Society and its
Setting, Nederlandse Centrum voor Buitenlanders, Utrecht, 2nd ed. 2002, pp 139-212
Links:
• General information on the Netherlands:
http://www.minbuza.nl/en/welcome/Netherlands/general [2]
• Facts:
http://www.economist.com/countries/netherlands/ [3]
• Statistics:
http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/default.htm [4]

WEEK 2: DUTCH SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND EXCURSION
• Lecture: contemporary Dutch society and culture
• Lecture: Dutch society and culture in historical perspective (Chantal Omloo)
• Excursion: Amsterdam Historical Museum

Required Reading:
• Shetter, William Z: The Netherlands in Perspective: the Dutch Way of Organizing a Society and its
Setting, Nederlandse Centrum voor Buitenlanders, Utrecht, 2nd ed. 2002, selected chapters
• Link Dutch History: http://entoen.nu/default.aspx?lan=e [5]

WEEK 3: CHARTING YOUR OWN COURSE IN DUTCH SOCIETY
• Introduction to project management – types of projects and project phasing
• Keeping an Intellectual Diary
• Assignment: the hero’s journey
Required Readings:
• Chisholm. Linda A. ‘The Monomyth of the Hero’s Journey’ in Charting a Hero’s Journey, IPS-L Press 2000, pp. 4 and 5.
• “The Hero’s Journey” (based on Joseph Campbell’s, the Power of Myth, and articles by Reg Harris and William B. Hart)

WEEK 4: INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS
• Individual meeting with course instructor to define topic of individual field project

WEEK 5: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND LEARNING STYLES
• Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, learning styles, and implications for field research project
• Careful observation and accurate reporting.
• Group exercise: guided observations in Amsterdam in small groups and reporting back to class.
Required reading:
• Kolb, David, ‘The Process of Experiential Learning’ from Experiential Learning: Experience as the
Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall 1984.
• Haddon, Mark, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Red Fox Books, 2003, pp 208-
209

WEEK 6: PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
• Project management and the role of your essential and social self in project management
• Viewing: Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight.
• Assignment: State your primary research question and the focus of research
• Assignment: Point zero: Describe the (history) of your interest in the topic of your project, previous knowledge obtained, expectations and (possible) biases.
Required reading:

• Bryman, Alan. 2008. ‘Planning a research project and formulating research questions’ in Social
Research Methods, 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 66-79.

WEEK 7: GETTING FOCUS AND MAKING COURSE CORRECTIONS
• Sources in Qualitative Research
• Time management and energy management
• Group exercise: Mindmapping
• Assignment: submit a literature list with background reading for your project
• Assigment: Methodology: What methods do you intend to chose for your field exploration? Why have you chosen these methods? Why is this/are these appropriate methods to gather this type of information?
• Assignment: Create a timeline for completion of the project
Required reading:
• Bryman, A. (2004). Social research methods (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter
21, ‘Documents as sources of data’, pp 514-535

WEEK 8: INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES
• Interview techniques
• Interview practicum
Required reading:
• Bryman, A. (2004). Social research methods (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter
8 (‘Structured interviewing’, pp 191-213); chapter 10 (‘Asking Questions’, pp 230-251) and chapter 18 (‘Interviewing in qualitative research’, pp 436-470).
• Anderson, K, and D. Jack, “Learning to Listen; Interview Techniques and Analyses”, in: S. Gluck and D. Patai (eds), Women’s Worlds. The Feminist Practice of Oral History, (New York 1991),
pp.11-26
• Portelli, A. “What makes Oral History Different”, in: A. Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli, Form and Meaning in Oral History, (New York 1992), pp. 45-58

WEEK 9: FOCUS ON AMSTERDAM
• Lecture: introduction to Amsterdam
• Guest lecture: Amsterdam: Composition, geography, city boroughs, social issues and policies
(Frans Dubbeldam from the local government planning office)
• Guest lecture: Dutch Tolerance: Truth or Myth? (Miriyam Aouragh)

Required reading:
• Mak, Geert, (2000). Amsterdam, a Brief Life of the City, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Cambridge – selected chapters
• Buruma, Ian, Murder in Amsterdam: the Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, Atlantic Books, London, 2006, pp 1-35.
• Amsterdam Statistics: http://www.os.amsterdam.nl/english/ [6]

WEEK 10: CHARTING YOUR COURSE: STAYING ON TRACK
• Goalgetting in a Newtonian universes
• Goalgetting in a Quantum Universe
• Group exercise: visualization
• Assignment: visualization
Required reading:
• Lynn Mc Taggart, The Intention Experiment, Free Press 2007 pp xvii-xxv

WEEK 11: IDENTITY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
• Exploring the lens of the social self: identity and bias in intercultural interactions
• Positionality questions: Which of your social identities will come into play as you interview and analyze your research? What lenses are you wearing that are relevant to your project?

• Group exercise: Making your own identity circle
• Group exercise: becoming aware of your own ethnocentricity
Required Readings:
• Abram, Ido and Jenny Wesly: Knowing Me, Knowing You: Identity and Intercultural Dialogue
FORUM, Institute for Multicultural Development, 2006. pages 9 – 47
• Bryman, A. (2004). Social research methods (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter
5 ‘Ethics and politics in social research’ pp 113-135.

WEEK 12: EXCURSION RED LIGHT DISTRICT
• Excursion to the Red Light District
Required reading:
• “The Fine Art of Regulated Tolerance: Prostitution in Amsterdam”, Journal of Law and Society, volume 25, number 4, December 1998, pp 621-35.
• Marjan Wijers & Margreet de Boer, Fact sheet trafficking and prostitution, Dutch CEDAW Network
& NJCM, 22 January 2007

WEEK 13: PROJECT WRAP UP AND STUDENT PRESENTATIONS 1
• Wrapping up the project: tying up loose ends
• Student presentations 1

WEEK 14: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS 2