Focussing on the production, distribution, deployment and consumption of biomedical knowledge and technologies; both in clinical and in everyday settings. This subprogram is conducted in close collaboration with the Centre for Social Science and Global Health (SSGH).

To develop the research field of child and youth health from an anthropological perspective, focussing on young persons as social actors and their understandings and actions concerning health and well-being.

Focussing on phenomena of crime and violence. Crime and violence are considered products of complex socio-cultural relations and scientific and medical interventions.

Comparative research is being conducted on embodied experiences, the diversity in the configurations of (dis)abled and ageing bodies and the technologies and practices affording them and in the construction of racial, sexual and gendered identities. Like the history of medicines, research on chronically ill patients, queer and gay research, studies of sexuality in relation to HIV transmission, research on trans-gender and trans-sexuality, research on crime and criminal identification and research on the biomedical production of the family.

The Horizon funded project Let’s Care aims to develop new forms of policy interventions by learning from situated care solutions and practices in underprivileged regions in eight chosen European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy (project lead) Lithuania, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands).

The project design includes twelve societal partners such as care organizations and housing initiatives. It is led by Barbara de Roit, Ca' Foscari University of Venice. The team at UvA is responsible for the ethnographic part of the project.

• Funding: Horizon Europe | Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
• Project period: April 2024 - Sept 2027

Team

This project ethnographically studies the grief of people in Brazil who lost relatives to Covid-19 and became politically active as a result. Many deaths occurred under traumatic circumstances, with families unable to care for the dying or hold funerals. Anthropologists note that the absence of a culturally recognized ‘good death’ complicates grieving, while psychiatrists warn of prolonged grief due to Covid-19.

Brazil, one of the hardest-hit countries, has seen bereavement evolve into collective political action, turning personal loss into a public issue. Using ethnographic methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study explores:

1. How do individuals and communities experience, cope with, and find meaning in loss under traumatic conditions?
2. How does grief drive political transformation and enhance agency?

At the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and political studies, this research challenges the notion of grief as passive and private. Instead, it highlights its emotional and political force, offering an innovative perspective on its role in social change.

• Funding: NWO Veni
• Project period: Feb 2024 - Jan 2028

VetValues is a comparative ethnographic study on how European livestock farming balances food security and economic viability with concerns about biodiversity loss, climate change, antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic diseases, and animal welfare.

Focusing on veterinarians, the project examines their role in navigating these competing values within animal husbandry. Through ethnographic research in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy, it explores how farmers, vets, animals, and regulatory frameworks shape the sector’s ‘value-scape.’ By comparing livestock systems and innovations, the study offers theoretical insights into human-animal relations and the challenges of food transitions.

• Funding: ERC Starting Grant
• Project period: Jan 2024 to Dec 2028

Team

As demographic, political, and social changes drive demand for transnational senior care in Europe, its sustainability remains uncertain. In the CareOrg project, we examine how care is organized across Central and Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, as sending, receiving, and transit contexts. Our research explores the formalization, professionalization, and politicization of transnational care and its impact on migrant workers, families, labor markets, and welfare states. We focus on the overlooked meso-level—intermediary agencies, informal and formal platforms, and transnational infrastructures. Engaging diverse audiences, we aim to foster more sustainable and equitable senior care in Europe.

• Funding: Volkswagen Foundation
• Project period: June 2023 to Dec 2026

Team

Showering cleans the body but pollutes water. Wastewater treatment removes some pollutants, while others enter rivers and oceans. This research examines how households and water authorities in the Netherlands manage different versions of “clean.” Authorities provide purified tap water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. Once used, it becomes wastewater, carrying organic and chemical pollutants to treatment plants. Macro-pollutants are removed to prevent algal growth, but micro-pollutants (e.g., pharmaceuticals, cleaning agents) persist, harming ecosystems. Solutions include better filtration and reducing industrial, agricultural, and household discharges.

Our fieldwork explores how households balance hygiene, aesthetics, and ecology, and how authorities address legal versus ecological cleanliness. Practically, we aim to improve coordination between households and authorities. Theoretically, we contribute to valuation studies by analyzing how different notions of "clean" are assessed, prioritized, and sometimes neglected in practice.

• Funding: NWO Open Competition SSH 
• Project period: Jan 2023 - Dec 2025

Team

Described as ‘grandmother deportation’ or ‘geriatric colonialism’, the relocation of elderly people in need of care to care homes abroad can be seen as an extreme example of the marketization and transnationalization of care. In this multi-sited ethnographic project we study this contested trend by researching care homes in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary that cater to local wealthier clients as well as seniors from Western European countries such as Germany or Switzerland. Alongside in-depth ethnographic research of daily life in care homes, we speak to care entrepreneurs, intermediary agents, and families. We research the histories of places and regional migration infrastructires to explore what care relocation does to the people and places involved and when and how histories of contested border regions become relevant.

• Funding: ERC Starting Grant
• Project period: Jan 2021 to Dec 2025

Team

Worlds of Lithium is an anthropological study that examines how the strategic replacement of fossil fuels with electric transport powered by lithium-ion batteries is taking place in Chile, the largest lithium producer worldwide, China, the world leader in lithium-ion battery production, and Norway, likely to become the world’s first ‘zero emission’ electric vehicle country.

A lot of public attention goes to the promise of electric vehicles, meaning less oil will be needed for road transport. What remains hidden, however, are the disruptive transformations of the landscapes and societies through which lithium travels. It is these transformations that researcher Cristobal Bonelli will bring into public view with his project. In doing so, he will provide an anthropological early warning to European policymakers concerned with the electrification of transport, thus encouraging a better informed discussion of the sustainability of processes currently powering unequal ‘Worlds of Lithium’.

• Funding: ERC Starting Grant
• Project period: Feb 2020 to Jan 2026

Team