Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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The Media as Mirror
No full textBeauty ideals in media continue to shape how women see themselves, yet these ideals are neither fixed nor universally experienced. This thesis investigates how women from different generations experience and interpret beauty standards in media in relation to their self-image. In a media landscape increasingly driven by visual culture and digital connectivity, it is crucial to understand how generational position, life stage, and media context affect the internalization, negotiation, or rejection of dominant beauty norms. The study seeks to answer the central research question: "How do women from different generations experience and interpret beauty standards in media in relation to their self-image?" Using a qualitative, interpretative approach, the research is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 women from three generational groups: Generation Z (18-28), Millennials (29-44), and Baby Boomers (61-79). Six-phase Thematic analysis by Braun & Clarke (2012) was applied to the transcribed interviews, to help with coding, and to identify patterns across and within generational experiences. Two key themes emerged. First, exposure to beauty ideals highlighted generational differences in media use and ideal body types: younger women described algorithmically reinforced 'fit but thin' ideals shaped by platforms like Instagram and TikTok, while older participants referred more to traditional media and a slim, well-groomed ideal. Participants also noted that beauty ideals shift over time and are influenced by cultural representation. The second theme discussed how women negotiate beauty ideals. Across generations, participants reported engaging in comparison, both consciously and unconsciously, which often led to body dissatisfaction and changes in behavior. However, aging also brought greater self-acceptance: while older women expressed increased emotional distance and self-liberation, younger women were still navigating this process. The study also highlights that generational categories are fluid and socially constructed, with overlapping experiences that challenge fixed definitions of 'younger' and 'older' women. The findings show that while media beauty ideals remain influential, their impact varies by generation, shaping not only the standards themselves but how women interpret, negotiate, and challenge them in their everyday lives. Ultimately, this research offers insight into how women navigate the tension between social expectations and personal identity within an evolving media environment
Direct or Indirect
No full textRestitution has increasingly become an important discussion within the public sphere. It can be a diplomatic tool that helps reshape international relationships, a catalyst to community healing and cultural regeneration, or a simple matter of abiding by the law. Within the field of cultural heritage studies there is the idea that a moral shift has taken place, with much of this stemming from the work done by international organizations. This research focuses on the significant role of international organizations in restitution processes and attempts to understand to what extent does the involvement of an international organizations impact restitution? This is done through a qualitative comparative case study analysis, using content analysis and process tracing to answer the two key sub-questions: 1) how are international organizations involved; 2) and how does their involvement impact restitution cases. Two international organizations have been selected to represent two different levels of involvement, direct and indirect, with two examples provided for each case. UNESCO is an international organization that is directly involved with restitution through its role in establishing relevant international law, as well as creating a committee specifically devoted to such matters, the ICPRCP. This case is examined through the restitution of Cambodia's Koh Ker Statues and in the dispute between Turkey and Germany regarding the Bo?azköy Sphinx. ICOM is an international organization which is more indirectly involved as it promotes standards for parties involved in restitution and provides important tools, such as the Red Lists. This case is examined through two broader examples, the restitution movements for Nepal and Afghanistan. Through this analysis, we understand that both direct and indirect involvement can be very useful in restitution process, especially when the main parties involved are states. However, international organizations could probably do more impactful work. These organizations and their top-down approach may be outdated as there are many new key actors involved. Some of the impact of their involvement may be limited by this limitation in scope, as well as a hesitance to take a firm side on certain contexts of restitution, such as objects with a colonial or imperial related provenance. In the end, we must reaffirm that restitution is a highly complex and multifaceted topic with every example unique. This research wishes to serve as a foundation for future analysis into the questions, as the few examples used are not enough to make concrete claims
Kazakh Cinema at a Crossroads: Institutional Continuities, Market Forces, and Creative Dynamics (1991-2024)
No full textThis thesis examines how Kazakhstan's national film sector that once operated as a Soviet cultural arm has been remodelled for a market economy without abandoning its socialist scaffold. Filling a gap in the literature on post-socialist creative industries, the study asks: what continuities and discontinuities have shaped Kazakh cinema's institutional organisation between 1991 and 2024, and with what creative and economic effects? To answer this, the thesis triangulates three evidence streams: fifty-one policy documents and statutes mapping governance reform and an IMDb-derived panel of all feature-length Kazakh releases since independence, analysed with bipartite social-network methods to track 2,470 director-writer collaborations. Combining qualitative policy analysis with empirical network metrics allows the project to capture both formal rule change and informal creative practice.
Findings reveal alignment with institutional path plasticity, suggesting an incremental adaptation rather than rupture. Core Soviet bodies were seldom abolished. Instead, policy-makers layered new instruments such as cash-rebate schemes and digital tools onto existing hierarchies or tried to convert legacy entities like Kazakhfilm into hybrid public-private actors. Parallel industrial shifts evidence a pluralisation of production. Studios such as Sataifilm, Nurtas Production and Qara Studios normalised profitability, while web-native companies (Salem Entertainment) and OTT newcomers (Uni-Q/Unico Play) redirected finance and audience attention towards genre cinema and Kazakh-language streaming originals. Policy has tacitly endorsed this pivot through incentives like the Digital Content Rebate, signalling a new contest over narrative sovereignty in the platform era. Network analysis shows that the director-writer field evolved from a fragile, Kazakhfilm-centred hub in the 1990s to a segmented, polycentric web after 2014, in which generational clusters orbit loose-coupled brokers rather than a single state anchor. Yet veteran auteurs preserve status and influence, acting as a bridge between public subsidy and private capital. It confirms that institutional hierarchies still shape cultural industries.
The thesis argues that this hybrid architecture, simultaneously market-responsive and statist, explains both the resilience of Kazakh cinema and its persistent stratification. Conceptually, it extends path-plasticity theory to cultural industries and offers a mixed-methods template for examining post-Soviet creative economies. Practically, it highlights how incremental rule change, rather than wholesale privatisation, can stimulate output while preserving symbolic assets, a lesson for other small-market cinemas navigating global platform pressures
´THE INVADERS´ FEAR OF MEMORIES´: RESISTING MEMORICIDE THROUGH POETRY FROM GAZA
No full textIn poetry, artistic and political struggles are intimately tied and voiced as interventions to
dominant discourses and ideologies. In Gaza, like in other places where indigenous
communities resist settler-colonial erasure and occupation, poetry challenges and resists
memoricide, historical amnesia, colonial narratives, knowledge production and policies,
speaking truth to the occupying power. This project discusses Gaza´s poetic culture as a mode
of resistance against memoricide and historical amnesia, focusing on its outburst since
October 2023 in response to the ongoing genocide. The poetic culture, made up of its authors
and poets, translators, publishers and other collaborators in Gaza and abroad is explored
through the process of production, distribution and reception of poetry. The unwavering
courage and determination required to produce poetry during a genocide enables Palestinian
poets to resist Israel´s campaigns of dispossession, de-historicization and erasure of memory,
identity and history. Their poetry as mode of resistance against memoricide and amnesia takes
on the functions of memory, counternarrative, truth, knowledge, history, commemoration,
remembrance, witness, protest, dissent, rebellion, memory, memorial, imagination,
responsibility and liberation. With writing, reading, publishing and distributing poetry and
collaborating with Palestinian poets, the intellectual blockade is lifted, imposed information
voids are filled, relational histories are made available, vocabulary produced, and narratives
reclaimed
Ladies Not For Turning?
No full textThis master's thesis examines how gender performativity and leadership style intersect in the political careers of Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi. Through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis and Comparative Case Studies, it investigates how both leaders navigated, reinforced, or subverted gender norms within patriarchal political systems. The central research question explores how Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity and Bernard M. Bass's leadership style framework illuminate the strategic construction of executive authority. The analysis unfolds along three axes: horizontal (contextual), vertical (structural), and transversal (historical), capturing the dynamic interplay between individual agency and broader sociopolitical forces. The findings demonstrate that Gandhi and Thatcher did not simply embody gendered expectations but actively performed them, strategically adapting their leadership personas to their specific national contexts. By integrating theoretical contributions from gender studies, leadership psychology, and postcolonial historiography, this thesis offers a novel analytical synthesis and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of female leadership and the performative nature of political power
What is the impact of the volatility spillover effect of international energy market price discovery process dynamics on the stochastic volatility of major shipping freight indices?
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