Erasmus University Thesis Repository
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Sleeping Beauty
No full textIn times of economic uncertainty and a need for alternative investment possibilities, art as an asset class is garnering more attention. This thesis evaluates whether art is a yielding investment, and in what way art functions as a hedge or safe haven. The Dutch auction market is assessed by a unique dataset of over 7300 auction transactions from the Venduehuis in The Hague from 2018 to 2024. Through a hedonic pricing model price determinants are identified, and an art price index is constructed. This index is compared with the AEX index to evaluate the performance of art as a financial asset.
The results show that certain characteristics, such as a signature, a mention in literature, the artist's reputation and certain materials, significantly increase the hammer prices at auction. The comparison with the AEX shows that art does not produce a significantly higher or lower yield, nor does it have anti cyclical or protective capabilities. Subgroup analyses confirm this for separate genres, materials and reputation categories.
These findings suggest that though art can have objectively valuable characteristics for investors, as an asset class it has limited predictability and risk control. This thesis contributes to the academic debate by empirically analyzing the structural dynamics of price formation in the Dutch art market and offers valuable insights to both art investors and auction houses
Never Let Vinyl Down Again
No full textVinyl is back - or rather, has been back. And nostalgia is not the only reason for it. Since 2006, the sales of the vinyl records have been growing globally, which led to the creation of the term - the vinyl revival. One might think this a rather odd phenomenon to take place in the age of digital music, which provides higher convenience with more affordable prices than ever before in the history. Vinyl records, with their fragility, higher prices and technical requirements seem to request the most effort from the consumers, yet it is this specific format that endures its resurgence. Therefore, consumers do not long for any type of physicality, but this specific one, that is more demanding.
Consumers clearly care about vinyl records. Vinyl records can be said to carry a special cultural status, which might make it difficult to think of these objects as a part of a bigger strategy of the music industry. Moreover, the comeback of vinyl records into the market would not be possible if it was not for the industry that has decided to supply them.
Therefore, this thesis attempts to explore how vinyl records are imbued with strategic thinking of record labels - major and independent. By means of quantitative content analysis, this research uses a sample of 400 vinyl releases from 2009 and 2023, sourced from Discogs, and explores how often various features of vinyl records occur and which ones are more to be linked with majors and independents.
The findings suggest that major labels comply with the expectations and theory - they follow mass appeal and a commercial logic when designing their releases. Independent labels, however, do not show one shared strategic approach, apart from one unexpected element - coloured records, which might be linked to their tight connections with their niche markets, that have their own aesthetic conventions shaping what releases look like
War Belongs in a Museum
No full textThis thesis explores how visitors to World War II museums in the Netherlands experience and interact with the cultural memory of World War II. This research applies Jan Assmann's concept of cultural memory to explore the experience of visitors to World War II museums. Today, 80 years after the war has ended, there are ever fewer people alive who can tell firsthand stories of World War II. This makes examining how communicative memory is shifting into cultural memory more relevant than ever. The research took place at three different World War II museums in the Netherlands. At these locations, a total of 22 rounds of intervening participant observation were done. This meant conducting a mix of observations and discussions with the participants while walking through the museum. From these museum visits, several themes came up in relation to the visitor experience and the concept of cultural memory. At first, it became clear for what reasons people visited the museums. The next theme showed in what ways the museum was experienced, mostly unrelated to the concept of cultural memory. Visitors experience the museum both through emotions and through learning, with historical empathy and historical Verstehung as the deepest form of understanding. After this, the museum was explained as a space of relatability. The experience in a museum is highly dependent on what a visitor can relate to. This can occur in a multitude of ways, but it was found to be a significant aspect of the experience. Lastly, the findings suggest that personal stories, meaning communicative memory, are still an important part of the experience of cultural memory. Even while most of the visitors were not alive during the war, personal connections were an overarching aspect of the experience for most visitors. This challenges the understanding of the concept of cultural memory, because the binary, successive approach to communicative and cultural memory might be more fluid than proposed in the literature
The Dutch Rights of Nature Movement (2018-2025): A Historical Analysis of A Normative Transformation of Dutch Human-Nature Relationships from 2018 to Present
No full textGlobally, Rights of Nature is proposed and implemented as a potential innovative tool of biodiversity governance to curb the global biodiversity crisis. Inspired by the global movement, the Dutch Rights of Nature (RoN) movement aspires the similar goal. Analysing the pre-implementation phase of the Dutch Rights of Nature (RoN) movement, no implementation has occurred as of yet but the Dutch RoN discourse does substantially influence Dutch human-nature relations. Analysing the discourses of the Rights of the Scheldts (RoS), Rights of the North Sea (RoNo) and Rights of the Wadden Sea (RoW), the overall Dutch RoN discourse influences such human-nature relations in the Netherlands in four predominant ways, I argue. First, the discourse generally paves the way and contributes to the gradual normalisation of ecocentrism. Enabled by promoting and normalising both ecocentric thought and by ecocentric governance through RoN. Second, the discourse makes Dutch society aware of the historic and contemporary harmful role of anthropocentrism in the respective natural areas on a societal and institutional level. Third, because of the novelty of both RoN and the idea of ecocentrism, normative resistance is evident. Mainly in the discourse of the Scheldts and the Wadden Sea, where the resistance is similarly prevalent on both an institutional and societal level. Deeply entrenched anthropocentric logic, culture and systems are at the backbone of this, I argue. Moreover, the democratic and cultural value of consensus-building in Dutch governance is argued to additionally hinder in Wadden Sea governance. Last, the discourse promotes and proposes the institutionalisation of RoN to enforce and integrate more harmonious and ecocentric human-nature relations in the respective natural areas. Across the Dutch RoN discourse, legal personhood and adhering human guardianship are the main RoN form proposed to do so
Personalized politics
No full textSocial media platforms have become central to modern political communication, allowing politicians to create carefully managed personal brands. Instagram enables candidates to construct visual identities that highlight leadership traits, values, and personal narratives. Despite the increasing prominence of these visual strategies, there remains limited comparative research examining how politicians with contrasting political identities use Instagram for personalization strategies.
This thesis investigates the visual branding strategies of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump during the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign. Specifically, it explores the similarities and differences in their political branding on Instagram and identifies the factors that explain the variety. The central research question is: What are the similarities and differences in how Kamala Harris and Donald Trump construct their political brands on Instagram, and what explains this variety?
A qualitative visual content analysis was conducted on 400 Instagram posts, 200 from each case. Images were coded according to five main themes derived from the literature and inductive analysis. This thematic approach enabled a nuanced, in-depth comparison of the candidates' visual branding.
The findings reveal significant differences. Harris's visual branding emphasizes privatization, emotional warmth, and inclusive representations of supporters, youth, and minority communities. In contrast, Trump's visual branding relies on formal leadership cues, crowd scenes, patriotic symbolism, and traditional power elements. These contrasts reflect deeper ideological orientations and target audiences, suggesting that visual strategies serve to communicate distinct political identities.
In conclusion, this study demonstrates that visual branding on Instagram is highly personalized and shaped by political context, ideology, and voter expectations. It underscores the strategic role of visual communication in campaigns and contributes to a deeper understanding of personalized political branding in the digital age
Pathways to the Contemporary Art Field: Latin American Visual Artists Gaining Legitimacy in the United Kingdom (1990-2024)
No full textThis dissertation examines how Latin American visual artists have gained legitimacy within the contemporary art field in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1990 to 2024. Drawing on historical analysis, museum records, and 18 semi-structured interviews with visual artists and art professionals in the UK, it investigates the role of actors in the art field (mediators and intermediaries) as well as the personal strategies adopted by visual artists to build up legitimacy.
The findings reveal that Latin American visual artists have gained legitimacy in the UK through a dual process that combines external validation with individual agency. Mediators, such as curators, academics and public institutions, provide symbolic capital, facilitate access to professional networks, and offer mentorship and institutional support. Intermediaries, including galleries, art fairs and dealers, enable market access, collector outreach and increased exposure. Alongside these actors, artists mobilize their own resources by pursuing postgraduate education, cultivating strategic networks, and applying to open calls for residencies, grants and awards. The study also highlights how identity can be both a resource and a constraint, shaped by institutional and market expectations. Ultimately, this research contributes to the historiography of Latin American art in the UK and to wider debates on legitimacy in globalized art contexts
Planting Seeds in Concrete
No full textIn a time of compounding crises, cultural organizations are not sufficiently exploiting their transformative potentials when it comes to sustainability. Scholars call for an integration of cultural sustainability into sustainable development frameworks but leave cultural organizations to figure out how on their own. Seeking to contribute to the discussion on how organizations and policy may approach an integration of cultural sustainability ambitions, this thesis looks at what is currently being done by asking: How do cultural centres in Luxembourg articulate their values around sustainability and implement them in their organization? Using an adaptation of the Value-Based-Approach this study investigates two of Luxembourg's pluri-disciplinary art centres: Rotondes in Luxembourg City and Kulturfabirk (Kufa) in Esch-sur-Alzette. These spaces have their roots in community, but their policy-historical backgrounds are rather different: one having emerged from grassroots counterculture, the other from top-down cultural policy. Using semi-structured interviews with staff members from both organizations, this study aims to investigate how sustainability values are articulated and realized, and how the policy context may influence this. Building on Hawkes' four-pillar model of sustainable development, cultural centres manifest themselves not simply as implementors of sustainability values, but as active laboratories where these values are created and contested. Findings suggest a correlation between policy context and an organization's approach to value realization: an outside-in projection of values for Rotondes, the policy project, which becomes a platform for others to communicate sustainability, and on the other hand an inside-out projection of values for Kulturfabrik, the bottoms-up organization, that is more so a steward of its historically embedded values. This thesis seeks to contribute to cultural economics by offering an analysis of how value-driven institutions navigate tensions between autonomy, impact, and sustainability, especially in the Luxembourgish context where culture is well supported, and funding is relatively generous stable
Reimagining female agency: Cinematic representations in the post-#MeToo era
No full textThe #MeToo movement, which gained almost global significance in 2017 following widespread
revelations of sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood, marked an important cultural shift in how
gendered power dynamics are understood and challenged in contemporary society. As cinema both
reflects and shapes cultural norms, this thesis explores how female agency is represented in films
released in the aftermath of #MeToo, examining whether such representations have evolved in response
to feminist discourse or continue to reproduce traditional gender norms under a new guise. The main
research question guiding this study is: How is female agency represented in contemporary films, both
mainstream and independent, released in the post-#MeToo era? To explore this, the thesis applies a
qualitative thematic analysis on three critically acclaimed films that center female protagonists: Barbie
(2023), Poor Things (2023), and The Worst Person in the World (2021). These films were selected to
capture a range of production contexts, genres, and narrative styles, providing a diverse dataset to
explore the evolving cinematic portrayal of women's autonomy.
Grounded in feminist theory, gaze theory, and postfeminist media critique, the analysis explores
how female characters are framed in terms of autonomy, decision-making, and personal transformation,
how their actions are received and negotiated, and whether these portrayals align with individualistic
postfeminist narratives or more collective visions of empowerment. The movies and their transcripts are
analyzed using Atlas.ti to identify recurring themes related to agency. The findings reveal two dominant
themes: (1) Female agency as a threat to patriarchal society that needs to be controlled, and (2) Female
agency as a personal journey of self-discovery. While all three films center female protagonists with
complex inner lives, the study finds that portrayals of agency remain entangled in tensions between
empowerment and control. Even when women appear autonomous, their choices are frequently
constrained by social expectations, power dynamics, or neoliberal ideals of self-management. Ultimately,
the thesis concludes that while the post-#MeToo era suggests some shifts in cinematic representations,
mainstream and independent cinema continue to negotiate feminist values within a postfeminist
framework that rather limits the importance of collective action. This study contributes to ongoing
debates about gender representation in media and the transformative potential of the representation of
feminist movements within cultural production
From Match to Mute
No full textGhosting, the abrupt termination of romantic relationship without explanation, has
become a common yet underexplored phenomenon in online dating. As dating applications
increasingly influence interpersonal relationships, understanding the social and psychological
factors that lead to ghosting is becoming increasingly important. This study investigates the
differences in ghosting intentions and attitudes throughout five stages of online dating
interactions (after initial contact, sustained conversations, first offline meeting,
sexual intimacy, and during an established relationship), and how these patterns relate to
personality traits associated with the Dark Triad: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and
Psychopathy.
A survey performed online (N = 154) targeted young individuals aged 18-35, mainly
from Europe. Participants evaluated five context-specific vignettes, each depicting a distinct
phase of romantic development, and assessed the probability and acceptability of ghosting in
each scenario. They also administered the Short Dark Triad (SD3) measure to evaluate their
levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
Research demonstrates that ghosting becomes markedly less acceptable and less
probable as relational intimacy escalates. Individuals exhibiting elevated levels of
Machiavellianism and psychopathy were more prone to ghosting, especially in initial
interactions. Narcissism had a more consistent correlation with increased tolerance of
ghosting over various stages. Gender analysis indicated that males exhibited more intents to
ghost than females across multiple circumstances.
This study enhances the literature by situating ghosting within several phases of
dating app interactions and correlating it with enduring personality features. The findings
highlight the necessity of comprehending ghosting not merely as a social behavior, but as a
psychological and contextual phenomenon influenced by personality traits and technology
capabilities
