By Luisa Schneider and Maaike Matelski – The world keeps accelerating. Our tasks become more complex, we are expected to do more things more quickly, with new techologies speeding things up further. In this context, one of the core skills of anthropology becomes particularly valuable: taking the time to actually get to know the people we work with. To listen, but also to hear what people are saying and how they experience the worlds they live and work in.
On 2 June 2026, our department organized the annual symposium Why the World Needs Anthropologists, this time focusing on stakeholder relations in the broadest sense. First, we reflected on our societal role as anthropologists in the contemporary world.
Our speakers noted that anthropologists are everywhere, from commercial contexts to bottom-up initiatives. It is not so much their work field that stands out but their capacity to listen, analyse and build bridges between cultures and communities. Anthropologists take the time to question assumptions, including their own. Of course, this does not mean that every anthropologist always needs to conduct long-term ethnographic fieldwork. It can also mean looking closely at communication patterns within a company. It can mean creating processes through which the experiences of people whose voices normally do not make it into the decision-making room can become part of the conversation.
Because anthropologists are good at listening and want to avoid speaking on behalf of others, this sometimes hinders their ability to bring across their insights publicly. The speakers reinterated that anthropologists should engage more in public debates. By getting to know topics and people from the ground up, anthropologists can help counter polarization and the spread of overly generic, superficial yet appealing interpretations. Anthropologists ask what is actually happening, for whom, under which circumstances, and why. This allows us to get closer to the crux of problems and, potentially, to their root causes. That capacity is needed far beyond universities.
Anthropologists are sometimes depicted as people who go “out there” because they like the adventure of it, because they are curious about other worlds or excited by difference. There may be some of that, of course. But when we look at our students and the paths they take after their studies, something else becomes visible. They go out there because they have identified something that needs attention. A social issue. A lack of communication or understanding. A perspective that is missing from the room.
Our symposium shows how our alumni devote their working lives contributing to the understanding of societal issues – through research, journalism or activism, with companies, NGOs, or governmental organizations. This is where our relation with societal stakeholders comes in, something our program has been building up through the Professional Anthropology Track of the Masters and several other courses. Below we share some of our alumni’s personal and professional experiences as conveyed in the symposium.
Rayn Ramkishun works as a researcher for VU Medical Center (Vumc), and has continued his earlier work as a barber and contributor to talk shows on second generation migrant men in Amsterdam. Through his 16 years of experience as a barber in New West, he knows how to listen to his customers but also how to pitch his contribution as an anthropologist in lay language. He explained that a good relationship with stakeholders is built on trust. Like a good friendship, you don’t always need to agree, but different views and opinions can be discussed openly. Rayn also emphasized that anthropologists do not always need to write what stakeholders want: “You tell me your story, I am responsible for its interpretation.” He also shared some of the difficulties he faced when securing his first formal job after graduation, how his applications did not yield much results until he approached a program leader at VUmc with unsollicited advice on how to conduct their research on health and migrant populations – convincing them of the need to hire an anthropologist.
Mara Voss and Reginald Stefan Houndjago of Amsterdam Can Collective described how they managed to influence public opinion about can collectors by lobbying journalists and policy makers. They tried to create a new narrative whereby people who handle waste are not perceived as dirty, but can have a meaningful contribution to recycling and provide input for policies on waste management. The union for can collectors gave them pride in their work and a bargaining position. Mara, alumna of our Master program, was an active contributor to the establishment of the collective.
Sofie Croonenberg of Stichting Vluchteling and Karlijn van Donkelaar, alumna of our Professional Anthropology Track, described their collaboration to analyse the impact of the new migration pact on its European partners working with people on the move. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Greece, they found that the impact of this ‘new’ policy had actually been palpable in the field before the formal enforcement of the migration pact. Karlijn developed a toolkit for successful advocacy efforts by local partners, and also contributed to a voting tool before the European elections.
We also heard from current students working with the Prostitution Information Center in Amsterdam and with female entrepreneurs from Sudan in Uganda, who shared some of their challenges and opportunities while working in the field. These students have now finished their theses, and are graduating soon. Meanwhile, we have welcomed a new batch of students in the Master Social and Cultural Anthropology, many of which will explore new stakeholder collaborations in the coming year. We wish them best of luck and look forward to learning from their experiences once they return!
Luisa Schneider and Maaike Matelski work at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.