Maxine Lampers
“You won’t be able to find children outdoors, it is going to be cold and wet by the time your fieldwork starts”, I was told when coming up with my research idea. Luckily, they were wrong and I found my research population at natural playground Het Woeste Westen. I researched children aged 6 to 12 when they we’re either playing by themselves at the playground, or as part of the ‘adventure club’, which was semi-organized outdoor play under supervision of educational professionals. The biggest insight this research gave me was that because of the ever-changing elements, the outdoors offers opportunities for play that are unavailable at home.
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Bio
Maxine Lampers, 29 Amsterdam: Oftentimes people talk about recovering from the trauma of graduating, which resonates with me quite well. Before I started doing this master, I was passionate about writing, photography and making film. I remember how excited I was about one of the first assignments we got during the pre-master. I wrote about the child daycare in the canal district I was working at, at the time. It was fun and it gave me energy to look at my workspace from an anthropological perspective, and it was received well by my teacher. I am happy I can call myself an anthropologist now, and excited to see how I will be evolving.