Paul Mepschen

Class, culture, and space in urban politics: Amsterdam, Berlin, and beyond

Paul Mepschen joined the AISSR in September 2008, as part of a broader project: 'Culturalization of Citizenship: Citizenship, National Canons, and the Issue of Cultural Diversity.The Netherlands in International perspective', directed by Jan Willem Duyvendak, Evelien Tonkens, and Peter Geschiere.

Paul studied anthropology, with a focus on comparative religion, at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008, he graduated (with honours) with a master thesis: Sex and the Other: Islam and homosexuality in Dutch public discourse . He is currently working on a PhD research project and teaching in the anthropology department.

His PhD-research focuses on the politics of culturalizationin local communities in Amsterdam and Berlin. (Comparative research will be done in two other Dutch cities.) Culturalization refers to the increasing importance attached to the notion of 'culture' in defining citizenship and shaping integration policy. Proponents of culturalization emphasize the problematic aspects of cultural diversity and underscore the need to construct, defend, and promote, an ‘autochthonous cultural heritage’ as a desirable alternative to non-Western cultural and religious forms.

The study focuses on articulations of class, culture and space in contemporary urban politics. Mepschen is especially interested in the narratives of and everyday politics among white, Dutch residents of these multicultural communities. While there is a fair amount of 'popular and populist' attention to this group, very little long-term, ethnographic research has been done among autochthonous citizens.

Some of Mepschen’s other interests include anthropological theory; the culture of neoliberalism; critical, Marxist, and feminist theory;gender, sexuality, and queer theory; HIV/AIDS; Orientalism; secularism;and tolerance.

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