On January 1st, 2024, the PI launched the POPULAR project. He hired three PhDs and two Postdocs. The PI invited a co-supervisor for each PhD project; they were appointed. In the course of 2024, preparatory workshops and other training courses were offered to the PhDs and the Postdocs. We also held several workshops to discuss literature and exchange knowledge.
We attended various workshops and conferences in the Netherlands and abroad, with a special focus on anthropology, urban studies and Latin American studies. We presented papers, organized photo exhibitions, and engaged in knowledge exchange.
In 2025 the PhDs completed their research proposals and started their first period of their 12-month ethnographic fieldwork in Medellin (Colombia), Havana (Cuba), and Recife (Brazil), respectively. Shortly afterwards, both Postdocs also started their fieldwork. The PI also carried out fieldwork in Recife, and visited the other team members at their respective field sites, to supervise them and to strengthen the comparative elements of the research project. During the fieldwork, we organized regular online meetings, both with the entire team and with individual team members.
In Medellin, Colombia, the PI was invited to present the POPULAR project at the workshop “Vivienda, Estado y Bienestar - Un Conversatorio sobre el Hábitat Urbano en América Latina” at the Universidad de Antioquia. This was a very rewarding event that brought together academic and non-academic stakeholders who engaged in a knowledge exchange about housing and politics in the urban margins.
PhD1 and Postdoc1 worked together in WP1; PhD2 and Postdoc2 worked together in WP2; PhD3 and the PI worked together in WP3.
Fieldwork was successful. All team members managed to collect sufficient and very promising data. After their fieldwork, the PhDs and Postdocs spent several months at Wageningen University . The team held a ‘fresh-from-the-field’ seminar and attended other workshops and conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. All team members analysed their data, on which we also organized a workshop. The PI and co-supervisors also had meetings with each of the PhDs to discuss their work.
Part of the team participated in the paper development workshop “Housing, illegality and criminal actors”, hosted by the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peace-Building, Geneva Switzerland, to which the PI had been invited to act as a discussant. Other team members presented their work.
Most team members participated in the panel “Houses, homes and politics: Approaching shifting state-resident relations from the urban margins” at the “Shifting States” conference of the EASA AnthroState network, hosted by the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. One of the Postdocs and the PI convened this panel. We also had a workshop with other teams doing research on similar topics from the University of Amsterdam which was fruitful in terms of knowledge exchange, networking and dissemination. Finally, the PI co-organised the workshop “Infringing infrastructures: Environmental justice and inequality in the urbanising world”, together with colleagues from the University of Amsterdam.
Through our meetings and the activities mentioned above, the POPULAR team worked on the different ethnographic case studies of WP1-3 and provided input for the comparative aspects of WP4. From the outset, the dialogue with WP5 has been interwoven throughout the project.
The second fieldwork period started in January 2026.
The team currently has four publications under review and four others in preparation. The team has also worked on other forms of dissemination, such as photo exhibitions and blogs. So far, the project has been successful and has not encountered any delays or other major obstacles.
