Lidewyde Berckmoes
Biographic Data
| ID | 170951 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lidewyde Berckmoes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lidewyde |
| FAMILY NAME | Berckmoes |
| SIGNATURE | BERCKMOES L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6378-6504 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Displacement as a Cultural Repertoire for Resilience in Chronic Crisis, in Burundi
Prior to a new outbreak of violence in Burundi in 2015, more than 10000 Burundians had already crossed borders in search of refuge. The anticipatory displacement signalled the need to rethink displacement as contextualised in the country's long history of conflict and decline. In this article I take a life course perspective based on longitudinal ethnographic research. I show that displacement has become deeply entangled with other forms of mobil…
Multifaceted Crises and Family Disintegration in the Far North of Cameroon
This study analyzes displaced families’ disintegration amidst multifaceted crises in the Far North Region of Cameroon. The focus is on displaced families in four divisions where host communities along the border of Nigeria have fled Boko Haram, due to sociopolitical instability and environmental degradation. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses show how insecurity and precarity have resulted in disintegrating, dispersing and sometimes recom…
Conflict Continuities: Africa in Focus
It is tempting to interpret the eruption of armed violence in various parts of the world as a break with the past. However, in this special section, we call for attention to “conflict continuities” to understand contemporary violence. Challenging the conventional focus on causes or consequences, we argue that past violent conflict may serve to generate new conflict, in reworked forms. We foreground the psychosocial dynamics of conflict, particula…
Domestic Pedagogies of Peace and Conflict in Rwandan and Banyamulenge Refugee Communities in Rwanda
This article investigates domestic pedagogies of peace and conflict, as teaching and learning about violence in families affected by genocide and war may contribute to how ordinary people break cycles of conflict or enable its continuities. We draw on focused ethnographic research with two communities affected by genocide and violence: Rwandans and Banyamulenge refugees living in Rwanda. We found distinct patterns in respective communities, with …
Our Children Are Dead”: Past and Anticipated Adversity Shaping Caregiving and Cultural Reproduction among Banyamulenge Refugee Families in Rwanda
It is well known that experiences of extreme adversity strongly impact caregiving and family dynamics. In this study, we explore how caregiving is shaped by experiences of war and displacement among a community experiencing protracted, ongoing conflict and displacement, namely, Congolese Banyamulenge refugee families in Rwanda. The findings are based on six months of ethnographic team research with Banyamulenge refugee families living in semi-urb…
Young protesters’ ambivalence about violence in the 2015 crisis in Burundi: Local legacies of conflict and generational change
April 2015, Burundi. What started as peaceful demonstrations against another term of president Nkurunziza, quickly turned into violent confrontations between mostly young male civilians and government forces. The demonstrations signalled the beginning of a new political crisis after a decade of peace. In this paper, we draw on eye-witness accounts of civilians to understand the escalation of violence. We argue that legacies of conflict informed t…
Making ‘The Process’: Sexual Vulnerability and Burundian Refugee Boys and Young Men’s Strategies for Onward Migration from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda
Based on ethnographic research among Burundian refugee boys and young men in Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda, we explore how boys and young men in the camp, guided by the longing for a better life, aspire for onward migration and develop strategies based on their knowledge of relevant legal frameworks. Given that onward migration under the UNHCR framework is possible for only the most ‘vulnerable’, we highlight the negotiation strategies ad…
Pursuing futures through children: Crisis, social reproduction, and transformation in Burundi’s transnational families
Based on multisited fieldwork in Kigali, Rwanda, Belgium, and the Netherlands following the political crisis in Burundi in 2015, we explore decisions and plans for the future among Burundians in exile. In this way, we contribute to research about future making and social reproduction in families in a transnational social field affected by crisis. Adding to the literature, we show the specific effects of crisis on transnational families’ practices…
Charlie Hebdo as a critical event in a secondary school: Muslim students' complex positioning in relation to the attack
This paper examines responses to the 2015 terror attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, amongst students in a secondary school in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany. The Charlie Hebdo attack occurred in the final weeks of a 19-month ethnographic study in the community. By analyzing the responses in the school to this critical event, we identify what is at stake for Muslim students. Students presented many explanations for why the attack happ…
Violence and Vulnerability: Children’s Strategies and the Logic of Violence in Burundi
This study explores how children in conflict‐affected Burundi deal with violence in their everyday lives. Focusing on schools as a context in which children are prepared for further roles in society, child‐centred, qualitative and mixed‐methods research was conducted at 36 primary schools throughout Burundi. Findings reveal that children use a variety of strategies to deal with violence they encounter. These strategies reflect a learned ‘logic of…
Reticent Digital Diasporas in Times of Crisis: The Shifting Emotion Work of the Burundian Diaspora
Based on fieldwork amongst Burundians in Rwanda, the Netherlands and Belgium, this article explores how information circulates transnationally in times of political and violent crisis and how ordinary members of the diaspora seek to manage these flows of information. Our main argument is that conflict in the homeland creates a massive flow of information across various digital platforms and that while members of the diaspora eagerly take part in …
Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy
Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana's democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds…
Health, Youth, and Adolescence
Most societies recognize youth, especially adolescents, as transitioning between childhood and adulthood, though boundaries are contested within and across cultures. The anthropology of youth and health flourishes in the domains of sexuality and reproductive health and rights, violence, mental health, and bodily practices. Health‐related social sciences tend to study young people in a framework of liminality: as vulnerable, susceptible to behavio…
Resilience among Nigerian transnational parents in the Netherlands: A Strength-Based Approach to Migration and Transnational Parenting
In this article, we adopt a strength-based approach to transnational parenting. Recent studies have shown that not all transnational parents have a negative sense of well-being. Here, we explore parental resilience over a lifespan to understand how mothers and fathers alleviate the strain of spatial separation from their children. Having established from a quantitative study on the same group that neither men nor women necessarily suffer emotiona…
Intergenerational transmission of violence and resilience in conflict-affected Burundi: A qualitative study of why some children thrive despite duress
In conflict-affected socio-ecological environments, caregiving can impact children's functioning and their role in reproducing violence. Interventions that support caregivers in positive caregiving are promising for breaking cyclical violence
How Legacies of Genocide Are Transmitted in the Family Environment: A Qualitative Study of Two Generations in Rwanda
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and its aftermath led to large-scale individual traumatization, disruption of family structures, shifts in gender roles, and tensions in communities, which are all ongoing. Previous research around the world has demonstrated the transgenerational effects of mass violence on individuals, families and communities. In Rwanda, in light of recurrent episodes of violence in the past, attention to the potent…
(Re)producing Ambiguity and Contradictions in Enduring and Looming Crisis in Burundi
This article explores how (young) people devise action in the context of ambiguity and uncertainty in the aftermath of war in Burundi. The focus is on purposeful action in different periods of crisis. In Burundi, enduring crisis has given way to a range of practices that are geared at embracing rather than ridding ambiguity and uncertainty - such as preparing for alternative trajectories simultaneously or acting in a provisional way. In situation…
Youth, Farming and Precarity in Rural Burundi
Youth, Farming and Precarity in Rural Burundi
Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy
Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana's democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds…
(Re)producing Ambiguity and Contradictions in Enduring and Looming Crisis in Burundi
This article explores how (young) people devise action in the context of ambiguity and uncertainty in the aftermath of war in Burundi. The focus is on purposeful action in different periods of crisis. In Burundi, enduring crisis has given way to a range of practices that are geared at embracing rather than ridding ambiguity and uncertainty - such as preparing for alternative trajectories simultaneously or acting in a provisional way. In situation…
Resilience among Nigerian transnational parents in the Netherlands: A Strength-Based Approach to Migration and Transnational Parenting
In this article, we adopt a strength-based approach to transnational parenting. Recent studies have shown that not all transnational parents have a negative sense of well-being. Here, we explore parental resilience over a lifespan to understand how mothers and fathers alleviate the strain of spatial separation from their children. Having established from a quantitative study on the same group that neither men nor women necessarily suffer emotiona…
Making ‘The Process’: Sexual Vulnerability and Burundian Refugee Boys and Young Men’s Strategies for Onward Migration from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda
Based on ethnographic research among Burundian refugee boys and young men in Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda, we explore how boys and young men in the camp, guided by the longing for a better life, aspire for onward migration and develop strategies based on their knowledge of relevant legal frameworks. Given that onward migration under the UNHCR framework is possible for only the most ‘vulnerable’, we highlight the negotiation strategies ad…
How Legacies of Genocide Are Transmitted in the Family Environment: A Qualitative Study of Two Generations in Rwanda
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and its aftermath led to large-scale individual traumatization, disruption of family structures, shifts in gender roles, and tensions in communities, which are all ongoing. Previous research around the world has demonstrated the transgenerational effects of mass violence on individuals, families and communities. In Rwanda, in light of recurrent episodes of violence in the past, attention to the potent…
Our Children Are Dead”: Past and Anticipated Adversity Shaping Caregiving and Cultural Reproduction among Banyamulenge Refugee Families in Rwanda
It is well known that experiences of extreme adversity strongly impact caregiving and family dynamics. In this study, we explore how caregiving is shaped by experiences of war and displacement among a community experiencing protracted, ongoing conflict and displacement, namely, Congolese Banyamulenge refugee families in Rwanda. The findings are based on six months of ethnographic team research with Banyamulenge refugee families living in semi-urb…
Pursuing futures through children: Crisis, social reproduction, and transformation in Burundi’s transnational families
Based on multisited fieldwork in Kigali, Rwanda, Belgium, and the Netherlands following the political crisis in Burundi in 2015, we explore decisions and plans for the future among Burundians in exile. In this way, we contribute to research about future making and social reproduction in families in a transnational social field affected by crisis. Adding to the literature, we show the specific effects of crisis on transnational families’ practices…
Charlie Hebdo as a critical event in a secondary school: Muslim students' complex positioning in relation to the attack
This paper examines responses to the 2015 terror attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, amongst students in a secondary school in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany. The Charlie Hebdo attack occurred in the final weeks of a 19-month ethnographic study in the community. By analyzing the responses in the school to this critical event, we identify what is at stake for Muslim students. Students presented many explanations for why the attack happ…
Reticent Digital Diasporas in Times of Crisis: The Shifting Emotion Work of the Burundian Diaspora
Based on fieldwork amongst Burundians in Rwanda, the Netherlands and Belgium, this article explores how information circulates transnationally in times of political and violent crisis and how ordinary members of the diaspora seek to manage these flows of information. Our main argument is that conflict in the homeland creates a massive flow of information across various digital platforms and that while members of the diaspora eagerly take part in …
Youth, Farming and Precarity in Rural Burundi
Intergenerational transmission of violence and resilience in conflict-affected Burundi: A qualitative study of why some children thrive despite duress
In conflict-affected socio-ecological environments, caregiving can impact children's functioning and their role in reproducing violence. Interventions that support caregivers in positive caregiving are promising for breaking cyclical violence
How Legacies of Genocide Are Transmitted in the Family Environment: A Qualitative Study of Two Generations in Rwanda
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and its aftermath led to large-scale individual traumatization, disruption of family structures, shifts in gender roles, and tensions in communities, which are all ongoing. Previous research around the world has demonstrated the transgenerational effects of mass violence on individuals, families and communities. In Rwanda, in light of recurrent episodes of violence in the past, attention to the potent…
(Re)producing Ambiguity and Contradictions in Enduring and Looming Crisis in Burundi
This article explores how (young) people devise action in the context of ambiguity and uncertainty in the aftermath of war in Burundi. The focus is on purposeful action in different periods of crisis. In Burundi, enduring crisis has given way to a range of practices that are geared at embracing rather than ridding ambiguity and uncertainty - such as preparing for alternative trajectories simultaneously or acting in a provisional way. In situation…
Health, Youth, and Adolescence
Most societies recognize youth, especially adolescents, as transitioning between childhood and adulthood, though boundaries are contested within and across cultures. The anthropology of youth and health flourishes in the domains of sexuality and reproductive health and rights, violence, mental health, and bodily practices. Health‐related social sciences tend to study young people in a framework of liminality: as vulnerable, susceptible to behavio…
Resilience among Nigerian transnational parents in the Netherlands: A Strength-Based Approach to Migration and Transnational Parenting
In this article, we adopt a strength-based approach to transnational parenting. Recent studies have shown that not all transnational parents have a negative sense of well-being. Here, we explore parental resilience over a lifespan to understand how mothers and fathers alleviate the strain of spatial separation from their children. Having established from a quantitative study on the same group that neither men nor women necessarily suffer emotiona…
Violence and Vulnerability: Children’s Strategies and the Logic of Violence in Burundi
This study explores how children in conflict‐affected Burundi deal with violence in their everyday lives. Focusing on schools as a context in which children are prepared for further roles in society, child‐centred, qualitative and mixed‐methods research was conducted at 36 primary schools throughout Burundi. Findings reveal that children use a variety of strategies to deal with violence they encounter. These strategies reflect a learned ‘logic of…
Reticent Digital Diasporas in Times of Crisis: The Shifting Emotion Work of the Burundian Diaspora
Based on fieldwork amongst Burundians in Rwanda, the Netherlands and Belgium, this article explores how information circulates transnationally in times of political and violent crisis and how ordinary members of the diaspora seek to manage these flows of information. Our main argument is that conflict in the homeland creates a massive flow of information across various digital platforms and that while members of the diaspora eagerly take part in …
Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy
Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana's democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds…
Pursuing futures through children: Crisis, social reproduction, and transformation in Burundi’s transnational families
Based on multisited fieldwork in Kigali, Rwanda, Belgium, and the Netherlands following the political crisis in Burundi in 2015, we explore decisions and plans for the future among Burundians in exile. In this way, we contribute to research about future making and social reproduction in families in a transnational social field affected by crisis. Adding to the literature, we show the specific effects of crisis on transnational families’ practices…
Charlie Hebdo as a critical event in a secondary school: Muslim students' complex positioning in relation to the attack
This paper examines responses to the 2015 terror attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, amongst students in a secondary school in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany. The Charlie Hebdo attack occurred in the final weeks of a 19-month ethnographic study in the community. By analyzing the responses in the school to this critical event, we identify what is at stake for Muslim students. Students presented many explanations for why the attack happ…
Making ‘The Process’: Sexual Vulnerability and Burundian Refugee Boys and Young Men’s Strategies for Onward Migration from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda
Based on ethnographic research among Burundian refugee boys and young men in Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda, we explore how boys and young men in the camp, guided by the longing for a better life, aspire for onward migration and develop strategies based on their knowledge of relevant legal frameworks. Given that onward migration under the UNHCR framework is possible for only the most ‘vulnerable’, we highlight the negotiation strategies ad…
Young protesters’ ambivalence about violence in the 2015 crisis in Burundi: Local legacies of conflict and generational change
April 2015, Burundi. What started as peaceful demonstrations against another term of president Nkurunziza, quickly turned into violent confrontations between mostly young male civilians and government forces. The demonstrations signalled the beginning of a new political crisis after a decade of peace. In this paper, we draw on eye-witness accounts of civilians to understand the escalation of violence. We argue that legacies of conflict informed t…
Our Children Are Dead”: Past and Anticipated Adversity Shaping Caregiving and Cultural Reproduction among Banyamulenge Refugee Families in Rwanda
It is well known that experiences of extreme adversity strongly impact caregiving and family dynamics. In this study, we explore how caregiving is shaped by experiences of war and displacement among a community experiencing protracted, ongoing conflict and displacement, namely, Congolese Banyamulenge refugee families in Rwanda. The findings are based on six months of ethnographic team research with Banyamulenge refugee families living in semi-urb…
Multifaceted Crises and Family Disintegration in the Far North of Cameroon
This study analyzes displaced families’ disintegration amidst multifaceted crises in the Far North Region of Cameroon. The focus is on displaced families in four divisions where host communities along the border of Nigeria have fled Boko Haram, due to sociopolitical instability and environmental degradation. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses show how insecurity and precarity have resulted in disintegrating, dispersing and sometimes recom…
Conflict Continuities: Africa in Focus
It is tempting to interpret the eruption of armed violence in various parts of the world as a break with the past. However, in this special section, we call for attention to “conflict continuities” to understand contemporary violence. Challenging the conventional focus on causes or consequences, we argue that past violent conflict may serve to generate new conflict, in reworked forms. We foreground the psychosocial dynamics of conflict, particula…
Domestic Pedagogies of Peace and Conflict in Rwandan and Banyamulenge Refugee Communities in Rwanda
This article investigates domestic pedagogies of peace and conflict, as teaching and learning about violence in families affected by genocide and war may contribute to how ordinary people break cycles of conflict or enable its continuities. We draw on focused ethnographic research with two communities affected by genocide and violence: Rwandans and Banyamulenge refugees living in Rwanda. We found distinct patterns in respective communities, with …
Displacement as a Cultural Repertoire for Resilience in Chronic Crisis, in Burundi
Prior to a new outbreak of violence in Burundi in 2015, more than 10000 Burundians had already crossed borders in search of refuge. The anticipatory displacement signalled the need to rethink displacement as contextualised in the country's long history of conflict and decline. In this article I take a life course perspective based on longitudinal ethnographic research. I show that displacement has become deeply entangled with other forms of mobil…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Biology (4 works)