Projects
Culture of spectacle. An interdisciplinary platform for historical research into film, theatre, dans and music performances. University of Antwerp
Politicians on the market? Framing French consumerism in an age of regime change (Paris, c. 1780 - c. 1870) University of Antwerp
The rise of mass consumption in Belgium (1945-1989): the social and political construction of affluence. Ghent University
This project highlights mass consumption in the Keynesian welfare state as the outcome of negotiations. Three types of social movements are investigated: the Association des Consommateurs, the co-operative movement and new social movements such as Anders Gaan Leven. By looking at institutional structures, discourses and actions, these intermediaries between citizen and state are put in a new perspective, thereby re-evaluating the first era of ...
The impact of the administration mode on the physiological effects of SCFA. KU Leuven
Fermented foods are widely consumed in Europe and across the globe because of their sensory characteristics, cultural value and – especially in the past few decades – nutritional and perceived health benefits. However, knowledge on the impact of food fermentation on human health and mechanisms behind such impact is limited. In this project, we will focus on short chain fatty acid production as a potential mechanisms by which fermented foods ...
Displays of Desire: Imagineering Consumption in Comedies of the Low Countries (1650-1725) Ghent University
Displays of Desire aims to gain insight into how early modern Dutch comedies represent the idea of consumption and desire through theatrical imagination. Doing so, the project not only highlights the importance of a neglected genre in Dutch literary historiography, but it also aims to contribute to scholarly fields that stress the importance of desire and imagination in early modern consumption culture, without, however, paying much attention ...
Cinema Located. A study on place, space and social experience of cinema in Ghent (1982-2012) Ghent University
The multiplex celebrated its 30th anniversary, yet very little empirical research has been done on the place, space and experience of cinema culture since its emergence (Hanson, 2007; Klinger, 2006; Acland, 2003). The workings of Hollywood, cross-cultural reception and the Americanisation of the cinema culture in non-American domains have been subject to many critiques (Krämer, 2011; Trumpbour, 2002; Vasey, 1997; Thompson, 1985; Guback, ...
En Ecoutant du Schumann. Aesthetic Space and Interiority in Fin-de-siècle Brussels. KU Leuven
Circles such as Les XX and La Libre Esthétique showed that the consumption of art and music in fin de siècle Belgium was a distinctively private matter, often situated in the domestic and private spaces of bourgeois society, like homes or art studios. Yet, tastes were also part of a swiftly industrializing, modern public space. In this paradoxical context, and precisely because of it, art and music, like the hybrid domestic environment in ...
The Social Life of Early Netherlandish Painting Ghent University
This project aims to identify the social networks in which Early Netherlandish Painting originated and circulated in c. 1400-1550. Scholars all agree that the frequent commissioning and purchase of paintings by well-to-do individuals was a distinctive characteristic of Early Netherlandish Painting, but there is no consensus on the position of those consumers in relation to factors such as urbanization, elite formation, or state building. ...