Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the sub sequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the heart of Dutch youth culture. It explores Rob van Ginkel looks at the Ouwe Sunderklaas festival on the island of Texel. While Van Ginkel objects to the notion of identities being constructed, in the newly reclaimed land investigated by Albert van der Zeijden, bricolage and eclecticism were very much what the literal invention of a new regional identity was about. Hilje van der Horst explains how Turkish-Dutch families cherish their own notions of tradition and modernity, how through discourse and such dwelling practices as sitting, eating and sleeping they appropriate understandings of tradition and modernity in their own lives. The book explains Theo Meder on Dutch crop circle tales, takes a similar stance, but investigating the tales as exempla, as narrative testimonies to a spiritual truth, he includes insights from more recent research.