Page 263 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

Acknowledgments 251
and Florence for our high five’s and coffee talks. A special thanks to Nastya. I cherish our ‘genius’ talks, whether at the VU or in an Amsterdam café. I love the way we celebrate our scattered minds, theorize about life and practice yoga in public spaces. Thank you for being my friend.
A special shout out to my fellow PhDers: almost dr. Wendy, PhD buddy, Julia, best baker and organizer, dr. Susan, design friend, Dennis, PhDer by day and rockstar by night, dr. Nick, comedian and Leiuhnaar, dr. Jochem, strategic thinker, we all started around the same time. Also a big thank you to dr. Stella, dr. Charlotte, dr. Montserrat, dr. Marlieke, dr. Katie, Jovana, Elmira, Lauren, Kathrin, Romano, Bomi and other members from the School of Busi- ness and Economics community for participating in my PhD journey.
I want to express my gratitude to all the members of my reading commi- ttee. Beth Bechky, Ruthanne Huising, Kristina Lauche, Maaike Kleins- mann and Bart van den Hooff, thank you for your willingness to play such a big role in ‘the becoming of dr. Laurey’. I am honored to have you all on board and discuss my work with you. A special thank you to Beth, whom I visited for about three months at New York University. Beth, I happily remember our meetings at your favourite New York cafes. You helped me to trust my own ethnographic skills and taught me to celebrate findings over theory (at least, at the beginning of data analysis). You are a great example to me. Also to the PhDs of the management and organization department at NYU, thank you for welcoming me and making my visiting scholarship a unique experience. Also a special thanks to Maaike, who was part of my supervising team in the very early stages of my PhD. You helped me to get into the world of design and it was refreshing to learn from your ‘insider’ perspective. It is great to have you as part of my committee now, a beautiful way to close this cycle of growth.
Fjordians and Waag-ers, your stories were fundamental to my doctoral research. Waag-ers, thank you for being so open-minded and showing me all of the great work you do. You further triggered my interest in digitali- zation, and showed me that everyone can be a ‘maker’. Fjordians, thank you for making me feel like I was one of you rather than the one studying you. It is easy to remember beginnings and endings, but thanks to all my data I can still travel back to all the moments in between. A special thanks to all the members of the ‘Pensiopoly’ team, for allowing me to work side by side you. To guarantee your anonymity I do not use your names, but I am sure that you know who I talk about. Thank you Ritxi for our talks and the amazing design of this book. Also a special thank you for Knu, Carla, Yasmina and Maxime for all the good times in Madrid. I came back not only with piles of data but also with something more valuable: friends. Finally, a huge thank you to my gatekeeper, coach and inspirator Luis. Like you said: