Mission
The interdisciplinary team Policy, Politics and Society focuses on the interaction between societal challenges and institutional responses. We seek to contribute to societal and institutional responsiveness to the multiplicity of societal challenges that modern societies face, from urbanisation to migration, globalisation to polarisation and climate change to inequality. We achieve this mission by developing scientifically relevant and socially robust knowledge combining insights on the essence, origins and manifestations of many societal challenges. Simultaneously, we leverage expertise on how a wide array of institutions functions in the realms of policy, politics and society.
Research
Our team is committed to fostering research collaborations on societal challenges and institutional responses. In developing such collaborations, we strive for a constructive, open, and responsible research climate within the team and in our interaction with other EUR and non-EUR stakeholders. Our team has developed a broad network of local, national and international stakeholders that are partners in our research agenda. Our research clusters in four groups:
- European and global governance
- Institutional policy analysis
- Empirical sociology
- Governance of migration and diversity
Click on a research topic to learn more about our research:
- Migration and diversity policy
- Public service in practice
- Managing complex issues
- Implementation
- Migration and diversity (with the exception of the sub-tile on 'Racial capitalism')
- Social security and labour market
- Cities and inequality
- Urban diversity
- Vital cities and citizens
- International challenges and partnerships (all the sub-tiles are included)
Education
Our team has a broad educational portfolio, with leadership in several master programmes (Beleid en Politiek, Grootstedelijke Vraagstukken en Beleid, Governance of Migration and Diversity, International Management and Public Policy, and the online master Public Management, Governance and Policy) and strong involvement in the sociology and public administration bachelor programmes.
Our educational programmes shares an overarching thematic concern with entangling the interlinkages and feedback processes between policy, politics and society. Hence, the various programs aim to expose and introduce students to how politicians try to govern rapidly transforming societies, how policy makers try to adapt policies to tackle complex societal challenges and how international and civil society organizations actively try to spur social change and justice. Our educational programmes also share a practical concern with promoting engagement with society throughout its education. Hence, students of our programmes, learn how to interact, connect and engage with vulnerable groups in society as well as policymakers and practitioners from various policy scales (municipal, national, European, and, global). Moreover, we also influence practitioners through education by offering courses in the ESSB Academy.
Impact
The prospect of engaged scholarship is what motivates many of us to do our work in the first place. In our team, engaged scholarship is an integral aspect of teaching, research and impact. It is already a key part of many of our activities, for instance in terms of co-creating research with communities, co-designing policies with a variety of stakeholders, engaging actively in public debate, and training our students and researchers to be critical of the role that we play as scientists ourselves.