Mark van Ostaijen at Erasmus University Rotterdam has been awarded a Vidi grant of 850.000 euro from NWO (Dutch Research Council) for his project ‘Doing Diversity: street-level decisions in superdiverse neighbourhoods. Van Ostaijen will conduct international comparative research on the decision-making of ‘street-level workers’, such as cops, in superdiverse European cities.
Urban diversity has become one of the most challenging issues of our time. Some scholars even speak of ‘superdiversity’, especially in urban neighbourhoods. This creates challenges, especially for street-level workers such as teachers, cops, and care workers.
In this project, Van Ostaijen will investigate the institutional consequences of superdiversity, focusing on the decision-making processes of ‘street-level workers’. It will study how they legitimate decisions and compare their practices in the cities Malmö, Aarhus, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Marseille, and Bilbao. This makes this project the first major comparative study on the institutional consequences of superdiversity, which will ultimately provide insights into how urban diversity becomes translated into policy practices.
Van Ostaijen: ‘I am extremely proud that with this Vidi, we can reinforce the research agenda at the intersection of public administration and sociology. Diversity is an urgent societal issue. And dealing with diversity comes with practical challenges. This grant offers a unique opportunity to boost our team and comparatively study how diversity ‘works’. This enables to truly make a difference locally and internationally'.
Vidi grant NWO
Vidi is aimed at experienced researchers who have already done several years of successful research after their PhD. Researchers are free to submit their own topic for funding. NWO selects researchers based on the quality of the researcher, the innovative nature of the research, the expected scientific impact of the research proposal and opportunities for knowledge exploitation.
About Mark van Ostaijen
Dr Mark van Ostaijen is an associate professor at team Policy, Politics and Society of the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences and works as Managing Director of the LDE Centre Governance of Migration and Diversity (LDE GMD). He received his PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2017 for a dissertation' Worlds between words "on migration discourses, awarded as "Best PhD thesis' by the Erasmus Graduate School.
His research is positioned on the intersection of Public Administration and Sociology. Earlier, he acquired a VCC research grant 'Doing Diversity "(together with Prof Susanne Janssen), in which the ‘doing of diversity' is investigated at various Rotterdam cultural, sports and educational institutions.
In addition to numerous scientific publications, he is active as a columnist of De Volkskrant, jury chair of the Sociologische Bril, advisor of the Nacht van de Sociologie, and author of the book Wij zijn ons.
- Associate professor
- More information
Marjolein Kooistra, communicatieions ESSB, +31 683676038, kooistra@essb.eur.nl
