Within the School of Social Sciences research is conducted towards disciplinary as well as multidisciplinary complex societal issues. The research projects that are featured in the showcase illustrate the wide variety of topics that our scholars deal with.
More information about our department’s scholars, such as their most recent publications, can be found in the new VU Research Portal. Do you have a specific question and are you looking for an expert? Contact our press office.
The knowledge hub focuses on the ingredients and mechanisms to keep the differences in society manageable --security-- and with which a society can anticipate and respond to the rapidly changing social reality and problems--resilience.
As a result of alarming signals from the organisation of the (voluntary)fire brigade, the SMV asked the VU to look into the work experience of fire brigade volunteers within the context of a changing organization and society. Six students have interviewed 56 fire brigade volunteers at six fire stations. This resulted in the report ‘A solid basis. The reality and work experience of fire brigade volunteers in the Netherlands’ by Ronald van Steden, Mauro Boelens, Anthonie Drenth and Leonore van den Ende.
Several young people in the Netherlands are confronted with sick relatives, such as a sick parent, brother or sister, or friend. Among them is a group that combines their caregiving duties with following a study programme. Little is known about this group of students, who they are and what consequences the combination of studying and caregiving can have.
The factsheet “Health- and study results from caregiving students” that is published today focuses on this group of people and provides insight into the possible consequences in terms of health and study. It is a collaborative project between VU, SCP and the Bureau Studentenartsen Amsterdam. This research is conducted in the context of ‘Expertiselab Young Informal Caregivers’ that is part of the Startimpuls JOIN (Young people in a resilient society. Towards new arrangements for inclusivity and participation).
For more information about the factsheet or the project contact Ingrid van Tienen or Alice de Boer.
A functional feeling of insecurity (about watchfulness and routine precaution among GVB travellers and tools for improvement) is an advice study carried out on behalf of the GVB by Safety expert Remco Spithoven with the cooperation of researchers Sarah Ebrahem and Niels Kok.
The feeling of safety plays an important part in the general appreciation of travellers. To optimize this feeling among GVB travellers, the transport company from Amsterdam wants to put in as much staff and means as necessary. This in-depth study examines influences on GVB passengers' safety feelings and the possibilities to influence this feeling positively.
In the advice report, psychological and behavioural processes concerning the perception of safety are discussed by means of literature and respondent research. In the explanatory statistics, it became especially clear that feelings of unsafety in Amsterdam's public transport system are mainly based on risk estimates in combination with the risk sensitivity of GVB passengers. Thus, the perception of unsafety found by the researchers among GVB passengers comes down to a functional feeling of unsafety: a functional concern about the potential threat of crime that motivates vigilance and routine care.
Thus, the research shows that the feelings of insecurity felt by GVB passengers are far from being dysfunctional fears that negatively affect the quality of life. With these findings, the researchers make a number of recommendations, including the deployment of visible GVB staff at locations and times where there is a need.
Who cares for those who care? Better support for informal caregivers is a report of a pilot study about caregivers support which was published in March 2018 with contributions of SSC researchers Bianca Suanet (Sociology), Marieke van Wieringen (Organization Sciences), Alice de Boer (Sociology and the Social and Cultural Planbureau), Bianca Beersma (Organization Sciences) and Olivier Taverne (Sociology).
The goal of the pilot study is to give insight into how informal caregivers experience the current support for informal caregivers and how they would like this to be organised. The report also looks at the resilience and the role of health care organizations and their employees in the support of informal caregivers. To look at the issue from several areas informal caregivers, health care professionals and healthcare managers have been interviewed.
The pursuit of a participatory society where informal caregivers play a more important role in the health care process, asks for more support for this group. Up to this moment, healthcare organizations are mostly focused on care receivers. In 2016 one in ten informal caregivers was burned out (a.o. De Klerk, 2017) and this could be increasing in the near future if participatory society policy becomes more common. However, an alternative outcome could be that the support for informal caregivers would be arranged so that informal caregivers can give care to their relatives without burdening them too much. This would benefit the resilience of this group, and of the society as a whole.
A foursome of core findings resulted from this pilot study. First of all, caregivers often struggle with explicitly indicating what is helpful for them; this should be inquired and discussed more often and thoroughly in the care process. Secondly, informal caregivers indicate that their wishes, opinions and concerns are often not included in the care process. The care receiver is taken as the main point of focus by professionals and managers and the informal caregiver often feels troubled to indicate the burden of their caregiving duties towards the professional caregiver. Thirdly, the informal caregivers consider the caregivers support and the support provided by professionals to the care receiver as one connected entity, more than the professionals. The professionals view these two forms of support as two separate worlds. Lastly, professionals seem to experience tension between the experienced responsibility for offering informal caregivers support (is it extra or is it an integral part of the regular work?) and the sometimes limited possibilities of time and available knowledge to successfully offer this informal caregiver his informal caregivers support.
The outcomes of this study emphasize the importance of taking the wishes, meanings and concerns into account when considering the policy for informal caregivers support and the care process as a whole. Therefore the report not only gives a description of the issues stated above but also a series of concrete recommendations for practice, based on our findings.
Who cares for those who care? Better support for informal caregivers
Colourful healthcare, an explorative literature study that examines cultural and sexual diversity in long-term elderly healthcare is a new literature study with contributions of SSC-researchers Hannah Leyerzapf, Silvia Klokgieters, Marjolein Broese van Groenou en Halleh Ghorashi.
The current plural and ageing society ask for attention for diversity in long-term elderly care. This literature study focuses on the one hand on the theme of cultural diversity, specifically on migrant elderly with Turkish and Morrocan backgrounds, and on the other hand on sexual diversity and LGBTQ+ elderly (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) - a relatively invisible group.
The report gives a state-of-the-art overview of the study, policy and practice in the area of cultural and sexual diversity in care. Data is discussed from the perspective of the user as well as the perspective of organizations. A core finding is that migrant elderly do not use the care they are entitled to when looking at their health status. LGBTQ+ elderly are afraid they will not be recognized by care organizations. There is a great need from healthcare professionals for information about matching supply and demand, and to what extent they should develop specific (personnel) policies for these target groups.
This study emphasizes the importance of collective responsibility in which professionals, key figures and clients further shape diversity sensitive policy, give an overview of do’s and don’ts for developing and implementing such policy and formulate follow up questions for research and practice.
PRECARIAT is a research project studying labour market deregulation in Europe focusing empirically on one of its most extreme cases: Greece.
With PRECARIAT, we aim to develop a broader definition of employment protection and aim to exceed the limitations that are imposed by most of the official measurements in order to evaluate the social effects of labour market restructuring policies.
Therefore, we aim to provide a novel series of qualitatively and quantitatively comprehensive indicators that take into account all the important social components of flexible labour markets.
The material is based on more than 100 interviews that were conducted in big urban centres and smaller peripheral cities in Greece regarding the transformations of the labour market during the crisis.
The PRECARIAT website features forthcoming publications and additional information.
Gossip, the informal exchange of evaluative information about absent third parties, is a ubiquitous phenomenon in many organisations. What consequences does this have? On the one hand, previous studies have demonstrated that gossip is related to reduced trust and psychological safety. On the other hand, it has been shown to create clear group norms and enhance cooperation. Organization- and communication scientists at Vrije Universiteit therefore examine when gossip at work has negative or positive effects for organizational teams. According to Bianca Beersma: "We study the intentions behind gossip and whether these are recognized by team members, or in contrast, misinterpreted. Our results can create more insight into the consequences of gossip. This is not to prohibit gossip, which is likely an illusion, but to enable distinguishing positive from negative gossip in order to enable more effective management of gossip" says Bianca Beersma.
The researchers involved in this project are:
• Bianca Beersma, Organization Sciences
• Maria Dijkstra, Organization Sciences
• Jaap Ouwerkerk, Communication Science
“Now we want a democracy for us”. That is what a poor, indigenous Bolivian said as a response to a question about the installation of a new indigenous government in 2006. It is an inspiring contradiction. After all; democracy is for everyone - or there is no democracy. But the statement reveals something very important: apparently this Bolivian did not feel like a part of democracy until now. In the Netherlands and Europe, this is a familiar sound.
At this moment in Bolivia, there is a quest for new forms of representation and deliberation, to more adequate, more culturally-sensitive government bodies and to new forms of - also collective - democratic participation. Anthropologist Ton Salman: “It is sometimes paired with a lot of bickering and sometimes political struggle, but it is a process that can possibly be relevant for our problems around democratic legitimacy. This is because it is about the central question: how do you build a democracy that a) does justice to local culture/cultures, b) guarantees the liberal (individual) freedoms and c) has room for the rights of minorities.”
An increasing proportion of the population is over 65 years old. And everyone wants to stay healthy and active for as long as possible. How do we deal with this and what do we need?
Researchers of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) of the VU and the Vumc have been studying the functioning of Dutch elderly in physical, social, cognitive and emotional fields for 25 years commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. In this context, the independence and quality of life of the elderly are central. What is the influence of the social network of older people on their physical and mental health?
LASA also investigates the social consequences of aging, such as the elderly's care needs. Because LASA regularly asks the same questions to the same group of people, researchers can look at pathways of ageing in a changing social context. Epidemiologists, sociologists, health scientists and doctors work closely together to capture the many aspects of ageing.
There are many indications that the authoritative and institutional frames of Islam in European countries, which have been developed under migratory conditions, are under pressure. Initiatives to set up institutes of religious learning in the Netherlands or to develop organizational structures beyond ethnic dividing lines point in this direction. Also, the rapidly increasing numbers of ‘new’ independent preachers who are particularly popular among young Muslims are an indication of change. And there are all kinds of local initiatives to see how certain elements of Islamic law could be applied in Dutch society. This project aims to answer how these changes evolve and how the agency of ordinary Muslims is applied in the development of the doctrinal dimensions of Islam. The project seeks to analyze these developments explicitly from the perspective of ‘ordinary Muslims’. The point of departure is the shift of Muslims from a (temporal) migrant community into an integral part of Dutch society.
Sunier (VU)
Buskens (RUL)
‘So much is taken from us. […]I feel we’re being ignored and under-valued’ [Vocationally trained nurse, home care]
Due to recent reforms of the long-term care sector, the work of vocationally trained nurses has changed significantly. They not only show discontent with this change, they also feel incompetent to exert influence or solve work-related issues. This is probleatic, because vocationally trained nurses have been and will continue to be the largest occupational group providing home care. Only when these nurses are resilient and satisfied in their work, they will be able to contribute to the self-reliance and resilience of clients and their environment – the overarching goal of current Dutch government policy. The Dutch Nursing Association, therefore, organizes a Leadership trajectory, an educational program aimed at empowering vocationally trained nurses, and increase their influence, visibility and recognition. A multidisciplinary team of VU researchers studies the outcomes of this trajectory. “This research will yield insight into the factors that contribute to the resilience of this professional group which’ work is essential to society” according to principal investigator Marieke van Wieringen.
The following researchers are involved in this project:
• Marieke van Wieringen, PhD student, Dept. of Organization Sciences
• Bianca Beersma, professor in Institutions and Identity, Dept. of Organization Sciences
• Henk Nies, professor in Organization & Policy in Long-term Care, Dept. of Organization Sciences
• Peter Groenewegen, professor in Organization Sciences, Dept. of Organization Sciences
• Duco Bannink, associate professor, Dept. of Political Science and Public Administration
When policymakers expect a lot of private initiatives, they need to be careful with budget cuts. It is unlikely that donors will just jump into the gap that the government leaves behind. Two recent studies show that.
Arjen de Wit and René Bekkers analyzed a large number of previous studies to shed light on the relationship between government spending and donations, demonstrating that the strongest evidence of an 'expulsion effect' is found in behavioural experiments. In such experiments, participants receive a small amount that they may (partly) give away for a charity of their choice. Some are obliged to give a portion of their money to a charity, others can decide themselves how they spend the money. It turns out that in this setting the first group donates less than the second. "From this, we can conclude that people are giving less to charity if they have to pay taxes," said De Wit. However, this finding cannot immediately translate into practice. "In reality, you do not usually know exactly what the government is funding."
A follow-up study, with Marjolein Broese van Groenou, shows that media coverage is often not related to the actual changes in government funding. But there are exceptions. De Wit: "There was a lot of news about the major cuts in development aid when an organization like Oxfam Novib was in trouble. But instead of donors trying to compensate for this budget cut, the donated amounts went down too. "
If you live in difficult circumstances, it's extra hard to use one’s "own power" that is being asked of people today. Take "Henk" as an example. Henk has a limited network and little knowledge about healthy behavior. He reports repeatedly to his general practitioner and urgent care, but his health remains bad. His GP would like Henk to take care of himself better. But that calls for better cooperation with other healthcare organizations, such as the municipality, the hospital and home care.
Duco Bannink of Public Administration and Sierk Ybema of Organizational Science work together in the Talma Institute around various projects that address the integration and innovation of care. Bannink: "We wonder, what does a better care look like? And how can actors work better together to make this possible? " The researchers share their gained insights, for example, with the 'The Ben Sajet Center' in Amsterdam.
Understanding people should become an indispensable part of industrial development processes, as a means to achieve new categories of products and that truly address people’s needs and lead to sustainable innovation. That idea is the core of the project People-Centred Development Approaches in Practical and Learning Environments (PEOPLE).
There is a mismatch between qualifications gained by humanities and social science students and skills expected from graduates by employers in the industry. The project brings together interdisciplinary groups of students, academic staff and industry professionals to solve real-life business challenges. New learning modules will be embedded in master’s degree programmes, enabling students to gain valuable practical skills alongside their theoretical education, while demonstrating the value of that education for the industry. The project will have a long-lasting impact on higher education institutions and society at large by improving the relevance of social science teaching and research.
LINKS “Strengthening Links between Technologies and Society for European Disaster Resilience” is a comprehensive study on disaster governance in Europe, conducted by 15 partners and 2 associated partners from 7 different countries in Europe and beyond. The overall aim of the LINKS project is to strengthen links between technologies and society for improved European disaster resilience, by producing sustainable advanced learning on the use of social media and crowdsourcing (SMCS) in disasters.
Copyright © VU