Programme Groups

Multidisciplinary Centers

Research projects

Research

Research projects

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)

Sociology & Anthropology

Human Geography, Planning & International Development

Political Science

Find an overview of all current research projects at the AISSR.

Sociology & Anthropology

APPARENT: Transition to parenthood: International and national studies of norms and gender division of work at the life course transition to parenthood

This ERC funded project is the first comprehensive study to assess contemporary parenting norms and practices and their diffusion. The project develops a comparative framework to study prevalent motherhood and fatherhood norms, images, identities and behaviour in current societies.

BEAUTY: Towards a comparative sociology of beauty. The transnational modelling industry and the social shaping of beauty standards in six European countries

This ERC funded project aims to study how beauty standards – perceptions of physical beauty in women and men – are socially shaped. It will focus on the transnational modelling industry, an institution centrally concerned with the production and dissemination of beauty standards.

Bewoners in beweging. Onderzoek naar bewonersinitiatieven in de Amsterdamse wijkaanpak

De doelstelling van dit onderzoek is om nieuwe kennis te genereren over de omgang met bewonersinitiatieven in de Amsterdamse wijkaanpak en de effecten daarvan op het actief burgerschap van bewoners.

Burgers maken hun buurt: democratische innovatie met behulp van een ‘design experiment'

De doelstelling van dit project is om bij te dragen aan de innovatie en kwalitatieve verbetering van burgerinitiatieven. De aandacht richt zich daarbij met name op de vraag hoe burgerinitiatieven vorm kunnen worden gegeven opdat deze verbeteringen kunnen worden gerealiseerd.

CERCA: Community-embedded reproductive health care for adolescents

The FP7 funded CERCA project aims to contribute to global knowledge about how health systems can be more responsive to the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and, by extension, to other health needs of Latin American populations.

Citizenship, National Canons, and the Issue of Cultural Diversity. The Netherlands in International Perspective.

This NWO-funded research offers an empirical analysis of the ‘culturalization' of citizenship in the Netherlands at three levels: in the national political debate; within local government and civil society; and as part of the experience of individual citizens.

COHEMI: Coordinating resources to assess and improve health status of migrants from Latin America

The FP7 funded COHEMI project aims to provide a clear understanding of the full migration cycle in relation with the health systems in Europe and Latin America and to provide in-depth insight into priority health-related aspects of LA migration.

CoHeRe (Developing Sustainable Community Health Resources in Poor Settings in Uganda )

This NWO funded Programme aims to contribute to the development of sustainable interventions that will mitigate the effects of the human resource deficit in healthcare and contribute to the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It will do so by identifying and utilising existing community resources in poor communities in Uganda to spread health information, encourage health promoting behaviours and bring vulnerable community members into better contact with existing health services.

Coming of age in Burundi: youth's social navigation in fragile contexts

Though Burundi's recent transition towards a democracy at peace is internationally considered successful, recurrent outbreaks of violence show continued fragility of peace. This NWO funded research project investigates how the fractured social fabric fosters fragility, and how young Burundians navigate and contribute to restructuring the social fabric along old and new lines of division.

Cyberpoli’s, een interactieve ontmoetingsplaats voor kinderen met een chronische aandoening en hun medische behandelaars

In dit ZonMw onderzoek wordt het functioneren van de cyberpoli voor kinderen met diabetes geëvalueerd door kinderen, ouders en behandelaars.

De bindende invloed van middengroepen in gemengde buurten: hoe kan gentrification bijdragen aan vertrouwen?

Het doel van dit NICIS gefinancierde project is om inzicht te bieden in de manier waarop en de mate waarin middengroepen een bindende factor vormen in gemengde buurten en in de betekenis van de aanwezigheid van middengroepen voor het vertrouwen van bewoners in de buurt en in elkaar.

De kracht van openbare ruimte

Dit onderzoeksprogramma analyseert het verband tussen maatschappelijke processen enerzijds en het alledaagse stedelijk leven anderzijds.

Decentralization and bayrak Muslim youth: youth, identity and work in Pontianak (West Kalimantan)

Among the ‘youth paradoxes’ commonly observed in Indonesia are: youth as heroes versus youth as potential traitors to the nation; early maturation versus prolongation of entry into marriage; increase in consumption versus decrease in ‘productivity’ etc.

Dutch Discontents: social fear and conflict in Amsterdam's public spaces

This NWO funded research explores what in the Netherlands has come to be seen as the most important arena for societal conflict: urban public space.

Dutch-ness in genes and genealogy: following genetic diversity around science and society

In this project, financed by the Center for Society & Genomics, researchers investigate the possible consequences DNA research may have on concepts of identity and experience.

Eating bodies. The eating body in Western practice and theory

Human bodies eat. But what does this entail? This ERC funded project will explore how the eating body is shaped in different Western practices. These will include nutritional research and health care clinics, sites that have a far-reaching impact on how we eat.

Educational systems and four central functions of education

This NWO-funded project studies the impact of four characteristics of educational systems (differentiation, standardization, vocational orientation, and track mobility) on four central functions of education (to improve equality of opportunity, to enhance efficient sorting and learning, to prepare for labour market allocation, and to socialize into active participation in society).

ELITES: pathways to success

ELITES addresses the successful children of immigrants and by analyses differences in the pathways, resources and individual strategies that have contributed to occupying a successful position in society.

Filling the Gap: Social institutions and AIDS in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.

This WOTRO-NWO funded research programme analyses social institutions that have been particularly shaped by HIV/AIDS and how these are being transformed in radical and significant ways to meet the care and support needs of communities overburdened by HIV.

GEITONIES

GEITONIES (meaning ‘Neighbourhoods' in Greek) is a research project funded by the European Union's 7th Framework programme. GEITONIES is concerned with how interethnic interactions, in local neighbourhoods, in European cities, may influence the creation of a more tolerant, cohesive and integrated society.

GINI-Project: Growing Inequalities' Impact

The core objective of the European funded project GINI is to deliver important new answers to questions of great interest to European societies: What are the social, cultural and political impacts that increasing inequalities in income, wealth and education may have? For the answers, GINI combines an interdisciplinary analysis that draws on economics, sociology, political science and health studies, with improved methodologies, uniform measurement,
wide country coverage, a clear policy dimension and broad dissemination.

Gulf-state concessions in Indonesia and the Philippines: Contested control of agricultural land and foodcrops

The current Gulf-State investments in farmland in Indonesia and the Philippines reflect changes in the global food system whose shape and outcome 'on the ground' is not yet clear-cut. This WOTRO-NWO funded research programme seeks to capture this complex dynamic.

IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion)

IMISCOE is a Research Network uniting 25 established European research institutes in pursuit of studies under the themes of international migration, integration and social cohesion. IMISCOE started as Network of Excellence in 2004 funded by the European Commission. Since April 2010 IMISCOE functions as an independent network that is funded by institutional membership.

In search of Middle Indonesia

This Netherlands-Indonesia research program, coordinated by KITLV(Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies), is a wide-ranging attempt to relocate the focus of the social science research agenda in Indonesia to the underestimated middle reaches.

Income Position of the Elderly in Different Welfare State Regimes: The Interdependence of Pension

This NWO-funded research concerns an empirical test of the supposed existence of a trade-off or an inverse relationship between home-ownership and pensions provision. Using a longitudinal framework, the researchers analyse how developments on both policy domains have evolved in an interdependent way, resulting in a specific institutional setting affecting the economic situation of the elderly - not only in terms of their poverty risk, but also in terms of the replacement of post-retirement income, and the way this is achieved through the so-called 'pension mix' and the combination of pensions with other assets, of which housing wealth usually forms a large part.

IS Academie HIV/AIDS (Internationale Samenwerking)

Middels de IS academie, de Academie voor Internationale Samenwerking opgericht door het Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, beoogt de AISSR bij te dragen aan een maatschappelijke en wetenschappelijke relevante agenda van HIV-AIDS onderzoek.

Islamic Cultural Practices and Performances: Néw Youth Cultures in Europe'

This NWO funded research project engages with emergent forms of Islamic cultural production in Europe, in particular artistic performances, popular music, fashionable dress, and mosque design.

Learning by doing: enhancing treatment literacy and addressing sexual and reproductive health of PLWA in Eastern Africa

This consortium intends to find ways of addressing two related areas of care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS in East Africa: 1) the effectiveness of ART treatment literacy (TL) programmes and 2) the sexual and reproductive health needs (SRH) of young people living with HIV/AIDS.

Leishmaniasis in Suriname

This NWO funded research programme consists of three projects that in an integrated manner addresses all major aspects of Leishmaniasis in Suriname.

Leren participeren. Een onderzoeksprograma naar de WMO

Dit is een meerjarig NICIS onderzoekstraject naar een aantal kwesties die het hart raken van de centrale doelstelling van de Wmo (Wet maatschappelijke ondersteuning): het bevorderen van burgerparticipatie.

MATCH: The Multi-Country African Study on Testing and Counselling for HIV

This multi-site study has three objectives: 1) to analyze the determinants of HIV test uptake in Malawi, Uganda, Kenya and Burkina Faso, 2) to describe consent, confidentiality and counseling procedures from the perspective of health workers and their clients in a variety of health care settings and 3) to describe access to follow-up care and social support as well as issues related to stigma and discrimination. The study is conducted in cooperation with WHO and financed by the National Institute of Health, USA.

MUTHI: Multi-disciplinary university traditional health initiative: building sustainable research capacity on plants for better public health in Africa

The overall objective of this EC funded project is to create sustainable research capacity and research networks in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Uganda). MUTHI will identify needs and develop and implement research training programmes.

Osh wa salam: (Dutch-)Moroccan girls engaged in kickboxing

This FORUM commissioned research seeks to answer the question why a relatively high number of Moroccan girls engages in combat sports, and how the girls themselves deal with possible tensions between engaging in these sports and the construction of gender.

Perceptions of Cultural Hierarchies

This NWO-funded project investigates whether and in what respects people in present-day Dutch society rank their own and others' cultural tastes in hierarchical order.

Pilot Wmo/WWB: Activering alleenstaande mannen 50+

De Amsterdamse stadsdelen Noord en Zuid, de Dienst Wonen Zorg en Samenleven (WZS) en de Dienst Werk en Inkomen (DWI), gezamenlijk verantwoordelijk voor de uitvoering van de pilot, financieren dit project over de toeleiding van pilotdeelnemers naar zorg en activering, het aanbod van zorg en activering en de ontwikkeling van pilotdeelnemers.

Politics and Risk Communication (PARC)

This specific project examines the effects of risk communication on risk perception. RISK will compare different political risk communication approaches on electromagnetic fields (EMF) which vary in their discourse on health and risk and in the degree of citizens’ political control. PARC will examine the effect of the political context by means of a comparative panel study.

Productive Skills, Positional Good, or Social Closure? Three Mechanisms for the Education Effect across Structural Institutional Settings

This NWO funded research project connects various theories of why education has an effect on labour market outcomes (e.g. employment, wages, and flexible contracts) with structural-institutional settings in which such theories would form the most likely mechanism.

Provincial globalisation: the impact of reverse transnational flows in India's regional towns

This WOTRO-NWO funded research programme focuses on the process of ‘provincial globalisation' in India by tracing transnational reverse flows of economic resources from migrants to their home regions - remittances, investments and charitable donations - as well as of ideas, cultural orientations and social aspirations - and examining the influence of these flows on political and economic processes and cultural identities at the regional level.

Reaching the poor in Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme

Health insurance is increasingly seen as an important alternative financing mechanism for health care in developing countries.This NWO funded program designs and evaluates interventions to stimulate MHO enrolment, with special focus on the poor.

Reassessing reproductive health and responses to HIV risk, disease and treatment among men in rural northern Malawi

This NWO funded project seeks to gain insights into the under-studied area of masculinity, male fertility and HIV using the case of rural northern Malawi.

Sisters in Islam: The Politics of Women's Conversion to Islam in the Netherlands

This FORUM commissioned study concerns women's conversion to Islam, primarily by native Dutch women, but by Dutch women from other ethnic backgrounds, as well. Participatory research is conducted among several groups of converted women in Amsterdam-West.

Sociale mobiliteit: individuen, groepen en buurten

Dit NICIS gefinancieerde onderzoeksprogramma onderzoekt oorzaken en effecten van de sociale stijging van wijken, welke factoren ten grondslag liggen aan sociale mobiliteit van individuen, en hoe beiden met elkaar in verband staan.

Stop Aids Now: life skills within HIV prevention for youth

The overall goal of this latest STOP AIDS NOW! project is to decrease new HIV infection among youth by improving the quality of prevention efforts, in particular Life Skill programmes.

Talentontwikkeling bij risicojongeren

RAAK-PRO gefinancieerd project met een focus op de mogelijkheden van risicovolle jongeren als een belangrijke sleutel zijn in het vergroten van hun handelingsmogelijkheden en sociale mobiliteit.

The globalization of high culture: how markets for contemporary art develop in Brazil, Russia, India and China

The recent economic rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China also has cultural implications. For example, Chinese art is being sold internationally for millions of dollars. This NWO funded study examines how contemporary art is sold in the BRIC countries and how that differs from the art market in the West.

The making of the transgender body: a comparative analysis of transgender healthcare in the Netherlands and the United States

This NWO funded ethnographic project focuses on two leading gender clinics in the Netherlands and the United States and seeks to analyze how different healthcare funding structures, clinical organizations, and client-doctor interactions give rise to distinct medical practices and different physicalities of transgender bodies.

Tracking Development

This multilateral, international research project analyses comparative development trajectories of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa over the last 50 years. The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Transformations in intimacy. Sexuality and modern personhood among middle-class Nigerians from 1940 to the present

This NWO funded research project will explore sexuality in Nigeria, as an embodied practice related to processes of social transformation. It will use an historical-ethnographic approach to understand middle-class Nigerians' ideas and practices of love and sexuality, starting with late colonialism, through early independence, and up to the current era of globalisation.

Unregistered marriages in the Netherlands and beyond

This FORUM commissioned research project investigates both the Dutch debates on informal marriages amongst Muslims and the variety of reasons people may have to engage in such marriages. It does so in a comparative framework, both with other European countries and Muslim-majority countries.

Verantwoordelijke, betrokken burgers en uitnodigende, verbindende instituties. Naar nieuwe bindingen tussen burgers onderling en tussen burgers en instituties in een democratiserende en meritocratiserende samenleving

Dit door het VSB Fonds gefinancieerde programma richt zich op 3 specifieke thema's: 1) spanningen tussen bevolkingsgroepen en gebrek aan sociale samenhang;
2) problemen rond burgerparticipatie and 3) sociale uitsluiting en afzijdigheid.

Human Geography, Planning & International Development

Bedrijvige wijken in bedrijvige steden

Dit kennisprogramma gaat uit van de kracht van lokale bedrijven en de economische potentie van de wijk. Onderzocht wordt de economische betekenis van kleinschalige bedrijvigheid voor stedelijke wijken en hun bewoners en de factoren die op deze van invloed zijn. Het onderzoeksprogramma is deel van het NICIS Kennis platform Economie & Innovatie.

Chance2Sustain

Chance2Sustain is an EC-funded research project (FP7). It examines how governments and citizens in cities with differing patterns of urban economic growth make use of participatory (or integrated) spatial knowledge management to direct urban governance towards more sustainable development.

DPRN (Development Policy Review Network)

The Development Policy Review Network is a network of development experts and policymakers in the Netherlands and Belgium who aim to reduce the gap between science, policy, development practice and the corporate sector.

ECOLIVE (The Ecology of Livelihoods)

ECOLIVE is a research project funded by the UNESCO-IHE Partnership Research Fund (UPaRF). The overall scientifc objective of ECOLIVE is strengthening of the scientific basis and capacity for conserving wetlands so that poor rural populations have access for water, food and income.

Education and Development program

The Education and Development program is part of the IS Academy initiative. The IS Academy is a partnership programme between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and research institutes which aims to promote cooperation and knowledge exchange between policymakers and academics.

Improving integration of expert with tacit knowledge for strategic planning

This research project is part of the NWO-funded research programme CESAR (Climate and Environmental change and Sustainable Accessibility of the Randstad). CESAR analyses the complex relations between urban planning, climate processes and human behaviour regarding mobility, domicile and car ownership.

Integrated transition strategy towards SFRMT

This research project is part of the larger NWO-funded programme SRMT (Strategy towards sustainable and reliable multi-modal transport in the Randstad). This programme will develop comprehensive strategies for the Randstad based on integrated scientific approaches for land-use, location choices, multimodal transport network design, travel behaviour and transport policy.

Knooppuntontwikkeling in corridorverband: economische betekenis en institutionele prikkels

Er is onvoldoende bekend over de economische gevolgen van een geïntegreerde ontwikkeling van ruimte en infrastructuur. Dit NICIS onderzoek wil deze twee kennisleemtes aanpakken en richt zich specifiek op het identificeren van synergiekansen in de ontwikkeling van stedelijke regionale openbaar vervoercorridors.

Ontwerp en beoordeling regionale visies ruimte en infrastructuur

Het eerste doel van dit NICIS gefinancierde project is om de inhoudelijke beoordeling van ruimtelijk-infrastructurele plannen te verbeteren.

Places and their Culture: The Evolution of Dutch Cultural Industries from an International Perspective, 1600-2000

Cultural industries are becoming ever more important as sources of employment and income in post-industrial cities. This NWO funded research programme will focus on the evolution of three selected Dutch cultural industries (visual arts, architecture, and publishing) from 1600 to the present.

Regionale samenwerking voor een krachtig openbaar bestuur

Dit NICIS gefinancieerde onderzoek analyseert hoe regionale samenwerking tussen gemeenten zo goed mogelijk kan beantwoorden aan de vereisten van legitimiteit, effectiviteit en efficiency.

REINCORPFISH-Re-incorporating the excluded: Providing space for small-scale fishers in the sustainable development of fisheries of South Africa and South Asia

The objective of the NWO-funded research project REINCORPFISH is to contribute to, review and assess the development of fisheries governance frameworks and institutional arrangements in South Africa and South Asia for the resolution of core fishery conflicts.

Residential arrangements of divorced parents and their children

This NWO-funded research project addresses the choice for a particular residential arrangement by divorced parents for their children. It looks at socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics of the parents and how is this choice related with the residential context.

Should we stay, or should we go? Understanding residential ractice

This NWO funded study investigates how practices of young middle-class urbanites change when they become parents. It establishes a link between the neighbourhood as place of residence and the way in which lives are socially and spatially organised.

Strengthen research development and uptake capacity in urban, land and municipal management in the Caribbean

This EC funded project will contribute to poverty alleviation in the urban areas of the Caribbean by placing socially relevant science, technology and innovation (STI) at the heart of applied research and policy making.

The Rescaling of the Mortgage Market

Mortgage markets are not only important because of their sheer volume, but also because most homeowners depend on them and because they fuel the economy both directly and indirectly. The focus of this NWO-funded study is how the spatial economic organization of mortgage markets has changed in the last decades and continues to change as a result of the current crisis

Understanding the current wave in globalisation: the segmented outcomes of offshore service development in Mumbai and Manila

This NWO-WOTRO funded project concentrates on contemporary globalisation by means of the international expansion of offshore service delivery. Offshore service delivery is still at an early stage of development and there is limited knowledge on the scope and magnitude of this particular form of globalisation.

Urban policies for the creative industries, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in an. European perspective

Het (NICIS) onderzoek beschrijft en analyseert beleidsopties voor steden en gaat in op de rollen die de stedelijke overheid speelt in samenwerkingsverbanden. Het onderzoek wil steden ondersteunen bij het leveren van maatwerk dat past bij de aard en omvang van de creatieve industrie. Evenals de bijdrage van de creatieve industrie aan de lokale economie.

Using spatial information infrastructure in urban governance networks: reducing urban deprivations in Indian cities?

This NWO-WOTRO research program focuses on how urban governance networks can tackle urban inequalities and household deprivations in large Indian cities, by using local spatial information infrastructure (SII).

Veranderende huishoudens en ‘functies’ van woonmilieus

Dit NICIS onderzoek gaat in op de vraag in hoeverre huishoudens geneigd zijn om in verschillende levensfasen passende woonmilieus te zoeken.

Where the global becomes local ; Amsterdam and the changing face of finance

This NWO funded research project focuses on the changing position of the Amsterdam financial center within the international financial system. To do so a mixture of research methods is used.

Political Science

ACCEPT PLURALISM- Tolerance, pluralism and social cohesion: responding to the challenges of the 21st century in Europe

This European FP7 project investigates the meanings of tolerance in a variety of contexts with a special focus on ‘what needs to be done’ actually in Europe in order to proceed to more coherent societies, while respecting ethnic, religious and cultural plurality.

Adrift or adroit? On the sources of electoral volatility in the Netherlands, 2006-2010

This NWO-funded project aims to fill the theoretical and empirical gaps in our knowledge on electoral volatility. It will do so by employing an extensive panel data set, namely the 1Vandaag Opinion Panel since November 2006, that allows us to open the empirical black box.

CIT-PART (Impact of Citizen Participation on Decision Making in a Knowledge Intensive Policy Field)

The EU-funded project CIT-PART will study comparatively the impact of PTA (Participatory Technology Assessment ) and TA on policy-making in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, the European Commission, the OECD and the Holy See.

Constructions of justice and legitimacy: defence and prosecution discourses before international criminal courts

This NWO funded project will consider how notions of justice and legitimacy are constructed in the course of trial proceedings, examining the discourses of both prosecutors and high-profile accused persons.

Data wars: new spaces of governing against terrorist finance

Financial information occupies a special place within data-led security practices, because it is assumed to be able to reveal 'blueprints' of terrorist networks. The goal of this NWO funded project is to map and analyse the reconfigured spaces of governing that are emerging through the deployment of financial information in the European war on terror.

ELECDEM: Training Network in Electoral Democracy

This Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) will bring together 11 expert teams from 9 European countries to provide substantive and methodological training in elections research to a cohort of early stage and experienced researchers.

EURISLAM Research Project

EURISLAM is an international comparative research project funded by the European Commission (FP7) that analyses how the incorporation of Islam in European Member States is influenced by national traditions of identity, citizenship and church-state relations.

European Security Culture

It is often asserted that Europe's role in the world is affected by a distinctly European perspective on security matters. But the effect of such 'security culture' on actual policy processes remains unclear. In this NWO funded project, researchers will examine the historical development and contemporary relevance of the European security culture.

Feminist (un)easiness with nationalism: the influence of the Yugoslav wars on feminism in Croatia and Serbia (1991-2000)

This NWO funded research aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between feminism and nationalism by examining and comparing anti-nationalist and nationalist feminist groups in Croatia and Serbia (1991-2000), the biographies, motivations and attached meanings of feminist activists and the influence of the (post-)war socio-political contexts on feminist discourses and activities.

GREEN: Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks

This EU-funded project will study the current and future role of the EU in an emerging multi-polar world through a programme of stock taking, multi-disciplinary research and complementary activities.

Human-rights Promotion and Peacemaking

This NWO funded project how outside promotion of human rights affects violent conflict. The project will provide systematic study about whether and under what conditions such promotion helps or hinders conflict resolution in practice.

Knowledge programme: Civil society in closed societies

The Knowledge Programme on Civil Society in Closed Societies aims to generate and integrate knowledge on the roles and opportunities of civic action for democracy in closed societies.

Meritocratie en democratie. Een politiek theoretische verkenning van verschuivende ideeën over kwaliteit en rekrutering van elites in democratische samenlevingen

Het onderzoek beoogt de onderlinge relaties tussen meritocratie en democratie te onderzoeken, waarbij actuele discussies worden gesitueerd in de geschiedenis van de politieke theorie en waarbij tevens de normatieve grondslagen van beide idealen voor de huidige tijd worden onderzocht.

Negotiating Conflicts in Urban Neighbourhoods

This NICIS project is developed by the University of Amsterdam and the Delft University of Technology in cooperation with cities in the Dutch Randstad area and aims at developing the tie between conflict and context in changing urban communities

New governing parties: failure or success?

The number of political parties with no government experience entering Western European cabinets has increased drastically in recent decades. Many commentators criticise this trend and claim that these parties generally perform poorly. This NWO funded project investigates the veracity of this claim.

PIREDEU (Providing Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union)

PIREDEU is a collaborative project aimed at "Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union", coordinated by the European University Institute and its Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.

Politieke conflicten in vijf stelsels: de rol van burgers, media en partijen in de politisering van immigratie en Europese integratie

Het onderzoek van Wouter van der Brug vergroot ons begrip van issue-evolutie. Dit gebeurt door politieke conflicten over immigratie en Europese integratie te vergelijken met vijf institutioneel gelijksoortige systemen, die variëren in de mate waarin beide onderwerpen tot een politieke zaak zijn gemaakt: Nederland, Vlaanderen, Denemarken, Zweden en Wallonië.

Power Dynamics in the new gas and green raw materials transition

NWO funded project on the fundamental mechanism that strongly influences all energy transition processes: the interplay between strategies of entrepreneurs who strive to introduce novelty and strategies of incumbents who have strong vested interests and therefore often resist these processes of change.

RELIGARE: Religious diversity and secular models in Europe

The EC funded RELIGARE project is about religions, belonging, beliefs and secularism in Europe. It examines the legal rules protecting or limiting (constraining) the experiences of religious or other belief-based communities

Resilient Democracy. Political Legitimacy and Transformations of Party Democracy

This NWO-funded project aims at extending theoretical and empirical knowledge of how transitions of party democracy affect political legitimacy. The project consists of three interrelated PhD-projects that focus on three aspects of current transitions of party democracies.

SOM (Support and Opposition to Migration)

SOM is a collaborative project funded by the European Commission as part of the Seventh Framework Programme. The project looks at the politicization of migration in seven European countries. The aim of this comparative project is to determine why and when potential conflicts over migration become politicized, examining both anti-immigration and anti-racist movements.

Towards a social theory of corporate governance: interaction, incentives and information in private and semi-public managerial decision-making

Mismanagement of corporate boards marked the beginning of the financial crisis, but also in semi-public sectors as health and housing governance problems of mismanagement and fraud have occurred. In this NWO-VENI funded project a social theory of corporate governance will be developed.

Unity in diversity. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the detrimental effects of ethnicity and ethnic diversity on social capital

This NWO funded (VENI) project addresses debates on multiculturalism in which the merits of ethnic diverse societies is increasingly contested. It analyses the relation between ethnic diversity and social capital. By conducting open interviews and mixed method surveys amongst five ethnic groups in the Netherlands, the research project aims to formulate and tests new (complementary and rivaling) theoretical expectations on the ethnicity and diversity effects.

Video Urban Studies

International Scholars on Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam

The future of Social Science Research

Video: AISSR researchers present current research projects and reflect on social sciences in the Netherlands

For Staff AISSR

Information for the staff of the AISSR

Research Priority Areas

Focus on scientific excellence.

The transnational modelling industry and the social shaping of beauty standards in six European countries