Publications

Most European cities have been, and still are, faced with a strong increase of inhabitants with other ethnic backgrounds. Globalization has increased the processes of migration during the last three decades, especially to urban areas. These processes are changing cities and their social landscape profoundly, not least because many migrants are being confronted with structural social exclusion. Consequently this evolution becomes one of the most ...

This study examines both theoretically and empirically whether social support can be considered as a form of social capital or not. Theoretically, the social support concept satisfies the conditions of the social capital conceptualisation and the main objections do not stand fire after a critical inquiry. Empirically, two well-established social capital propositions are tested with social support conceptualized as a form of social capital, using ...

For decades, provisions of Belgian social criminal law were scattered among various pieces of social legislation. When the Social Criminal Code was implemented in June 2010, these provisions were made into a new, coherent system, meant to improve the readability of social criminal law, consequently precluding errors and legal uncertainties. Today, knowledge of social criminal law is key not only nationally speaking, but more and more in a ...

In this paper we reflect on how research and policies can and/or should help in the development of a sustainable participatory information society for all. More specifically, we aim to investigate critically how social media can entail both potential and pitfalls, especially with regard to the difficult relationship between digital and social inclusion. First of all, traditional information society policies are scrutinized. Furthermore, we point ...

Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)—including critical reflections on what changing a society’s relation to energy (efficiency) even means—have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policymakers, funders, and other decision-makers when driving research agendas, and (ii) the setting of ...

This presentation draws on the results of a large-scale study on the composition and socio-economic background of social support networks and their moderating role in explaining digital inequalities. This study, issued and funded by a local government, based on van DijkU+2019s multiple access model, acknowledges motivational, material, skills and usage divides, while focusing on the under-researched issue of social support. Drawing upon the ...

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved. This chapter presents a systematic review of 50 empirical studies on the social entrepreneurial personality. It aims to answer the question of who social entrepreneurs are in order to help understand why certain individuals but not others create social ventures and persist in their choice. The review findings reveal a focus on four distinct aspects of personality-motivations, traits, ...