Research

My broad research interests lie in the comparative politics and political economy of (mainly European) welfare states, with a special interest in the constitution of citizenship in national models of capitalism. I am especially interested in the role of ideas and discourses in both maintaining and transforming political institutions. Other related research interests include new institutional theory, especially ideational institutionalism; global governance and global civil society, especially in the context of the debates on global citizenship; European populist radical right parties, with a particular interest in economic nationalism and welfare chauvinism; and pretty much all shades of Nordic politics. In the context of the rising tide of nationalism and populism in global politics, I am currently also interested in the discourses around the Brexit debate in the UK, and especially the welfare related aspects of this, such as the debate on benefits and health tourism. I specialise in qualitative research methods, such as semi-structured elite interviews, qualitative content analysis and various approaches to discourse analysis. My research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). I was a member of the ESRC Peer Review College 2010-2019.

External grants and awards

  • ESRC Research Grant (No. RES-000-22-3298). Project: Welfare state practices and the constitution of the citizen: Nordic models of capitalism in an age of globalisation, 1 February 2009-31 January 2010 (£66,566 fEc)
  • European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Jean Monnet Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, 1 September 2005-30 June 2006 (€18,000)
  • ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (No. PTA-026-27-0292) at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham (UK), 1 January-31 December 2004, (£27,640)
  • ESRC PhD Studentship (No. R42200034241) at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham (UK), 1 October 2000-30 September 2003

Research visits

  • April-May 2009, Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, Sweden
  • September 2002, ARENA, University of Oslo, Norway
  • May-September 2002, Tampere Peace Research Institute, University of Tampere, Finland

Research students supervised

  • Alessandro Arrigoni, Global Order, Workers’ Struggle and the Mobilization against Precarity: The Case of ‘San Precario’ (supervised with Magnus Ryner) (at King’s College London), 2010-2016.
  • Matthew Donoghue, ‘Cohesion’ in the Context of Welfare and Citizenship: Discourse, Policy and Common Sense (with Magnus Ryner and Michael Lister) (at Oxford Brookes University), 2009-2015.