The NWO Social Sciences and Humanities domain has awarded over 23 million euros to 60 researchers from the SGW Open Competition - M. At the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Prof Claartje ter Hoeven, Dr Agnieszka Kanas and Prof Maartje Luijk have been awarded grants. This funding gives them the opportunity to conduct research on a topic of their own choice, without thematic preconditions. Researchers could apply for a budget of up to EUR 400,000. NWO accepted 180 applications.
Digital Laborers: Crafting Policy with Behind-the-Scenes Microworkers
Prof. Dr. Claartje ter Hoeven
The functioning of artificial intelligence often requires human labour, called microwork. In Europe, millions of people do this work at home through online platforms. This work is presented online in small tasks like coding data and labelling images. Right now, microwork is poorly paid and unregulated. The European Commission has made a proposal to regulate online platform work. To make the proposed regulations as effective as possible, this research examines the concerns and needs of microworkers themselves and how these can be translated into effective policies, in which the working conditions of microworkers are of primary concern.
Integration Activities for Improving Refugees’ Position in the Labor Market
Dr. Agnieszka Kanas
To address refugees’ challenges in the labour market, policymakers have established various integration activities, ranging from language courses to verifying foreign credentials and skills and on-the-job training measures. However, caseworkers’ discretion may constrain refugees’ access to some integration programs, or employers may not value refugees’ participation. This project studies inequality in access to integration activities and variation in employers’ response to refugees’ participation in these activities. By distinguishing between different types of employees and employers and focusing on caseworkers’ discretion in allocation decisions, it will reveal which integration interventions work, for whom, and why.
Perfect parents
Prof. Dr. Maartje Luijk
Raising children is a beautiful yet heavy task. Many parents experience exhaustion, which is a precursor of parental burnout. Underlying parental exhaustion and burnout are societal ideas that parenting can be done ‘right’ and that parents should be able to do it on their own. Paradoxically, although parenting advice is intended to support parents, it may exacerbate the problem by wrongly implying that perfect parenting is possible. In this project, pedagogues study how societal trends influence parental exhaustion and burnout and will develop, in co-creation with parents, future-proof solutions to reduce parental exhaustion and burnout.
Resilience of single parents
Dr. Amaranta de Haan, Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies
Single parents nowadays fulfill adult roles in multiple life domains simultaneously: they are parent, professional, friend, and/or family member. Moreover, many single parents are faced with difficult circumstances, such as divorce, poverty, and stigmatization. Nevertheless, many single parents function well: they are resilient. To understand how and why single parents are resilient, this project will develop the Multi-Domain Resilience model in co-creation with parents. The project employs different methods: in-depth interviews, surveys, and short daily questionnaires. Knowledge obtained from this project can be used to advise policy makers and professionals how they can understand and support resilience in single parents.
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Marjolein Kooistra, communications ESSB | kooistra@essb.eur.nl | 06 83676038