Research

Solid and socially relevant research at ISS

Global Development and Social Justice Research programme

As a leader in the field of development studies, the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) finds responses to today’s global problems. Issues such as poverty, inequality, migration, conflict and ecology are important in the ISS research agenda.

Our Global Development and Social Justice research programme takes a critical approach to policy responses that are formulated to social, economic and political issues. The critical attitude is the result of a deeply felt need to analyse the way in which power differences among groups of people result in policies and practices that are highly beneficial to the powerful and detrimental to the powerless.

Academic Teams

Our research is organized into Academic Teams. These form the intellectual homes of ISS academics and PhD researchers.

The thematic focus of the Academic Teams will foster and showcase the role of ISS in specific broader academic discourses on for example development economics, political ecology, social justice and climate.

Focus on migration month

Teaching, research and publications by the Migration, Im/Mobility and Place Academic Team

Using scenarios to explore the future of migration

Dr Simona Vezzoli discusses the 'scenario methodology' which offers tools to help understand upcoming changes, focusing specifically on migration

Attend this migration seminar
Simona Vezzoli

Bringing migration research to life

Drawing on research carried out by the PACES research team, The Good Life tells the stories of three young people navigating migration decisions.

Download your copy of The Good Life
A colourful illustration of a young man flying in the sky. Other objects float around him.

'State of the art' conference on migration

ISS researchers contribute to the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security’s State of the Art conference that brings together researchers, policy-makers and other professionals in the field of migration.

Read about the ISS contributions to the conference
ISS researchers at the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security’s State of the Art conference

Migration, Im/mobility and Place Academic Team

Academic Team exploring how migration shapes the governance of place

Find out more about our migration research and teaching
Border wall Brownsville

Governance of Migration and Diversity track

MA in Development Studies track focusing on current challenges around migration-related issues, particularly in the context of global development, and how to address them.

Find out more about this MA track

Water, Securitization Anxieties and Border Imaginaries (WASABI)

This research project investigates how communities living around water borders experience and influence security and territorial issues.

Visit the WASABI web page
Canoe on bank of river - WASABI project

Migrant Truckers Who Keep Europe Moving

Award winning article published in The Contrapuntal on the role of migrant workers in Europe's trucking industry

Read the article by Dr Nanneke Winters and ISS alumnus Wouter van de Klippe
Lorries in a car park

What might migration between Africa and Europe look like in 2045?

New report by the PACES research project explores future Africa–Europe migration scenarios

Read the report now
Image Credit: EYE DJ on Flickr

Making migration and migration policy decisions amidst societal transformations (PACES)

PACES explores these questions by bringing together research, policy analysis and ongoing engagement with stakeholders.

Get all the details of this project
In this photo, residents of Adama, Ethiopia form a queue at the passport office.

Research highlights

Professor Linnet Taylor new Chair in Global Digital Politics at ISS

Leading a team working on the PublicLab: Improving governance of digital experiments project

Linnet Taylor

ISS PhD programme

A creative environment for PhD research into positive social change, global justice and equity

ISS PhD researchers - group - defence

Latest publications by ISS researches

A round-up of latest publications by ISS faculty and PhD researchers

Latest ISS publications

Research values

ISS is committed to a more just social order at a global scale. We combine rigorous academic research with high societal relevance that has the potential to drive action and contribute to change:

  • Critical - we use a critical approach and analyze how power relations have produced policies and practices that are highly beneficial to the powerful and detrimental to the powerless
  • Participatory - we produce knowledge with stakeholders, rather than only for them and seek to produce knowledge in ways that engage those most affected
  • Societally relevant - we work in partnership with others, including NGOs, social movements, and other local, national and global networks and benchmark our research with the needs of society
  • Embracing the global North and South - we expect research findings from both areas to inform one another
  • Bridging theory and practice - we aim to take our knowledge out into wider world in different ways
  • Linking with teaching - we seek to bring the research we undertake into the classroom to inform, challenge and inspire our students

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