For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.
Fair and Resilient Societies FRS

Research

Researchers within the field of 'Fair and Resilient Societies' investigate the causes and effects of major transitions and their perception: how do these transitions impact the unequal distribution of socio-economic and socio-cultural resources, thereby leading to unequal access to wealth, justice, healthcare, and education?

The theme 'Fair and Resilient Societies' aims to address how the well-being (in the broadest sense of the term) of all citizens in a stable society can be improved.

Within research in the IP theme Fair and Resilient Societies, three sub-themes have been identified:

  1. Inequality
  2. Migration
  3. Polarization and social crises

The UvA encourages research on these themes by issuing seed grants and grants for midsize projects. The aim is to gain more insight into how to promote a society's resilience in the broadest sense of the word.  This includes policy development as well as the quality of institutions (e.g. parliament, public administration, police and army, judiciary).

From the theme-based collaboration programme, the ambitions for this theme have been translated into concrete research projects. In summer 2022, budgets were allocated for start-up projects, which have since been implemented. In April 2023, budgets were allocated for so-called midsize and seed grant projects.

Seed grant projects bring together UvA scholars from different faculties to work on small-scale, innovative, interfaculty research projects or grant proposal preparations.

Midsize projects build on existing research collaborations between UvA scholars from different faculties. They also involve partnering with one or more non-academic parties.

Below is an overview of projects for the theme Fair and resilient societies.

Projects

Midsize projects
  • Climate Change & Displacement

    The project specifically focuses on the relationship between climate change and forced migration (displacement). The project conducts collaborative research between four UvA Faculties (FMG, FNWI, FGW, FEB) and a select group of international and societal partners. Intellectually, the project transforms our understanding of ‘climate migration’ by critically exploring the interface between the nature of the phenomenon and efforts to understand and respond to it. Institutionally, the project builds a broad trans-disciplinary collaborative network on forced migration, spanning the UvA and potentially other Dutch universities and international academia, and governmental, communications and advocacy partners.

    Project Team

    • Darshan Vigneswaran (AISSR)
    • Nanda Oudejans (FDR)
    • Lynne Hilary (FDR)
    • Colin Hickey (FNWI)
    • Huub Dijstelbloem (IAS)
    • Jeff Diamanti (FGW)
    • Abbey Steele (FMG)
  • Identifying and safeguarding the normative foundations of democracy

    Understanding why democratic decay happens and how it can be prevented, is of major societal relevance. Despite growing attention to democratic backsliding, we know less about the informal foundations of democracy among citizens and, especially, political elites. This is surprising because democratic norms are foundational to the functioning of democracy, and it is precisely these norms that are increasingly threatened. This project fills this gap and will provide new insights on how we can make democracy more resilient, by studying the emergence, determinants, and strength of democratic norms among citizens and elites in Europe, Asia, and North America. 

    The researchers will develop tools, publish papers, organise stakeholder meetings with policymakers and collaborate with various partners such as the Dutch Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations, The European Democracy Hub, the Centre for Policy Research, the Observer Research Foundation, George Washington University and 'Stichting Grondwet op de basisschool'.

    Project team

    • Nik de Boer (Law)
    • Bert Bakker (ASCoR)
    • Ward Berenschot (Anthropology)
    • Robin de Bruin (European Studies)
    • Ursula Daxecker (Politicology)
    • Jan Willem Duyvendak (Sociology)
    • Ursus Eijkelenberg (Law)
    • Niels Graaf (Law)
    • Imke Harbers (Politicology)
    • Maciej Krogel (European Studies)
    • Theresa Kuhn (European Studies)
    • Matthijs Lok (European Studies)
    • Neeraj Prasad (Politieke Wetenschappen)
    • Matthijs Rooduijn (Political Science)
    • Gijs Schumacher (Political Science)
    • Gulnaz Sibgatullina (European Studies)
    • Jack Thompson (History)
    • Jerfi Uzman (Law)
  • Addressing urban marginality in Amsterdam through a wellbeing economy lens

    This project aims at deeper understanding and more precise measurement of urban marginality from the perspective of citizens in Amsterdam themselves, using a Wellbeing Economy lens that includes safety, social cohesion, and sustainability. 

    The researchers want to show how citizens, the Municipality and local businesses can build more resilient neighbourhoods by strengthening wellbeing in the community and local economy. The project aims to contribute to the democratisation of urban policy by developing bottom-up indicators on the basic needs and priorities of marginalised groups that feel ill-represented in urban statistics and policies that focus on the formal economy. 

    The researchers work in co-creation with citizen groups in three neighbourhoods in Amsterdam, the Masterplannen, the Municipality, NGOs, local businesses, and various social initiatives (Stichting SES, Vrouwengroep Venserpolder, Soul.com).

    Project team

    • Nicky Pouw (FMG)
    • Dr. Hebe Verrest (FMG)
    • Siri Boe-Lillegraven (FEB)
  • Digital Health for All: improving the continuity of care for mobile populations

    Mobile populations like undocumented migrants and asylum seekers often face challenges receiving adequate care partly due to a lack of previous medical records, leading to a reduced quality and continuity of care and increased health inequalities. Despite the potential of digital health tools to improve health outcomes, it seems that groups in vulnerable circumstances do not benefit much from the rise of digital health. One way to potentially improve the continuity of care is with Electronic Personal Health Records (EPHRs) for mobile populations. With this project we aim to (1) strengthen our multidisciplinary network on Digital Health for All, including legal and social aspects of digital health; (2) assess the feasibility of the development and implementation of an EPHR for ‘mobile populations’ in Amsterdam, with the aim to expand EPHR implementation to other locations in the Netherlands; and (3) educate students, healthcare providers (HCPs), and mobile populations themselves on the importance of access to - and ownership of - personal medical data. In this project four different faculties (Faculty of Medicine, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Law and Science and Informatics) and 8 non-academic partners collaborate in this project to ensure digital health for all. 

    Project team

    • Prof. Dr. Charles Agyemang (AUMC)
    • Dr. Erik Beune (AUMC)
    • Dr. Steven van de Vijver (AUMC)
    • Dr. Barbara Schouten (FMG)
    • Prof. Dr. Julia van Weert (FMG)
    • Mr. Dr. Marcelle Reneman (FdR)
    • Prof. Dr. Joris van Hoboken (FdR)
  • Towards pioneering approaches to enhance financial-economic and societal stability and resilience

    The Midsize Project “Towards pioneering approaches to enhance financial-economic and societal stability and resilience” within the IP-theme “Fair and resilient societies” (FRS) supports the establishment of the Amsterdam Center of Excellence in Risk, Resilience and Regulation (AC3R) as per January 1, 2025, and will help to better understand causes and effects of major transitions with a focus on the socio-economic system and the financial sector.

    The project will develop pioneering approaches to conduct modern risk evaluation, responding to the pervasive uncertainty surrounding 21st-century global crises. It will provide new econometric methods to fundamentally advance the measurement of modern shocks and fragilities around questions like: What happens after an economic shock occurs? Can economic entities bounce back after being hit by an adverse shock? How resilient are institutions, firms and households?

    AC3R is a new interdisciplinary collaboration between EB and FdR. AC3R consolidates and significantly enhances existing collaborations between scholars from the two faculties and strengthens active collaboration with external non-academic parties (in particular, the Dutch Central Bank).

    Project team

    • Prof. dr. H.P. (Peter) Boswijk (FEB)
    • Prof. dr. R.J.A. (Roger) Laeven (FEB)
    • Dr. E. (Esther) Eiling (FEB)
    • Prof. dr. E.C. (Enrico) Perotti (FEB)
    • Dr. E.D. (Edoardo) Martino (FdR)
    • Prof. dr. A.M. (Alessio) Pacces (FdR)
  • Lost Without Translation: Estimation and Implications of Invisible Languages on the Internet

    Despite the internet’s vast knowledge, systemic biases favor dominant languages, leaving thousands of voices unheard. Of the more than 7,000 living languages, the vast majority remain largely absent from our digitized world. Lost Without Translation confronts this inequality by developing a theoretical framework, using multimodal machine learning to quantify and mitigate bias, and examining real-world consequences, particularly in asylum applications for migrating populations. We quantify linguistic invisibility across digital platforms, analyze suppression mechanisms, and develop interventions to enhance visibility. In collaboration with the Public Knowledge Project, Respond Crisis Translation, and the Wikimedia Foundation, we work to improve machine translation for marginalized languages, develop open-source tools, and advocate for fairer digital policies. Our interdisciplinary approach—spanning communication science, AI ethics, and computational linguistics—ensures both academic rigor and societal impact. Through an interactive global dashboard, public engagement, and collaboration with policymakers and digital platforms, we seek to bring invisible languages into the digital space—making them seen, heard, and valued—while building a more inclusive knowledge ecosystem.

    Project team

    • Dr Saurabh Khanna (FMG)
    • Dr Olga Eisele (FMG)
    • Dr Paula Helm (FGw)
    • Dr Katrin Schulz (FNWI)
Seed Grant projects
  • Representation in media & technology - why scientific insights matter

    As the social debate on diversity increases, many industries respond by increasing efforts towards representative and more ethnically diverse designs or media content. Especially industries that focus on technology and new media formats, often reach a considerable amount of people with their diversity efforts.

    But research on ethnic representation in technology and new media is scarce and limited. Understanding how these efforts are received by members of different ethnicities is important, because it not only informs “good diversity practices“, but also has direct implications for society. A simple attempt to increase representation does not accredit enough importance to the complexity of such efforts and can lead to potential undesirable effects towards the represented minority.

    This project aims to contribute to this important topic by understanding how minority and majority groups receive current representation efforts, and by identifying best practices for companies and regulators. The researchers will combine content expertise from marketing, communications, media and consumer psychology, and technology ethics in a multi-method approach (qualitative research; online/laboratory experiments).

    Project team

    • Andrea Weihrauch, Associate Professor in Marketing, ABS (FEB)
    • Martina Cossu, Assistent Professor in Marketing, ABS (FEB)
    • Irene van Driel, Postdoctoral Researcher Communication Science, FMG (ENTCOM)
    • Chei Billedo, Assistant Professor Communication Science, FMG (ENTCOM)
    • Sindy Sumter, Associate Professor Communication Science (ENTCOM)
  • Digital health for all especially vulnerable populations, like (undocumented) migrants

    Despite the potential of digital tools, groups living in vulnerable conditions seem to benefit less from the rise of digital health. Yet, all people have a right to health care. Through digital health, this research group aims to reduce health inequities and improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, especially migrant populations. A healthy population will simultaneously influence a healthy workforce and reduce healthcare costs associated with poor health. 

    At the UvA, the researchers aim to develop a multidisciplinary collaborative network focused on "Digital Health for All”. This network should grow into an internationally recognized Centre for inclusive digital health, with an open-access infrastructure for research data and teaching in different curricula to improve knowledge. 

    The project team works with partners, such as the Dutch government, Municipality of Amsterdam, and NGOs in the field of health care for migrant population.

    Project team

    • Faculty of Medicine: Charles Agyemang, Frank Cobelens, Steven van de Vijver and Christine Dedding
    • Faculty of Economics and Business: Barbara Schouten, Jeanette Pols, Menno Pradhan
    • Faculty of Science: Sara Altamirano
  • Succesful undocumented migrants: making do in the Dutch economy

    Undocumented immigrant workers are a growing factor in the Dutch urban economy. This project brings together researchers, students, and societal partners to explore how these migrants manoeuvre, speculate and create entrepreneurial opportunities while living illicitly in Dutch society.

    The researchers will study two of the larger established groups of such workers in de ‘Randstad’: Indonesians and Brazilians. The methodology includes interviewing, life histories, observation, and surveys.

    The project team aims to develop an interfaculty research network on informal economies and undocumented workers. They also want to develop multidisciplinary teaching, release several scientific publications, collaborate with partners and write a follow-up proposal.

    Project team

    • Laurens Bakker (FMG)
    • Pepijn van Neerijnen (FEB)
    • Julienne Weegels (FGW-CEDLA)
Start-up projects