Doctoral dissertations

PhD student: Uchendu Uchechukwu Ethelbert
Summary: Beginning from the precolonial via colonial to the present postcolonial eras, Nigeria is portrayed as blessed with a large number of women’s association imbued with strong social spaces in political participation and viewed as source of empowerment and collective affirmation. The research takes place in Igboland in Nigeria, a site that is particularly interesting to study emancipatory initiatives of women over time. Situating my research in the context of Nigeria’s new political openings since late 1990s, I want to explore and understand, by way of narrative methodology, in focus-group sessions, the emerging ‘social change processes’ associated with developmental activities by Igbo women in the context of their female social movement participation. This research is inspired by Southern feminist theorists, who, recently, are confronting global and historically rooted knowledge inequalities and hence offering new theoretical and conceptual approaches.
PhD in Social Work
Promoter(s): Vandenbroeck Michel, Griet Roets
Starting date: October 2013

PhD student: Saan Van Elsen
Summary: This research project aims to map the lifeworld of socially vulnerable young people and focuses specifically on the meaning of leisure time in their lifeworld. In a first quantitative study, we will verify if there are socio economic and cultural differences on young people’s aspirations towards leisure and how these differences relate to their actual leisure time participation. We therefore use the data gathered from the JOP-schoolmonitor 2 in 2018. A second qualitative study will examine how socially vulnerable young people shape and give meaning to their leisure time and how this process is influenced by their lifeworld. In the last qualitative study we’ll focus on the role of the environment and the local leisure actors for the young people’s leisure time participation.
PhD in Educational Sciences
Promoter(s): Lieve Bradt
Periode of time: October 2019 - October 2023

PhD student: Lobke Van Lombergen
Summary: The importance of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) of good quality is growing in interest. In order to guarantee quality, there is an increasing consensus that ECEC should be based on a holistic view of children, as in an integrated system where learning and care are not separate. However, Flanders has a split system with separate institutions for children up to three years old, what we call 'child care', and for children from three to six years old, so called ‘preschool’. This often means a distinction between care and education and has problematic consequences: low accessibility and lack of places in care institution, abrupt transitions, high costs for parents, low qualifications... Through a multiple case study of different projects that aim at an integration between care and education, implications and challenges for the realisation of integrated systems in ECEC are revealed.
PhD in Educational Sciences
Promoter(s): Michel Vandenbroeck, Jochen Devlieghere (Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University)
Periode of time: February 2022 - February 2028

PhD student: Lena Van Bergen
Summary: Young carers are young people who provide care to another family member with a long-term illness, disability or addiction. Available research shows that this is both common and possibly problematic. Despite this, there is still a dearth in research about how to support young carers. The perspective of young carers themselves has also been neglected. They have been described as an invisible group due to the lack of awareness of young caring with professionals and volunteers in the social and educational sector. This is tied to young carers themselves seldomly identifying as a young carer. In this research project, we explore the lack of (self-)identification and awareness through the organization ZoJong!, a non-profit for and by young carers. We conduct participant observations during the activities of this organization, as well as conducting interviews and focus groups with different actors.
PhD in Social Work
Promoter(s): Rudi Roose, Stijn Vandevelde
Periode of time: October 2023 - September 2027

PhD student: Sander Van Thomme
Summary: The child friendly city (CFC) is generally seen as a practice of good urban planning in the best interest of the child. However, thorough debate on its actual pedagogical meaning is missing. To open up this debate, we will take on a social pedagogical perspective, focusing on how the CFC organises the relationship between children and young people and the society. As a result, the CFC will be approached as a pedagogical project shaping the pedagogical potential of the city. As such, this PhD-project aims to disentangle the hidden pedagogy of policy and practices in the CFC, to better understand the way the CFC acts as a socialising framework for children and young people and to collect empirical knowledge on the way CFC's embrace the various ways in which both children and young people are approached as citizens. This will contribute to the broader knowledge base on the position of children and young people in society and the way cities deal with urban transformations and challenges.
PhD in Social Work
Promoter(s): Lieve Bradt, Sven De Visscher (Eco-City, University College Ghent)
Periode of time: December 2022 - January 2028

PhD student: Bart Volders
Summary: New discourses, derived from the medical profession, influence social work. Interventions targeted at who are “at risk” and the idea of very early prevention are a significant part of policy and of many social work practices. The shift towards a prevention policy places a strong focus on the individual and is related to the concept of an active citizen who takes responsibility for his own well-being and that of others. These new (medical) insights legitimize interventions in the lives of the most marginalized families, and thus endorse individualization and decontextualization of social problems in which poverty is ignored as a structural problem. In this study, we remain true to the aspirations of social justice of social work and research how poverty-blind approaches can be challenged and poverty-aware perspectives and practices can be developed in rehabilitation practices.
PhD in Social Work
Promoter(s): Rudi Roose, Griet Roets (Department Of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University)
Periode of time: January 2018 - ...