| Main topics |
OASeS, the research group on Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City is part of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Antwerp (UA).
The more prominent research topics of the centre include: poverty and other forms of social exclusion (poverty indicators, the daily life of the poor, life events and social mobility), migrations and ethnic minorities, urban policy, social housing, social economics and supported employment, social networks. This research has resulted in acclaimed publications such as the municipal housing dossier and the yearbook on `Poverty and Social Exclusion'.
The centre also takes a very broad approach to its research projects. Research by OASeS is both fundamental and applied, it is qualitative and quantitative, and it is policy- and action-oriented. Although the emphasis is very much on sociological analysis, other disciplines also come into play (anthropology, social geography, criminology, psychology).
The research is carried out from two perspectives: it studies the mechanisms of social exclusion and it focuses on the relationships between the social and the spatial dimensions of society. OASeS operates quite deliberately in the space between the local and the general, so that it cooperates with grassroots organisations and local authorities as well as with European bodies (e.g. in the Fifth and Sixth Framework Programme), and indeed with the entire range of intermediate levels.
Although academic research is the true raison d'être of OASeS, the research group also finds inspiration in an unequivocal commitment to a more just, more equal, and in general more liveable society, under the motto: a world of OASeS for all! |