Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is dedicated to thinking, teaching, dialogue and research. With 16’000 students of more than 140 different nationalities, it is Switzerland’s second largest university.The Institute of Social and Political Research (RESOP) is a research centre within the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). Its vocation is to promote the research done by the members of the Department of Political Science and International Relations as well as by external invited scholars. Its main goal is to strengthen research in the social sciences. Its main domains of competence are: the study of political participation, collective action, and social movements; and the study of processes of social exclusion, integration, and insertion. In particular, RESOP has been involved in a number of EU-funded projects (UNEMPOL, DEMOS, LOCALMULTIDEM, YOUNEX, EURISLAM). RESOP also has the aim of training young researchers. This is done by hiring personnel to work on the various research studies under the supervision of experienced researchers. Doctoral students can also take advantage of this experience as well as of the dynamics within the institute for their theses.
UNIGE offers more than 280 types of degrees and more than 250 Continuing Education programmes covering an extremely wide variety of fields: exact sciences, medicine and humanities. Its domains of excellence in research include life sciences (molecular biology, bio-informatics), physics of elementary particles, and astrophysics. UNIGE is also host and co-host to six National Centres of Competence in Research: Frontiers in Genetics, Materials with Novel Electronic Properties (MaNEP), Chemical Biology, Affective Sciences, Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases and LIVES-Overcoming vulnerabilities in a life course perspective.
Just like the city of Geneva itself, the university enjoys a strong international reputation, both for the quality of its research (it ranks among the top institutions among the League of European Research Universities) and the excellence of its education. This acclaim has been won in part due to its strong ties to many national and international Geneva-based organizations, such as the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Researchers:
Marco Giugni is professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations and director of the Institute of Citizenship Studies (InCite). He is also European editor of the journal Mobilization: An International Journal. His research interests include social movements and collective action, immigration and ethnic relations as well as unemployment and social exclusion.
Maria Mexi holds a Doctorate (DPhil) in Politics and International Relations and an MPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford, an MSc in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics, and a BA in History from the American College of Greece. For her DPhil thesis, she examined the differential influence of the Open Method of Coordination on national social policy reforms (in the areas of active ageing and immigrants’ labour market inclusion) in Greece, Germany, and Finland outlining specific recommendations on how soft law can become more efficient as a governance tool. Her research interests fall within the areas of social policy, welfare states in comparative perspective, Social Europe, open method of coordination, soft Europeanisation, and European integration.
Contact:
Institute of Citizenship Studies
University of Geneva
40 boulevard du Pont d'Arve
CH-1211 Geneva 4
http://www.unige.ch/
http://www.unige.ch/sciences-societe/incite/institute-for-citizenship-studies-incite/ (or http://www.unige.ch/sciences-societe/incite/institut-detudes-de-la-citoyennete-incite/ for French version)
Main task attributed to UNIGE
-Leader of WP5
-Partner in WP8 and WP9
