Speaker
Louise Munkholm
Assistant Professor, PhD
Danish Centre For Welfare Studies, Department Of Political Science, University Of Southern Denmark
The role of the state and its citizens in social development
Biography
Louise is Assistant Professor at DaWS at the Department of Political Science and Public Management and has a background in Public Administration with specialization in EU-studies and Global Studies. In 2017, she received her PhD from Roskilde University based on socio-legal research on labour law enforcement in Chinese firms in Italy. Louise’s research interests include access to justice with focus on the role of public institutions in delivering welfare to citizens. In her work, she combines perspectives from law, political science and sociology to study how regulatory responses can be designed and implemented in ways that meet societal needs.
Dr Alesha Porisky
Assistant Professor
Northern Illinois University
The role of the state and its citizens in social development
Biography
Alesha Porisky is an Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University in the Department of Political Science. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto. Her research centers on social policies, cash transfers, state-building and citizenship, with a particular focus on East Africa. She has published in Annual Review of Political Science, Regional and Federal Studies and other outlets. Alesha has worked as a Researcher with the Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre at the University of Manchester and is currently a collaborator on a SSHRC-funded project examining the links between electrification and political participation in Kenya.
Prof Marianne Ulriksen
Associate Professor
Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, University of Southern Denmark
The role of the State and its Citizens in social development
Abstract Narrative
The roundtable will explore the roles of the state and of citizens in furthering social development. Specifically, we ask: What are the respective obligations of the state and of citizens in social development; how do states’ and citizens’ expectations of each other and actual performances compare; and which institutions significantly shape them? In four interdisciplinary presentations, we will discuss these themes theoretically and empirically, emphasizing the implications for social development policies and practices.
The first presentation by Louise Munkholm concerns the role of the state in ensuring that welfare services and benefits are equally accessible to citizens. It draws on the Access to Legislation literature to discuss how social justice is administered and promoted by the state in theory and in practice.
The second presentation by Marianne S. Ulriksen discusses theoretical perspectives on studying citizens’ perceived duties towards building just societies. A central question is whether citizens feel obliged to meet state requirements or whether they rather feel an obligation towards meeting the needs of their immediate community.
The third presentation by Ane Karoline Bak focuses on the influence of social institutions and norms on what citizens expect of the state and what the implications of strong social institutions are for social development policies.
The fourth presentation by Alesha Porisky discusses citizens’ perceptions and practices of citizenship, with a focus on the ways in which cash transfers impact citizens’ access to the state, their affective attachment to the state, and their understanding of their own rights and responsibilities as citizens.
The roundtable will be chaired by Sophie Plagerson, Visiting Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA), University of Johannesburg.
Biography
Marianne S. Ulriksen is Associate Professor at the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies (DaWS), at the Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark. Marianne has specialized in welfare studies in the Global South and has published extensively on themes such as social protection development, social and redistributive justice, comparative politics, taxation and resource mobilization, and poverty and inequality. She is affiliated to the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA), University of Johannesburg, as a Senior Research Fellow.
Ms Ane Karoline Bak
Assistant Professor
Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, University of Southern Denmark
Urban restructuring policy and practices in Global North and South
Biography
Ane is Assistant Professor at DaWS at the Department of Political Science and Public Management. She holds an MA and PhD in Political Science from Aarhus University and an MA in Africa and International Development from University of Edinburgh. In her thesis, she studies the role of taxation in societal actors’ accountability demands in Senegal. Her research focusses the role of taxation in redistribution, welfare state development and accountable governance. She applies a comparative and qualitative approach with strong attention to grounding observations and analysis in the local relevant social, political and economic contexts.