Caroline de la Porte
Professor
Primary research areas
European Union Public Policy and Governance
Comparative Social and Labour Market Policy
Public Policy, Work and Care
Political Institutions, Public Policy and Societal Outcomes
A distinctive feature of my research is the multi-level and nested perspective. At the EU level, I examine how political actors and coalitions shape policy choices that alter EU governance and instruments. At the national level, I analyse, firstly, the role of political actors, in shaping how EU policies are re-interpreted and implemented. Secondly, I examine the role of welfare state and labour market institutions in delivering an EU-initiated policy, with different effects across countries. Increasingly, I follow policies further downstream, examining how institutions interact with occupations and workplace practices to shape opportunities and outcomes for different groups of citizens.
Methodologically, my research combines comparative and longitudinal institutional analysis using qualitative and quantitative data. I draw on EU and national policy documents, interviews with policymakers and stakeholders, interviews with managers and workers, and cross-national survey data. This allows me to connect the politics of policy development in different institutional settings, with diverse organisational practices, affecting outcomes for men and women.
My research is closely connected to policy and practice. My earlier experience at the European Social Observatory in Brussels provided first-hand knowledge of the politics underlying EU policy processes, and I have since maintained sustained engagement with policy-makers, social partners and practitioners. I see this engagement as a two-way relationship: it informs my understanding of how policies operate in practice while enabling my research to contribute to policy debates.
Recent research projects
Achieving Work-Life Balance: Citizens, Policies and Firm Perspectives (AGILE)
AGILE examines how public policies, labour market institutions and workplace practices interact to shape men’s and women’s actual opportunities for work-life balance in Denmark, Austria, Spain and South Korea. The project moves beyond approaches centred primarily on employment and care by examining how individuals combine paid work, care and other dimensions of life, including leisure.
A central contribution of AGILE is to connect analytical levels that are often studied separately. It examines how national institutions and policies interact with occupations and workplace practices, and how these interactions shape outcomes for different groups of workers. At the micro-level, particular attention is given to gender, occupations and skills, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises.The project develops high-quality original comparative data, combining a cross-national survey with qualitative interviews with managers and workers. This makes it possible to examine when, for whom and under what institutional and workplace conditions policy and rights translate into meaningful opportunities.
The EU as a Socially Progressive Regulatory Welfare State? Policies, Outcomes and Citizens
In this monograph, I examine the changing role of the EU in social and labor market policy. I focus on understanding whether and if so, how European intervention contributes to socially progressive policies and outcomes across member states.
Building on my longstanding research on European integration and social policy, I examine how regulatory and other European policy instruments embody changing political priorities, how they alter the relationship between European and national social policymaking, and whether increasingly expansive European social rights translate into substantive change across EU member states.
The project follows these policies downstream, examining how European initiatives interact with different national welfare state and labor market institutions and what these differences imply for citizens. It thereby connects EU level policy development with national institutional change and, ultimately, with the citizens EU-initiated social policies are intended to benefit.