La Faculté des Sciences Sociales a le plaisir de vous inviter à la soutenance de thèse de Monsieur Nicolas Jacquet en vue de l'obtention du Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales. 

La thèse, dont le titre est The erosion of social protection principles: qualitative research on the role of social work in the lives of citizens in precarious situations, est rédigée en anglais et réalisée en cotutelle entre les Universités de Liège et de Gand. Deux défenses sont prévues :

• défense interne à Gand le 27 février (9h-11h)
• défense publique à Liège le 2 avril (9h-11h). 

Summary

Over the last forty years, poverty reduction strategies have evolved in the Belgian political system, percolating through the heart of public action mechanisms (Pallier & Surel, 2005). The poverty reduction narrative has gradually become a field on its own in the political spectrum, with countless political representatives at all levels of the Belgian federal state. From the Communities to the Federal State with the Regions in between, poverty reduction strategies are developed at all levels of the state. Among other political positions, it includes a Secretary of State, one minister in each region, one Public Center for Social Welfare (P.C.S.W.) in each municipality, whose areas of decision-making cover public measures to struggle poverty. In the same vein, countless private organizations continue to emerge and position themselves in the field of poverty reduction strategies, such as private foundations and Non-Profitable Organizations. We believe that the emergence of Poverty Reduction Strategies on the political agenda as a mode of public action (Pallier & Surel, 2005) shows the gradual shift from one social model to another or in sociological terms, from one cognitive and normative matrix or paradigm (Pallier & Surel, infra; Krumer-Nevo, 2016) to the other, with reference to a vital shift from welfare state principles to the workfare state. The gradual emergence of this latter paradigm has profoundly reshaped the Belgian social question and reshuffled the cognitive and normative frameworks inherited from the social pact of 1944 (Vrancken, 2012). 

The knowledge ambition of our doctoral research is to examine how contemporary social policies orientations and the focus on poverty and child poverty reduction strategies directly impact social work frameworks and interventions. Our exemplary focus will be on the most preeminent public institution that embodies poverty reduction strategies in Belgium, the Public Centre for Social Welfare and its evolution over the last hundred years. Furthermore, we will demonstrate the erosion of social protection principles in the framework of poverty and child poverty reduction strategies, from the perspective of social work practices and families. 

Jury

La thèse de Nicolas Jacquet est réalisée en cotutelle entre les Universités de Liège et de Gand. La procédure de Gand prévoit la constitution de deux jurys pour la thèse : le « doctoral advisory committee » et l'« examination committee ». Ce dernier intervient uniquement lors des soutenances.

Doctoral Advisory Committee 

Prof. dr. Griet Roets (supervisor)
Ghent University, Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy 

Prof. dr. Didier Vrancken (co-supervisor)
Université de Liège, Faculté des Sciences Sociales 

Dr. Tineke Schiettecat
Ghent University, Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy 

Prof. dr. Daniel Zamora Vargas
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Département des Sciences sociales et des Sciences du Travail 

Prof. dr. Frédéric Schoenaers
Université de Liège, Faculté des Sciences Sociales 

Examination Committee 

Prof. Dr. Reitske Meganck (Chair)
Ghent University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Psychoanalysis and clinical consulting. 

Dr. Laura Van Beveren
Ghent University, Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy 

Prof. Dr. Didier Reynaert
Ghent University, Department of Social Work 

Dr. Aude Lejeune
Directrice de recherche CNRS, Université de Lille (France), Centre d’études et de recherches administratives, politiques et sociales, CERAPS . 

Dr. Rachel Brahy
Coordinatrice scientifique de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Université de Liège . 

Prof. Dr. Martin Wagener
Université Catholique de Louvain, Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication. 

Contact 

Nicolas Jacquet