About ReflecT
Introduction
The Research Institute for Flexicurity, Labour Market Dynamics and Social Cohesion at Tilburg University, to be referred to as ReflecT, is a inter-facultary and multi-disciplinary research institute initiated and coordinated by the Faculty of Law of Tilburg University in which also the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences are involved.
Mission
The mission of ReflecT is to perform high-quality multidisciplinary labour market and employment research, aiming at a leading academic position at the European level. The research area of the institute can be defined as: the challenges and issues that arise from on the one hand the tendencies towards and pleas for increased flexibility, dynamism and efficiency of labour markets, employment relations and the work organisation and on the other hand the need for preserving or developing social cohesion, participation and commitment in our societies, by means of social protection, security and solidaristic social organisation. Currently the debate on reconciling the economic and social dimension of society or, more specifically, labour market flexibility and security and cohesion is explicitly being framed in terms of ‘flexicurity’ approaches and policies. At the more micro level of the individual organization and the employment relationship we encounter the parallel tension between on the one hand added value, performance, productivity and on the other hand the need for legitimacy and fairness.
The institute combines, in a productive and creative manner, legal, economic, sociological and psychological approaches and, moreover, adopts a multi-level perspective, i.e. studying the interplay between various regulatory and institutional levels in society: the European/international, national, sector and company/individual level.
Activities
Core activities or deliverables of ReflecT will include:
- conducting academic research, based on a five-year scientific research programme, the publishing of scientific papers (within a scientific papers series), articles and books;
- collecting, enriching and developing data and datasets;
- drafting research proposals to be submitted to national and European research councils and research programmes (NWO, European Science Foundation, European Research Council, Framework Programmes);
- conducting, where deemed relevant to the scientific programme, research on behalf of stakeholders in the area studied, especially international actors, including, in particular, the European Commission, the European Parliament, European (but also national) social partner organisations, the Council of Europe, the International Labour Organisation and the OECD;
- organizing on a regular basis internal research meetings, facilitating researchers, senior and junior, to present and discuss ongoing research;
- the supervision and training of PhD students and post doc researchers;
- organizing master classes and workshops;
- organizing a visitors programme, on the basis of a visiting researcher/professor chair and young researchers exchange programmes within the framework of European and international research networks in which the senior staff already participate (a part of these networks have been initiated by Tilburg staff);
- dissemination of research findings, among other things by means of the institute’s website;
- promoting and organizing debate on scientific and policy issues.