Professor Ingela Naumann
Job Title
Honorary Professorial Fellow
Research interests
Research interests
My research focuses on the comparison of welfare systems across space and time, with particular reference to childcare, early years and education, and the institutional and cultural contexts that shape policy and governance around these issues. Another focus of my research is on the role of political mobilization and intersections of religion, class and gender underlying welfare state formation and welfare reform politics. My work is grounded in a macrosocial and historical institutionalist perspective.
My current research examines the role of religion in shaping trust cultures and social cohesion in welfare systems from a global perspective, focusing in particular on international differences in social care and gender regimes (with funding from 100-Jahre Fonds, University of Fribourg). In the past I have led research projects on "Childcare and Wellbeing in Times of Coivd-19" (UKRI-funded, 2020-2022); on the role of religion in North-European welfare systems (with funding from ReNEW -"Reimagining Norden in an Evolving World"; Nordic Research Council; and NordWel Excellence Hub - "Nordic Welfare States, past and future", 2018-2020); and on international comparisons of early years and education policy, and the relation of work and care in welfare states (e.g. under the EU-FP7 project "Families And Societies - Changing families and sustainable societies" (2013 - 2017) and the EU-FP6 Nework of Excellence RECWOWE, 2009-2012). I have also led research tenders for the Swiss Government (Swiss Federal Commission for Family Questions, EKFF); the Scottish Government, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) where I was a Young Academy Fellow.
Recent publications include "Childcare and wellbeing in times of Covid-19: Developing crisis-resilient local care solutions" (2022); "Why Swedes trust the State and Scots don't: An exploration of varieties of Protestantism in the development of modern welfare systems", Journal of Church and State (with Lindsay Paterson) (2021); und "Rescaling education policy: Central-local relations and the politics of scale in England and Sweden", Journal of Policy and Politics (with Colin Crouch) (2020).
Background
Qualifications
- DiplSoz (Humboldt-University Berlin)
- PhD (European University Institute Florence
Current Positions
Ingela Naumann is Professor of Social Policy and Co-Director of the Department of Social Policy, Social Work and Global Development at the University of Fribourg. Prior to moving to Switzerland in 2023, Naumann held a Personal Chair in Comparative Social Policy at Edinburgh University where she remains involved in research, PhD supervision and public engagement activities as Honorary Professorial Fellow and Associate Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR). She also acts as Scientific Committee member of the Transforming Care network and as editorial advisor for the journal socialpolicy.ch