Department of Sociology
Faculty of Social Sciences & Solvay Business School
QRIA conducts community-based research for social change by combining research and action and creating environments to counter social injustice and to improve the quality of life for people leaving in the margins of society. The group focuses on the development of human rights-based and empowering research methodology and conducts research in different countries, such as Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, Congo, Palestine, Uganda and recently Syria, with the aim to enhance the psychosocial wellbeing of children, adolescents and families living in vulnerable situations due to war (child soldiers, war-affected children, refugee children) and/or social-economical risk factors (poverty, migration and social exclusion).
Department of Criminology
the Faculty of Law and Criminology
This group undertakes critical and multidisciplinary research in Youth Criminology, Penology, Urban Criminology, and Policing and Surveillance. The group has a longstanding research tradition related to children’s rights in youth justice and
conducted several research projects on the Belgian youth justice system. Last years, the focus is on youth delinquency and crime, more specific on judicial trajectories of youth delinquents (boys and girls), observations in youth justice settings (youth court, institutions, restorative justice), in-depth interviews and file analysis to retrace the voice of the child in justice procedures.
Department of Sport and Movement Sciences
Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy
SASO focuses on the study of developmental, societal and policy-related issues regarding sport involvement of various segments of the population (e.g., youth, elderly, people with disabilities) and related to sport participation within different contexts (i.e., organised, informal and alternatively organised sport) and levels (i.e., grassroot and elite sport). In relation to grassroot level sport, the group developed a special interest in studying individual and social meanings of sport participation among specific groups (e.g., socially deprived youth, ethnic minorities). This interest originally resulted in conducting primarily applied and policy preparing research.
Department of Educational Sciences
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
This institute has extensive experience with community engaged research and learning in education through tutoring-, co-teaching-, and broad school projects that support students, teachers and school-teams, and through collaborative action research conducted by teams of teachers, educators, apprentice-teachers, parents and others who are engaged in realizing school developmental goals. The main focus lies on facilitating learning opportunities of children, the aim is to improve young people's learning opportunities and promote their social involvement and participation, with a particular focus on vulnerable young people.