In the last couple of years, I have developed a unique research agenda, using ethnographic methods and theoretical perspectives from sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, philosophy and law. This has helped me to study contemporary politics and practices of welfare in the Netherlands. I have detailed and analysed how welfare-to-work policies contribute to processes of precarisation in everyday state-citizen interactions, in the context of precarious labour markets and stringent welfare policy.

In my current research, I study practices and experiences of institutional violence within the welfare state. By studying contemporary welfare state violence and relating it to its (colonial) history, I want to contribute to a better understanding of the historically developed classed, gendered, racialised and ableist normative bases of welfare state arrangements and the resulting harm inflicted on certain populations. This contributes to redefining the violent outcomes of welfare states from ‘unintended’ to historically institutionalised, which opens up new ways of thinking about welfare state reform.