Pieter Cools

Doctoral Student, WP4 and WP5

Pieter Cools is currently finishing his PhD in Sociology on the topic of social innovation in social services and poverty reduction in Flanders (Belgium) and England (UK). He worked for four years on the FP 7 ImPRovE research project (2012-2016) about poverty, social policy and innovation where he got acquainted with cross national comparative research, qualitative social science research methods and studying the relationships between public institutions and civil society. His research interests include urban and environmental sociology, social justice theory and the sociology of knowledge. His previous work dealt with policy development (in the field of social services and social work), normative principles for institutional change (notably on the work of Nancy Fraser), comparative case study analysis and studying innovation as a process of social learning that crucially involves connecting different societal perspectives and types of knowledge.