Daniel Beland
Daniel Beland

JSGS Professor and CRC, Daniel Béland, elected president of international research committee

Daniel Béland, JSGS professor and Canada Research Chair, was elected President of the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (RC19) of the International Sociological Association.

Daniel Béland, JSGS professor and Canada Research Chair, was elected President of the Research Committee on Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (RC19) of the International Sociological Association. His term will last four years, starting in late July 2014.

The purpose of the committee is to encourage high-quality, scholarly research on areas such as the sources and character of social problems; the planning and administration of social programs; and more generally, public policies and intervention strategies aimed at alleviating social problems and influencing the society in that regard.

Béland’s current research focuses on discovering explanations of policy stability and change as they apply to fiscal and social policy. More specifically, his research seeks to clarify the causal relationship between ideas and institutions in policy change, as they relate to issues such as fiscal federalism and welfare state restructuring.

Daniel’s research assists scholars in better understanding policy change while encouraging international policy and social science debate and increasing policy awareness among citizens and policymakers.