European Educational Research Association (EERA)

The association is made up of 23 national and regional Educational Research Associations from all parts of Europe. The academic work is organised in 25 thematic networks including Network 23: Policy Studies and Politics of Education  that has an interest in understanding education, and educational continuity and change, from a 'critical social science' perspective.
Contact: Jakob Ditlev Bøje 

European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA)

ESREA promotes and disseminates theoretical and empirical research on the education of adults and adult learning in Europe through research networks, conferences and publications. Active members come from most part of Europe. Researchers from VELPRO are in particular involved in the network Life History and Biography as well as the Network on Work Life.
Contact: Henning Salling Olesen  and Kirsten Weber 

Nordic Educational Association on Politics of Education and Education Policy  (NFPF/NERA)

The focus’ of this network are political aspects of education and educational policy making. Hence, a point of departure is that educational phenomena are political, based on power relations, and are producing significant differences in culture and society.
Contact: Jakob Ditlev Bøje  

The European Sociological Association  (ESA)

ESA is an academic association of sociologists and a non-profit Europe-wide association made up of over 1500 members. The Network 19: Sociology of Professions is among the networks that researchers from VELPRO take part in. The focus of the network is to provide a European forum for the development, discussion and dissemination of research in the sociology of professions, and to encourage and organise international research projects.
Contact: Camilla Schmidt 

Network for Research on Men and Masculinities  (NeMM)

NeMM is a research network gathering and supporting researchers who work with research on men and masculinities. The researchers of the network work within all academic disciplines. The network has members of both sexes, and cooperation between male and female researchers is considered to be important. NeMM participates in the publication of the journal Norma – Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies in cooperation with NIKK – Nordic Gender Institute .
Contact: Steen Baagøe Nielsen 

International conferences Researching Work and Learning  (RWL)

The international conferences are focused on new research on work and learning. For information regarding the scientific committee and the international advisory committee please follow this link .
Contact: Henning Salling Olesen  

European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation  (ENMESH)

ENMESH is a network of active researchers in the field of Mental Health Service Research and Evaluation. The aim is to promote the development and dissemination of study designs, research instruments, mental health outcome indicators (including cost measurements), and relevant forms of statistical indicators. The network also functions as a clearing house for mental health service evaluation information in Europe.
Contact: Trine Wulf-Andersen 

International Research Group for Psycho-Societal Analysis  (IRGfPSA)

An interdisciplinary research group for the development and application of psycho-societal approaches to research and methodology. The members represent a range of social sciences including sociology, social psychology, psychoanalysis, criminology, cultural studies, education, social work and social policy.
Contact: Camilla Schmidt   and Kirsten Weber 

Danish network for research on 24-hour care centres

VELPRO is affiliated to a Danish network for research on 24-hour care centres which is located at The Danish National Centre for Social Research  (SFI).
Contact: Trine Wulf-Andersen 

Nordic network for childhood research (Nettverk for Barnelivsforskning)

Nordic childhood research is characterised by certain Nordic features which the network aims at developing. The ‘special Nordic features’ consist of the focus in research on three key issues: a) Children as agents in a social, cultural, and historical context, b) childhood as children’s lived lives, and c) The impact of research processes on children’s lives and children’s impact on research processes.

NordNet: Transnational Tendencies and Nordic School Development 

NordNet is a network of Nordic educational researchers from 13 Nordic universities  representing Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The network's focus is on the situation of education as a central area of the Welfare State.
Is national diversity being blurred by transnational tendencies in educational policy (PISA, OECD recommendations, EU indicators, the Bologna process etc.), or is a new Nordic approach to education emerging? The aim of the network is to explore these questions by creating synergy between groups of Nordic educational researchers dealing with the development of schools in relation to the new forms of educational governance (NPM, tests/ranking, accountability) being experienced across the whole region.
Contacts: Camilla Schmidt and Steen Baagøe Nielsen 

The members of the network have formed sub-groups that put special focus on different research areas.

Sub-Group: Pre-school & School (NordNet)

This sub-group pays attention to commonalities and differences between pre-school and school in Scandinavian (Nordic) countries. The point of departure is that pre-school and school are increasingly seen as part of comprehensive schooling, and life-long and life-wide learning in so-called knowledge economies. In the wake of PISA, the Lisbon declaration and so forth, national education strategies increasingly integrate pre-school and comprehensive school strategies. The subgroup intends to research what happens to pre-school as well as comprehensive school in these processes.
Contacts: Camilla Schmidt and Jakob Jakob Ditlev Bøje  

Research Network on Everyday Life Processes in European Societies (ELPiES)

ELPiES studies everyday life processes in time and space within the context of the ongoing modernization of European societies. The network takes an interdisciplinary and multimethodological approach to the study of everyday life, since the nature of everyday life is in fact transgressing and defying the boundaries of conventional academic disciplines. At the latest ELPiES conference entitled Subjectivity and Learning in Everyday Life, VELPRO chaired the workshop “Welfare, Professions, and Everyday Life”.
Contacts: Allan Westerling, Camilla Schmidt and Trine Wulf-Andersen

Critical Research on Men in Europe (CROME)

The European Research Network on Men in Europe was established with funding from the EC framework 5 project: ‘The Social Problem of Men: the Social Problem and Societal Problematisation of Men and Masculinities’. The network is an umbrella research network of researchers (female and male) who are researching on men and masculinities in an explicitly gendered way. It brings together researchers from European countries including: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, UK, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain and Sweden.
Contact: Steen Baagøe Nielsen  
Expert group for the European Union focusing on Lifelong Learning Contact: Henning Salling Olesen  

FORSA  – A society for research on social work

The society focuses on research and innovation in social work. Its aim is to further communication of knowledge, experiences, and results between research, education and innovation centres and the practice of social work. FORSA is also part of the Nordic cooperation FORSA Norden together with societies in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
Contact: Trine Wulf-Andersen