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Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) AISSR

Prof. dr. F. (Femke) Roosma

Dr. J.M. den Uyl chair
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Challenges to Democratic Representation
Area of expertise: Social policy, Welfare state, Welfare attitudes, Welfare state legitimacy, Deseveringness of beneficiaries, Democratizing the welfare state, Universal Basic Income
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
  • Postbus 15578
    1001 NB Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Prof. Dr. Femke Roosma is professor by special appointment at the Dr. J.M. den Uyl chair. She conducts research into the welfare state and social policy, and how these can ensure better social security and more social cohesion in society. In particular, she looks at how we can strengthen the legitimacy of the welfare state and how social policy can be more in line with what society considers important. How can the welfare state democratize?

    Research expertise

    • Social policy
    • Welfare state
    • Welfare attitudes
    • Welfare state legitimacy
    • Deseveringness of beneficiaries
    • Democratizing the welfare state
    • Universal Basic Income

    Media appearances

    • Interview Sociale Vraagstukken / Sociaal.net

    https://www.socialevraagstukken.nl/interview/femke-roosma-politiek-mag-niet-agenda-van-sociaal-professionals-bepalen/ 

    https://sociaal.net/achtergrond/femke-roosma-sociaal-beleid-verzorgingsstaat/ 

    • Interview with Belgian magazine Visie

    https://visie.net/artikel/waarom-we-mensen-met-een-uitkering-moeten-vertrouwen 

  • Research

    Research methods

    • Surveys
    • Survey experiments
    • Interviews
    • Case studies
  • Teaching

    BA

    • De samenleving aan zet: hoe kan de verzorgingsstaat van 'onderop' vernieuwen? 
  • Publications

    2025

    • Laenen, T., Meuleman, B., & Roosma, F. (2025). Welfare state attitudes, knowledge and reform. In Handbook on Welfare State Reform (pp. 319-331). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839108808.00035
    • Laenen, T., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2025). It's the middle that matters? Income group coalitions in support of redistributive welfare reform. International Journal of Social Welfare, 34(2), Article e70007. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.70007
    • Roosma, F., & Gielens, E. (2025). Universal basic income and its ambivalent relationship with work. In Research Handbook on Social Policy and Employment (pp. 336-347). Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • van Doore, A. D., & Roosma, F. (2025). The Perceived Procedural Paradox: Explaining (In)coherence in Attitudes Towards Conditionality and Complexity in the Dutch Welfare State. Social Policy & Administration. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.70037

    2024

    • Gielens, E., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2024). Dimensions of controversy: Investigating the structure of public support for universal basic income in the Netherlands. International Journal of Social Welfare, 33(2), 393-412. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12607
    • Gielens, E., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2024). More than a Free Lunch: A Content Analysis of the Controversies Surrounding Universal Basic Income on Dutch Twitter. Social Policy and Society, 23(3), 666-686. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746422000422
    • Haenraets, R., & Roosma, F. (2024). Welfare chauvinism in times of crises: The impact of the radical right political discourse. Journal of European Social Policy, 34(2), 159-174. https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287231224601
    • Roosma, F. (2024). “Onbehagen omsmeden tot vernieuwingskracht”: Naar een democratische verzorgingsstaat. Mens en Maatschappij, 99(4), 294-322. https://doi.org/10.5117/MEM2024.4.002.ROOS
    • van Rijn, M., Raab, J., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2024). To Prove and Improve: An Empirical Study on Why Social Entrepreneurs Measure Their Social Impact. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 15(2), 494-516. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2021.1975797

    2023

    • Gielens, E., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2023). Between left and right: A discourse network analysis of Universal Basic Income on Dutch Twitter. Journal of Social Policy, 11(10). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279422000976
    • Kochuyt, T., Abts, K., & Roosma, F. (2023). Varieties of welfare populism: Radical right voters between chauvinism and producerism. In A Research Agenda for Public Attitudes to Welfare (pp. 141-159). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800887411.00013
    • Laenen, T., & Roosma, F. (2023). Conclusion: Welfare attitudes research as a cathedral under permanent construction. In A Research Agenda for Public Attitudes to Welfare (pp. 229-248). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800887411.00017
    • Pop, I., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2023). Detraditionalization, mental illness reports, and mental health professional care use in Europe. European Sociological Review, 39(4), 532-544. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcac077
    • Roosma, F., & Laenen, T. (2023). A research agenda for public attitudes to welfare. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800887411

    2022

    • Laenen, T., & Roosma, F. (2022). Who Should Get What and Why? Insights from Welfare Deservingness Theory. In Solidarity and Social Justice in Contemporary Societies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understanding Inequalities (pp. 65-75). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93795-9-6
    • Roosma, F. (2022). A Struggle for Framing and Interpretation: The Impact of the ‘Basic Income Experiments’ on Social Policy Reform in the Netherlands. European Journal of Social Security, 24(3), 192-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/13882627221109846
    • van Oorschot, W., Laenen, T., Roosma, F., & Meuleman, B. (2022). Recent advances in understanding welfare attitudes in Europe. In Social Policy in Changing European Societies: Research Agendas for the 21st Century (pp. 202-217). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..

    2021

    • Reeskens, T., Roosma, F., & Wanders, E. (2021). The perceived deservingness of COVID-19 healthcare in the Netherlands: a conjoint experiment on priority access to intensive care and vaccination. BMC Public Health, 21(1), Article 447. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10488-3
    • Roosma, F. (2021). The social legitimacy of European welfare states after “the age of austerity”. In Handbook on Austerity, Populism and the Welfare State (pp. 110-129). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789906745.00015
    • Roosma, F., & van Oorschot, W. (2021). Between hope and fear? Regional and social dividing lines in attitudes towards an EU minimum income scheme. International Journal of Social Welfare, 30(2), 170-181. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12453

    2020

    • Meuleman, B., Roosma, F., & Abts, K. (2020). Welfare deservingness opinions from heuristic to measurable concept: The CARIN deservingness principles scale. Social Science Research, 85, Article 102352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.102352
    • Roosma, F. (2020). The Perceived Abuse of Welfare Benefits in Times of Crisis: Change or Stability in the Achilles’ Heel of Welfare State Legitimacy? In Welfare State Legitimacy in Times of Crisis and Austerity: Between Continuity and Change (pp. 46-67). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788976305.00014
    • Roosma, F., & van Oorschot, W. (2020). Public opinion on basic income: Mapping European support for a radical alternative for welfare provision. Journal of European Social Policy, 30(2), 190-205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928719882827
    • Rossetti, F., Roosma, F., Laenen, T., & Abts, K. (2020). An unconditional basic income? How Dutch citizens justify their opinions about a basic income and work conditionality. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 36(3), 284-300. https://doi.org/10.1017/ics.2020.15

    2019

    • Gielens, E., Roosma, F., & Achterberg, P. (2019). Deservingness in the eye of the beholder: A vignette study on the moderating role of cultural profiles in supporting activation policies. International Journal of Social Welfare, 28(4), 442-453. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12392
    • Roosma, F. (2019). Wie verdient nog onze solidariteit? Mens en Maatschappij, 94(4), 483-505. https://doi.org/10.5117/MEM2019.4.006.ROOS

    2018

    • Kootstra, A., & Roosma, F. (2018). Changing public support for welfare sanctioning in Britain and the Netherlands: A persuasion experiment. Social Policy and Administration, 52(4), 847-861. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12401

    2017

    • Meuleman, B., Roosma, F., & van Oorschot, W. (2017). Evaluating the fruitfulness of deservingness theory. In The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare: Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness (pp. 335-351). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..
    • Roosma, F., & Jeene, M. (2017). The deservingness logic applied to public opinions concerning work obligations for benefit claimants. In The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare: Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness (pp. 189-205). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..
    • Roosma, F., & van Oorschot, W. (2017). The social legitimacy of welfare states in European regions and countries: Balancing between popular preferences and evaluations. In Handbook of European Social Policy (pp. 415-431). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..
    • van Oorschot, W., & Roosma, F. (2017). The social legitimacy of targeted welfare and welfare deservingness. In The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare: Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness (pp. 3-33). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..
    • van Oorschot, W., Roosma, F., Meuleman, B., & Reeskens, T. (2017). The social legitimacy of targeted welfare: Attitudes to welfare deservingness. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785367212

    2016

    • Roosma, F., Van Oorschot, W., & Gelissen, J. (2016). A Just Distribution of Burdens? Attitudes Toward the Social Distribution of Taxes in 26 Welfare States. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 28(3), 376-400. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edv020
    • Roosma, F., van Oorschot, W., & Gelissen, J. (2016). The Achilles’ heel of welfare state legitimacy: perceptions of overuse and underuse of social benefits in Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 23(2), 177-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2015.1031157

    2014

    • Roosma, F., van Oorschot, W., & Gelissen, J. (2014). The preferred role and perceived performance of the welfare state: European welfare attitudes from a multidimensional perspective. Social Science Research, 44, 200-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.12.005
    • Roosma, F., van Oorschot, W., & Gelissen, J. (2014). The weakest link in welfare state legitimacy: European perceptions of moral and administrative failure in the targeting of social benefits. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 55(6), 489-508. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715214565932

    2013

    • Roosma, F., Gelissen, J., & van Oorschot, W. (2013). The Multidimensionality of Welfare State Attitudes: A European Cross-National Study. Social Indicators Research, 113(1), 235-255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0099-4

    2023

    • Roosma, F., & Laenen, T. (2023). Introduction to a research agenda for public attitudes to welfare. In A Research Agenda for Public Attitudes to Welfare (pp. 1-23). Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd..

    2009

    2024

    • Roosma, F. (2024). Onbehagen omsmeden tot vernieuwingskracht: Naar een democratische verzorgingsstaat. [details]

    2009

    2014

    • de Beer, P. T., Roosma, F., & Poorter, M. (2014). Met de dienstencheque tegen de tweedeling. De Volkskrant.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • Tilburg University
      Universitair Docent Sociologie
    • Stichting De Waterheuvel
      Bestuurslid
    • Stichting Straatalliantie
      Voorzitter Stichtingsbestuur
    • Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks
      Fellow
    • Tilburg University
      Associate Professor Sociology (0.8 fte)
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