Ongoing projects
The Integration of Artificial Intelligence into Bureaucratic Practice: Regulation, Implementation, and Social Acceptance (2025-2029)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most important topics that the economy, society, and politics must address in this era. Notably, the publication of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, has made AI an integral part of the daily reality for many individuals. An important aspect of this development is that these technologies will also be utilized by decision-makers in public services, such as caseworkers in local, regional, and national administrations. Against this background, there is a need for research that examines this trend in public administration and explores how organizations in the public sector plan and evaluate their use of such technology and whether do citizens and experts accept the usage for public service provision. Therefore, this project undertakes research into how and why public administration plans and uses artificial intelligence in administrative practice, and under which conditions citizens and experts support such handlings. To examine this research question empirically, we will analyze the documentation regarding the usage of public administration, conduct expert interviews on the usage of AI and its experiences, and field a survey (including experimental interventions) on the social acceptance of the integration of AI into administrative practice. The results will inform the academic community about the specific conditions under which the usage of artificial intelligence in administrative practice receives support and the factors that influence such approval. This research is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Rethinking Co-creation of Digital and Environmental Policy in Systems of Multilevel Governance (RECODE MLG) (2025-2028)
This project analyses multilevel governance in times of digital and climate transitions. The project investigates co-creation as a process that can precisely achieve this objective, by proactively involving multiple actors – including policymakers, stakeholders, citizens and volunteers – in a collaborative endeavour, to identify both problems and solutions related to the twin transition. RECODE MLG brings together leading experts on MLG, sustainability politics, digitalisation, co-creation, democratic theory and deliberative innovation with civil society, industry stakeholders and policymaking representatives. It assesses governance structures at three critical sites of twin transition and designs and implements four co-creation labs in order to advance state-of-the-art and produce policy recommendations and a practical ‘tool-kit’ to support inclusive policymaking on twin transition in MLG. The project is funded by the Horizon program of the European Union.
From Hospital to Home: Analysis of Transition Processes in a National Sample (2024-2027)
This study aims to investigate what transitional care guidelines are used in the Swiss healthcare system, how they are enacted in their specific (cantonal) context and what are the participants’ experiences with the proposed transitional care. We will focus on three levels: the health policy level (macro level), the healthcare institutions and community level (meso level), and the professionals’, patients’ and informal caregivers’ experiences (micro level), using a triangulation method to better understand the complexity of transitional care. The project is led by the Haute École de Santé Vaud. The team at UNIL analyses the politico-adminstrative regimes for inteprofessional collaboration in transition processes. This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). (More information)
Completed projects
The Politicization of E-Government: A Comparative Analysis across Policy Domains and Countries (2020-2024)
This project analyzes the politicization of electronic government (e-government) across policy domains and countries. I pose the question how the use of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in government is politicized? In other words, I examine how data storage and exchange for governmental services becomes subject to political conflicts, which are the involved actors, how are political coalitions polarized, how are issues framed, and which are proposed policy changes? Furthermore, I investigate whether and why there are differences between countries and policy domains. This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). (More information)
Development of Personalized Health in Switzerland: Social Sciences Perpectives (2019-2022)
This project engages with Personalized Health in Switzerland from an interdisciplinary perspective deeply grounded in the social sciences (i.e. Science and Technology Studies, Anthropology of biomedicine, Health Economics, Political Sciences, Health Law, Practical Ethics and Sociology of Public Engagement with Science). The scope and ambitions of Swiss biomedical institutions currently working towards the realization of Personalized Health requires in fact recognizing the potentially profound impact of this endeavour on social categories of biomedicine, on regulatory standards, and on the economic functioning of healthcare. Our general goal is to scrutinize how the implementation of Personalized Health in Switzerland rests upon the alignment of both the techno-scientific and the socio-political components of this initiative. This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). (More information)
When and why do governments integrate policy sectors? A comparative analysis of eleven countries and four policy areas (2016-2020)
Nowadays it is well known amongst political science researchers that governments have delegated authority upwards to the supranational level, downwards to subnational jurisdictions, and sideways to independent regulators and private actors. Whereas the instrumental goal of delegating power is to reduce bureaucracy while improving governance capacity in an increasing complex society and in a globalized economy, delegation also came along with coordination problems, due to the fragmentation of state power. In this project, we analyze the (re)integration of policy sectors in four issue areas, in thirteen countries over a period of 34 years. This research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). (More information)