Professor Kenneth Nelson
Barnett Professor of Social Policy
Head of Department
Athena Swan lead
Professor Kenneth Nelson
Contact
+441865270335
Research themes
Child and family welfare
Health inequalities and social policy
Political economy
Poverty & social inequalities
Professor Kenneth Nelson holds the Barnett Professorship in Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) at the University of Oxford. He joined DSPI and St Cross College in April 2023. Nelson is also Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.
Prof Nelson conducts research on the drivers and consequences of welfare states and social policy, often using comparative research methods. He has written extensively on various topics related to social policy, including partisan politics, poverty, social inequality, health, intergenerational justice, and employment.
Nelson is the director of the internationally renowned Social Policy Indicators Database (SPIN). He is also co-chair of the European Social Policy Analysis network (ESPAnet), which is the largest international research community on social policy in Europe, if not the world. He is board member of the Foundation for International Studies of Social Security (FISS), and active as an expert in the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAN) funded by the European Commission (formerly ESPN).
Prof Nelson is currently also directing and participating in several externally financed research projects on the eco-social welfare state, sustainable development, in-work tax credits, the dualization of social rights, educational finance, and many more. Prof Nelson is also one of the co-editors of the Journal of European Social Policy (JESP).
