Knowledge hub Security and Social Resilience

The Knowledge Hub Security and Social Resilience (in Dutch: Kenniswerkplaats Veiligheid & Veerkracht) focuses on complex issues such as policing and public order maintenance, social conflicts in neighbourhoods, networks beteen law enforcements and health care, (de-) radicalization, citizen participation, criminal infiltration, and how security is experienced by ordinary people. Working collaboratively with public-private partners towards co-created and custom-made policy and practice-oriented solutions, the knowledge hub aims to provide useful and novel insights, frameworks and tools. The research projects shed light on the social fabric and mechanisms that enable governments and society to adequately anticipate on new challenges and ‘wicked problems’ within the security domain.

The Knowledge Hub is an initiative of the ISR and the Verwey-Jonker Institute and is linked to A-LAB, the VU / NSCR Amsterdam Law and Behavior Institute. The Knowlegde Hub is distinguished by its multidisciplinary, scientific yet practice-oriented approach. In its portfolio of research projects, it collaborates with Dutch government on the national level, as well as with security regions, municipalities and the police force on the local level in their approach to security problems. Moreover, VU researchers and experts from the Verwey-Jonker Institute are closely connected with universities of applied science. This network strives to find evidence-based answers to fundamental questions regarding social issues and trends like social unease and social conflicts, criminal infiltration and radicalisation, emerging local security networks and the growing popularity of citizen participation in safety issues like neighbourhood watch, WhatsApp groups and prevention teams.

The Knowledge Hub also provides policy tools for governance and policy professionals, looking for social diagnosis/treatment combinations that are not only based on a quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of a problem but offers an intervention strategy that is developed with stakeholders involved as well. Examples are criminogeneity measurement which comprises social causes for criminal behaviour, a strategic model for local security arrangements, and a yardstick to test effectiveness of networks in addressing security problems.