Keetie Roelen

I'm celebrating #poverty #changemakers 🤩🥳
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I started new bi-monthly series on @povertyunpacked.bsky.social #podcast with shout outs to individuals, groups, initiatives that do incredible work to make the world 🌎 a better place
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Check it out 👉 poverty-unpacked.org/2026/03/02/e...

Ep. 04 – What Future Studies Can Bring to Global Development, with Shakil Ahmed

🎧 New podcast out!

@keetieroelen.bsky.social talks to Shakil Ahmed, educator, storyteller, and futurist at Ridiculous Futures. He unpacks different approaches to future studies and shares his thoughts on the role of various methods to explore the future.
open.spotify.com/episode/5Fxf...

Number of workers on zero-hours contracts hits record high There has been a 181,000 increase in the number of zero-hours contracts since Labour was elected.

Number of zero-hour contracts reaches record-high in UK
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>> I discuss how this rise in insecure #employment and #work increases risk of #poverty in the #podcast The WorkPlace
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>> Listen here: shows.acast.com/the-workplac...
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#workplacennd @resonancefm.bsky.social
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Celebrating International Women's Day by discussing how #empathy and #hope can contribute to #social #change >> join me at the #DutchCentre on Thursday 5 March
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Tickets 🎟 👉👉
www.dutchcentre.com/events/inter...

Listen to my fascinating conversation with @esmahlahlah.bsky.social on @povertyunpacked.bsky.social about how to make #welfare more dignified AND smarter 👉 poverty-unpacked.org/2026/01/18/e...

Examining poverty reduction and welfare through the lens of empathy and dignity | LSE III Event Part of the Inequalities Seminar Series Tuesday 10 February 2026 Speaker: Dr Keetie Roelen, Senior Research Fellow in Poverty and Social Protection and Co-Deputy Director at the Centre for the…

Missed our recent seminar with @keetieroelen.bsky.social?

In this talk, she asks: what can the lens of empathy and dignity bring to our understanding of poverty and the policies that seek to tackle it?

Watch it here ⬇️

Why empathy matters in tackling poverty.
@keetieroelen.bsky.social from @oucsgd.bsky.social writes for @eadi.bsky.social on how dignity- and agency-centred approaches can improve anti-poverty policy — and avoid cycles of blame and shame.
Read more: buff.ly/ia7fKK6

Still time to register for my seminar tomorrow @lseinequalities.bsky.social on examining #poverty and anti-poverty policy through #empathy lens 👇👇

Why We Need Empathy to Tackle Poverty By Keetie Roelen“You need a new vacuum cleaner? Can you prove that your current one is really broken?” This was the response Hanny received from the welfare office in the Dutch city of Tilburg when…

"Instead of offering supportive and compassionate pathways towards improved livelihoods, (these policies) have become a means for policing and punishing the poor

🔎 Read our related blog post by @keetieroelen.bsky.social (@oucsgd.bsky.social) here: www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2492

How do empathy and dignity reshape anti-poverty policy?
Join @keetieroelen.bsky.social, @oucsgd.bsky.social at the Inequalities Seminar.
📚 Based on her book The Empathy Fix
📅 Feb 10th, 2026
📍 LSE Centre Building 2.04 and on Zoom

Find out more: buff.ly/1VecjVM

Thought-provoking piece by my colleagues Julia Chukwuna and Kevin Deane with critical reflections on targeted #cashtransfers through lens of #coloniality
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Based on research @oucsgd.bsky.social at @theopenuniverse.bsky.social in collaboration with @idos-research.bsky.social

How can we develop a more empathetic and dignified approach to anti-poverty and welfare policies?

In our next seminar, @keetieroelen.bsky.social explores the double standards and myths that underpin attitudes to poverty.

💻️ Attend online: buff.ly/GgEC13T
🎟️ Attend in-person: buff.ly/fNtpaAX

Inequalities Seminar - Examining poverty reduction and welfare through the lens of empathy and dignity Examining poverty reduction and welfare through the lens of empathy and dignity LSE Centre Building 2.04 and on Zoom  Speaker:Dr Keetie Roelen, Senior Research Fellow in Poverty and Social Protection ...

What can the lens of #empathy bring to understanding #poverty and #policies that seek to tackle it?
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Excited to be holding seminar next week at @lseinequalities.bsky.social
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10 February 12.30 GMT - in person or online
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👉 www.ticketleap.events/tickets/iiil...

Milton Keynes residents 'cut off by lack of transport links' A report looks at transport inequality and finds one family spends £800 a month getting to school.

Great to see our research on experiences of living im new estates in #MiltonKeynes making #BBCnews once more
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@openuniversity.bsky.social
@oucsgd.bsky.social
#CommunityActionMK
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BBC News - Milton Keynes residents 'cut off by lack of transport links' - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thrilled to receive Josh Seim’s new book THE WELFARE ASSEMBLY LINE.

This is the BEST book on the administration and delivery of welfare programs I’ve read in years. Totally changed how I think we should think about the delivery of social services.

www.ucpress.edu/books/the-we...

Record number of people in UK live in ‘very deep poverty’, analysis shows Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds problem is ‘deeper and more damaging than at any point in the last 30 years’

About 6.8 million people – half of all those in poverty – were in very deep poverty, the highest number and proportion since records began three decades ago - @jrf-uk.bsky.social analysis
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

🚨 Social protection isn’t just about the future. Colonial legacies and postcolonial power still shape who is protected - and who is left behind.

✍️ New blog: Social protection and coloniality
👉 buff.ly/g1VzvmK
📚 First post in a new #BlogSeries

@openuniversity.bsky.social

Why We Need Empathy to Tackle Poverty By Keetie Roelen“You need a new vacuum cleaner? Can you prove that your current one is really broken?” This was the response Hanny received from the welfare office in the Dutch city of Tilburg when…

"While poverty rates and the contexts in which they play out are different across country contexts, there is one common denominator in the existence of poverty and the stagnating fight against it: a lack of empathy."

✍️ From our blog
www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2492

What happens when education works WITH communities, not around them?
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This story of PLACE in Tees Valley offers an insight!
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Lots here for anyone interested in place-based working, collaboration, and impact beyond the school gates
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www.teesvalleyeducation.co.uk/place-impact...
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#PLACE #TVEd

Delighted to drop this #podcast episode of @povertyunpacked.bsky.social with Dutch MP @esmahlahlah.bsky.social 🇳🇱 about how to change #welfare towards #trust #dignity and #solidarity
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👉 poverty-unpacked.org/2026/01/18/e...

Government to offer cash payouts for people in financial crisis The replacement to the Household Support Fund aims to help people facing sudden difficulties.

Good news - let's hope that people needing this #cash don't have to jump through multiple stressful and undignified hoops to get it
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BBC News - Government to offer cash payouts for people in financial crisis - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why We Need Empathy to Tackle Poverty By Keetie Roelen“You need a new vacuum cleaner? Can you prove that your current one is really broken?” This was the response Hanny received from the welfare office in the Dutch city of Tilburg when…

Why do we need #empathy to tackle #poverty?
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Read my new blog post for @eadi.bsky.social on the need to place #dignity #trust #empathy front and centre in anti-poverty policy.
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👉 www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2492

Why We Need Empathy to Tackle Poverty By Keetie Roelen“You need a new vacuum cleaner? Can you prove that your current one is really broken?” This was the response Hanny received from the welfare office in the Dutch city of Tilburg when…

"If we want to move the needle on stagnating poverty rates, we need anti-poverty policies that break rather than reinforce the cycle of blame and shame. For this, we need empathy."

✍️ @oucsgd.bsky.social's @keetieroelen.bsky.social in our first blog of the year

www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2492

Super chuffed with this endorsement for #TheEmpathyFix from amazing writer and columnist Nicola Chester
@nicolawriting.bsky.social 🤩

Social development organisation #QuietNetherlands have a unique approach to softening #poverty
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Learn more from its founder and director in Episode 52!
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👉 poverty-unpacked.org/2025/12/14/e...

Excellent piece about Dutch #digital #ID and grave concerns about who holds control over #data - plus implications for #UK
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By @georginasturge.bsky.social
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#DigID

What is needed to fix homelessness in 2026?

Efforts to tackle homelessness in 2026 will see the Vagrancy Act finally scrapped. But politicians must make it more than a symbolic gesture.

2025 >> 6 insightful conversations @povertyunpacked.bsky.social #podcast
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👉 tackling #homelessness
👉 organising to fight #poverty
👉 #solutions to #childpoverty
👉 #disadvantage in #schools
👉 #housing policy
👉 #softening poverty through #community
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poverty-unpacked.org

The Empathy Fix is recommended by @projectsyndicate.bsky.social in their newsletter this week 🤩
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#empathy #poverty #socialchange #bookrecommendation
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Submit your paper to #DSA2026 on topics below AND new ways of understanding and tackling #poverty
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Deadline 30 December
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