Bastian KENN

Bio

I am a PhD fellow at the Centre d’études de la vie politique (CEVIPOL)/Institut d’études européennes (IEE). My dissertation focuses on EU politics and policies at the intersection of education and employment (vocational education and training, lifelong learning, etc.). I am broadly interested in social policy, the role of work and welfare in 21st century capitalism, the interplay between (sub-)national and international political arenas and qualitative research methods.

CV

• Since 2022: Doctoral Fellow, Université libre de Bruxelles
• 2021 - 2022: Master of Arts, European Political and Governance Studies, College of Europe, Bruges
• 2019 - 2021: Research Master, Political Science, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• 2017 - 2019: Project Manager, European Democracy Lab/eusg, Berlin
• 2017: Campaign Manager, Social Democratic Party of Germany, Mainz
• 2014 - 2017 Bachelor of Arts, International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen

Areas of research

• Politics and policies of the EU, socio-economic governance
• Social policy, welfare state reform, futures of work, education
• Qualitative research methods

Research

Upskill or die tryin‘?
30 years of manifesting education for employment and society: EU discourse from learning to skills (1996-2024)

My dissertation is a longitudinal study of EU policies and politics at the intersection of education and employment, covering roughly 30 years between the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996 and the European Year of Skills in 2023/2024. I argue that through policy and discursive practices, the EU has become a central actor in promoting education as employment policy. Against the backdrop of successive crises, I show how such discourse has become unapologetically neoliberal, relegating social-democratic concerns while increasingly conceiving of “capitalism as an immutable and objective mechanism for distributing ethical outcomes” (Means, 2015: 6). I use quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis, expert interviews, and observant participation.

Publications

Crespy, A. and Kenn, B. (forthcoming). Ideational Drivers of Welfare State Reform in the European Union, in B. Ebbinghaus and M. Nelson (eds.) Handbook on Welfare State Reform, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Kenn, B. (2023). Unger (Mathilde) – La justice sociale dans l’Union européenne. Citoyenneté et droits au-delà de l’État. – Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2022. 308 p. Revue française de science politique, 73, 146-147. https://doi.org/10.3917/rfsp.731.0146