Audrey VANDELEENE

Bio

• Strategic Manager for The Social Study, the Belgian probability panel (https://thesocialstudy.be/)
• Lecturer in the bachelor in social and human sciences and in the master's programme in political science
• Coordinator of the FNRS funded WHYCAN research project on candidates' political ambition (2025-2029)
• Co-editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Politics of the Low Countries (2024-2027) - with Maurits Meijers
• Co-convenor of the working group on Gender and Politics from the Belgian Political Science Association - with Sophie Jacquot and Clémence Deswert
• Full CV

Domaines d'intérêt

Teaching

    •    POLI-D3710 Partis politiques
    •    POLI-D303 Partis politiques

Research

The Social Study
The Social Study (https://thesocialstudy.be/) is a pluridisciplinary research infrastructure funded by the FWO, the FNRS and Statistics Flanders, and co-owned by the 10 Belgian universities. It enables the collection of high-quality survey data. The Social Study consists of a panel of 5000 Belgian residents surveyed every eight weeks online and offline, with a probability sample enabling conclusions to be drawn at population level. It is a valuable tool for all researchers interested in survey data at Belgian level. Research teams can apply to field their own survey (against payment), which are reviewed by TSS Scientific Committee and implemented by TSS staff. One can also download TSS datasets available open access on SODHA (https://www.sodha.be/dataverse/tss), for research or pedagogical purposes.


Why do people run as candidates? (Whycan) : FNRS Research projet (PDR)
Candidates' motivations for running for office are an important theme in the study of representation. Empirical work on this subject has shown that this decision is the result of an interaction between personal motivations and the opportunity structure that is the political system. Research reports different stages in candidacy, distinguishing between interest in a candidacy (nascent political ambition), the decision to be a candidate (expressive political ambition) and the willingness to continue/progress or not apply anymore (stable/progressive/discrete political ambition). However, the results are limited in that they consider only a limited number of motivations, concern mainly American applications and do not consider inequalities in access to the opportunity structure linked to social inequalities. The aim of the WHYCAN project, using a mixed methodology, is to understand the different types of motivation that underlie the decision to be a candidate, how these motivations interact with the opportunity structure of the Belgian system, and how social inequalities condition interest in this form of political participation. The project involves two research teams from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain – CESPOL – under the leadership of Prof. Pierre Baudewyns) and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB – CEVIPOL - under the leadership of Prof. Jean-Benoit Pilet and Dr. Audrey Vandeleene).
 

Publications

    •    Vandeleene, Audrey (2024). The why of candidate selection. How party selectors handle trade-offs between party goals. Party Politics, 30(1), 73-84. doi:10.1177/13540688231174813

    •    Coffé Hilde, Devroe Robin, Vandeleene Audrey, Wauters Bram. 2022. Preferences and Perceptions about Politicians’ Goals and How They Impact Women and Men’s Political Ambition. European Journal of Politics and Gender 5(2). pp. 191-210 doi: 10.1332/251510821X16423796696763

    •    Vandeleene, Audrey, De Winter, Lieven, Baudewyns, Pierre (editors) (2018) Candidates, Parties and Voters in the Belgian Partitocracy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96460-7

    •    Vandeleene, Audrey (2018) La sélection des candidats aux élections par les partis politiques. L'exemple du scrutin du 25 mai 2014. Courrier hebdomadaire du CRISP. 33 (2398): 5–40. https://doi.org/10.3917/cris.2398.0005