Areas of expertise:

Triin is a postdoctoral scholarship holder in the University of Konstanz supervised by Prof. Busemeyer and associate professor of public policy in the School of Governance, Law and society in Tallinn University. Her post-doctoral project “The policies, politics and distributional effects of education: the routes and challenges of Baltic skill regimes in the European context: EduPolB3'' is contributing to the understanding of Baltic specificities in the determinants of educational and social inequality by combining analysis of policy and politics of education. Before her post-doctoral project she worked as a departmental lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention in University of Oxford.

Her research is mainly focused on comparative social policy with a particular interest in education policy and social investment policies. While her earlier publications and projects were mainly focusing on educational choice and school choice policies, including service design/innovations in school/kindergarten allocation policies, her more recent research has been 1) extended to also include politics of and policy-making behind education policy and social investment policies; and 2) policy evaluation.

She holds a PhD in Government and Politics and a Master’s degree in Political Science from Tallinn University.

Previous and ongoing projects

Name of the project: EduPolB3, ongoing

Short description of the project:

Education is crucial for individual life courses and has strong implications at both the individual and national level. However, there is increasing concern about the exaggerated expectations of its effects as education might reproduce social inequalities across the life course and across generations. This indicates that the distributive implications of education are dependent on the composition of an existing education system. This project is dedicated to carrying out research on distributive implications of education focusing on the skill regimes of Baltic countries within the European context. It explains the institutional complementarity of these regimes and their impact on the outcome and politics of education. The result contributes to the understanding of Baltic specificities in the determinants of educational and social inequality so as to be better equipped to mitigate it. Furthermore, it shows how similar coalitional dynamics produce diverse policies in different contexts.

Name of the project: YOUNG-IN, ongoing

Short description of the project:

This COST Action aims to understand the interrelationship of disadvantages that young people across Europe face in the process of entering adulthood and how policies can mitigate this negative spill-over effect. Specifically, we are interested in sets of circumstances and factors that prevent young people from: finding a decent job; starting a family when they want; making their voice heard in the policy process. The scientific challenge that the proposed Action addresses is to build awareness and mutual usability of research findings across research disciplines and societal contexts. This understanding is especially important due to the fact that life domains are interrelated and disadvantages in one domain may cause negative spillover effects in another. Based on transdisciplinary knowledge on disadvantages it is possible to propose relevant policy interventions to tackle such situations and eventually to reduce risk of social exclusion. Focus is on cross-sectoral youth policy and investment approach in social policy that represent two efforts in finding novel solutions to contemporary concerns.

Name of the project: EEMD, previous

Our aim is to work out measures within the framework of modern family policies and interrelate labor market political measures. The result would be a mechanism that allows transparent and equal distribution of publicly provided nursery and kindergarten places. Positive discrimination of less-advantaged families and other political priorities (e.g. minimal walking distance or siblings) are worked out together with experts and partners and implemented as inputs for technical solution. Designed matching mechanism will consider both political priorities and intrinsic features of the mechanism, such as efficiency, equity, strategy-proofness and envy-freeness.