Anja Eleveld is an assistant professor of social law at the VU University. She graduated in Labour Law (cum laude) (University of Amsterdam), Political Science (University of Amsterdam) and Cultural Anthropology (Utrecht University). In 2012 she obtained her PhD at the Law Faculty of Leiden University. 

Her areas of expertise include the legal protection of precarious workers and (working) recipients of social assistance, European Labour Law, comparative labour law and the social working of legal rules.

In addition to her work at the University, Anja Eleveld is a substitute member of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (College voor de Rechten van de Mens) and she is active in various societal organizations as a board member or an advisor (e.g. the Dutch Refugee Council, the Netherlands Institute for Social Security, the Union for Women and Law, the Clara Wichmann Institute and the Coalition for Pregnant Students and Studying Parents).

Currently Anja Eleveld is working on a comparative reserach project on labour law and zero hour contracts (in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK). In addition she is developing a research project on the meaningfulness of unfree work. 

In the period 2016-2020 Anja Eleveld worked on her  Veni-project on the legal protection of working recipients of social assistance (2016-2020). This research provides insights in the social working of legal rules in (work) relations that are characterized by (high) power imbalances.

In the past she has conducted research on inter alia: experiences of undocumented migrant domestic workers with labour law protection and unionization; experiences of pregnant students with the regulation of student pregnancy in education law; welfare to work legislation in (25) European welfare states; and the use of policy narratives in social security reforms in the Netherlands.

In her various multi-disciplinary research projects Anja Eleveld has sought to connect social-legal inquiry with insights from political philosophy.

Anja Eleveld is a member of the supervision committee of a University of the Groningen Research Project ‘The future of the universal welfare state: between social assistance and a guaranteed minimum income’.

Key Publications

English

- A. Eleveld, T. Kampen and J. Arts (eds.) (2020) Welfare to work in contemporary European welfare states. Legal, sociological and philosophical perspectives on justice and domination, Bristol: Policy Press. 

- A. Eleveld and F. Van Hooren (2018) ‘The governmentalization of the trade union and the potential of union based resistance. The case of undocumented migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands making rights claims’, Social & Legal Studies 27 (5), 596-615.

- A. Eleveld (2018) ‘The sanctions mitigation paradox in welfare to work benefit schemes’, Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 39 (2), 449-447.

- A. Eleveld (2016) ‘The role of ideas in policy and institutional change: A comparison of the open functional approach, constructivism and discourse theory’, Political Studies 64, (IS), 70-87.

- A. Paz-Fuchs and A. Eleveld (2016) ‘Workfare revisited’, Industrial Law Journal 45 (1), 29-59.

-A. Eleveld, 'The role of rhetoric and affect in policy changes. The case of Dutch life course policy', Critical Policy Studies 6 (3), p. 282-303. 

Dutch

- A. Eleveld (2020) 'De gedifferentieerde basisbaan', Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsrecht in Context (4),151-163.

- A. Eleveld (2019) 'Rechtstreekse horizontale werking van grondrechten van de Europese Unie: De lessen uit Egenberger, Bauer, en Cresco Investigation, Nederlands tijdschrift voor Europees Recht (3/4), 88-95. 

- A. Eleveld (red.) (2018) De Participatiewet, Deventer: Wolters-Kluwer.

- A. Eleveld en E. Dermine (2018) ‘Een mensenrechtenproof gemeentebeleid: arbeid, re-integratie en tegenprestatie’, NJCM-bulletin: Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Mensenrechten 43, 3, p. 355-374.

Anja Eleveld teaches the courses European Labour law in the law master (Dutch language) and the courses Sociology and Qualitative Research Methods in the Bachelor Law in Society (English language). She is the coordinatior of Amsterdam Law Forum (International student-run Law Journal) and she supervises master theses in the (broad) field of (European) labour law and social security law.

In 2017 the thesis of Anja Eleveld was nominated for the dissertation prize (2012-2016) in the area of labour law and social security law (shortlist of five dissertations).

In 2020 Anja Eleveld received a grant for a NIAS-Gak fellowship for the period February-June 2021 to work on her project 'the meaningfulness of unfree work'.  She also received a grant for a two weeks research stay at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 2021 to work on a collaborative research project on zero hours contracts.  

In 2015, Anja Eleveld received a NWO (Veni)grant (Dutch organization for Science) for her research project‘ The activating welfare state and the recipient of social assistance: the birth of a new worker in need of new rules?’

• NISZ (Nederlands Instituut voor Sociale Zekerheid) | Den Haag | Bestuurder | 2017-05-01 - present
• Netherlands Institute of Human Rights | Utrecht | Substitute Member | 2018-09-14 - present
• Vereniging Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland (Refugee Council) | Amsterdam | Member Advisory comittee reception and integration | 2019-01-23 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily