The TC network is guided by a Scientific Committee, which involves a group of eminent scholars in the field of social care. The members of the Scientific Committee receive regular updates about the network and meet annually. The Scientific Committee supports the organization of the conferences and any other activity directly organized by the network.
Prof. Karina Batthyany Dighiero
Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Karina Batthyany Dighiero is Professor of the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Republic, Uruguay. She is the author of numerous publications on the topics of social welfare, gender, public policies, unpaid work and care.
Prof. Yueh-Ching Chou
National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan
Yueh-Ching Chou is Professor at the Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, the National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. Her recent research focuses on disabled people’s independent living, older parental carers of people with intellectual/learning disability, and life stories of people with intellectual/learning disability.
Adelina Comas-Herrera
London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
Adelina Comas-Herrera is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). Her research interests are long-term care financing and policies, with a particular focus on people with dementia and their carers. She leads the LTCcovid initiative to support international learning on the impacts of the pandemic on people who use and provide care.
Prof. Barbara Da Roit
University Cà Foscari of Venice, Italy
Barbara Da Roit is an Associate Professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. Her research, embedded in comparative welfare studies, focusses on the relationship between changes in social policies and in social practices, with a specific interest in the field of care for elderly people and young children.
Dr. Jana Javornik
University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Jana Javornik is Associate Professor of Work and Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School, England. Her current research interest includes: comparative work-family policies and their impact across social groups and welfare states; equality, diversity and inclusion in the labour market; and conceptualisations and methods of comparative policy analysis.
Prof. Teppo Kröger
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Teppo Kröger is Professor of Social and Public Policy at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He leads the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare). In his research, Teppo Kröger has analysed care policy from local, comparative and global perspectives.
Dr. Blanche Le Bihan
Ecole des hautes études en santé publique, Rennes, France
Blanche Le Bihan is Professor at the French School of Public Health (EHESP) and Researcher at the CNRS research Centre ARENES. She conducts research on long-term care policies in France and Europe, where she investigates the evolution of the different policy measures in different national contexts and the everyday experiences of informal carers.
Prof. Margarita Leon
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Margarita León is Associate Professor at the Political Science Department of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. Her main areas of research are comparative public policy and welfare state reform.
Prof. Ingela Naumann
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Ingela Naumann is Professor of Social Policy, Social Work and Sociology at the University of Fribourg Switzerland since 2023. Prior to that she held a Chair in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh UK. Her research focuses on the comparison of welfare systems with particular reference to childcare, education and work/life balance and the intersections of religion, class and gender shaping these policy fields.
Prof. August Oesterle
Vienna University of Business, Austria
August Österle is a Professor of Social Policy at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. His research focuses on comparative welfare state research, in particular in the field of long-term care, on transnational social policy and on access to social services.
Prof. Birgit Pfau-Effinger
Hamburg University, Germany
Birgit Pfau-Effinger is Research Professor for Sociology of Cultural and Institutional Change at the University of Hamburg, Germany. She has published widely on historical and cross-national thoerising and research about culture and welfare state policies, gender and the work-family relationship.
Prof. Marta Szebehely
Stockholm University, Sweden
Marta Szebehely is a Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her main research interest is in gender, social policy and care, and for more than three decades, she has analysed how policy and organisational changes in eldercare have affected the everyday life of care workers, older people with care needs and their family members.
Prof. Hildegard Theobald
Vechta University, Germany
Dr. Hildegard Theobald is Professor for Organizational Gerontology at the University of Vechta, Germany. Her research areas concern international comparative research on long-term care with regard to policies and policy development, marketization and professionalisation of care work, and care migration. A strong focus of her research is the issue of inequalities from an intersectional perspective.
Prof. Sue Yeandle
University of Sheffield, UK
Sue Yeandle is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield, where she is the Director of CIRCLE (Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities). Her research focuses on the relationship between work and care, how policies affect caring throughout the life course, and the role of technology in supporting carers. She is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Care and Caring.