Bringing research to the kitchen table

The initiative for the policy brief collection originated within the UM Academic Board on Europe, affiliated with Studio Europa. “They saw that an enormous amount of relevant research is being conducted at UM,” says Valentino Vondenhoff, Head of Studio Europa. “But that knowledge often reaches policymakers only through individual networks. This could be done in a much more structural way.”

That’s how the idea to develop thematic collections of policy briefs emerged, each centred on an urgent societal issue. The first collection focused on circularity and was launched at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus. The briefs were presented to then State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen during an event attended by university officials, policymakers and businesses. “That moment was important,” Valentino says. “Not just symbolically, but practically. You immediately notice the difference between simply sending something around and actually engaging in conversation with policymakers and industry representatives.”

The second collection, on digitalisation, was a logical next step. In Brussels, the Digital Services Act had just been launched – legislation stating that actions that are illegal offline are also illegal online. Ten policy briefs, edited by Philippe Verduyn (Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience), brought together diverse perspectives on the law – from platform regulation to children’s lived experiences.

For Katleen, the invitation to contribute immediately resonated. “The digital debate is incredibly skewed,” she says. “Everyone talks about TikTok and Instagram, while for children from the age of eleven, Snapchat is often the most important platform.”

This observation coincided with a moment of societal unrest. While she was writing her policy brief, a shocking case in Eygelshoven unfolded, involving the circulation of images of murder and sexual abuse of children. “You really feel how urgent this topic is,” Katleen says. “The Digital Services Act aims to protect children, but Snapchat has no real age verification. Officially you have to be thirteen, but in practice an eleven-year-old – or someone even younger – can easily create an account.”

These kinds of blind spots are precisely what Studio Europa aims to make visible. “Policymakers often work with abstractions: ‘large platforms,’ ‘risk groups,’” says Magdalena Kohl, who coordinated the policy brief project. “Researchers like Katleen can serve as an important bridge by translating such terms into what they mean in daily life – and conversely by providing policymakers with concrete examples from practice.”

In her policy brief, Katleen zooms in on specific Snapchat features such as Snap Map and streaks – features that may appear playful but deeply affect social relationships. “Parents often don’t realize that Snap Map allows you to see exactly where someone lives,” she explains. “For children, this means their physical world is continuously visible online.”

Conversations with young people reveal how strongly platform mechanisms create social pressure. Streaks – the daily exchange of messages to maintain a score – become a measure of friendship and loyalty. “Children sometimes literally send meaningless messages just to avoid breaking a streak,” Katleen says. “If they go to summer camp, they’ll give their phone to a sibling so the streak can continue.”

According to Katleen, Snapchat is a compelling example of how technology helps shape moral norms. “You grow up with the idea that you must always be available and visible.”

What made this policy brief different from many previous publications was the way it was produced. Katleen involved a Digital Society student as co-author. “She was part of that world,” Katleen says. “I can analyse it, but she experienced the social dynamics of secondary school not too lang ago.”

For Magdalena, that is precisely the strength of these projects. “We try to support researchers not only in terms of content, but also in how they collaborate, write, and think about their audience,” she says. “That learning process is just as important as the final product.”

The first collection went through multiple layers of review, which took considerable time. “We learned from that,” Magdalena says. “For future collections, we are deliberately choosing a lighter review structure, with more room for exchange and timeliness.”

The policy brief collections are explicitly more than just a publication project. Around each collection, Studio Europa organizes events to bring researchers, policymakers, and the broader public into dialogue. For the digitalisation collection, events were held in Heerlen and Amsterdam. At one of these gatherings, the collection was presented to Member of the European Parliament Kim van Sparrentak, in conversation with representatives from the business community, among others.

“These are the moments when you see whether something resonates,” Valentino says. “But it’s also a learning process. For example, we realized that you need to involve the media much earlier if you really want to have impact.” These lessons are being applied to future collections, such as one on migration, for which Studio Europa is collaborating with a Brussels-based think tank. “We are now looking much more explicitly at the policy cycle,” Valentino says. “When is a theme politically relevant? When are policymakers really listening?”

Although the digitalisation collection has a strong European focus, Katleen hopes her policy brief will reach a different audience as well. “I wanted to reach Brussels, but also parents,” she says. “Many parents simply don’t realize how visible their children are on Snapchat.”

She sees a generation growing up accustomed to monitoring. “Always sharing where you are, always being traceable. That affects how you experience privacy and how you shape relationships.”

For Valentino and Magdalena, Katleen’s contribution fits perfectly within UM’s broader ambition. “We want to show that UM is an expertise centre for policymakers,” Magdalena says. “Not only on hardcore European politics, but on societal issues in the broadest sense.” Valentino adds: “The beauty is that researchers like Katleen show what there is to gain. Not only for policy, but for the university itself. Researchers learn to write differently, to think differently about impact.”

In a debate that often revolves around platforms, rules and numbers, Katleen brings the focus back to the lived experiences of young people. And thanks to the infrastructure that Valentino and Magdalena are helping to build, that voice does not remain confined to academia, but finds its way to Brussels, The Hague – and hopefully also to the kitchen table at home.

Text by: Eva Durlinger
Picture by: Claire Gilissen