Erasmus University Rotterdam - Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Master in Power, Publics and Engagement
Rotterdam, Netherlands
MSc
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* application deadline for non-EEA students: 1 May.
Key Summary
About: The Master in Power, Publics and Engagement (MSc) studies contemporary forms of power—capitalism, whiteness, patriarchy and coloniality—by analyzing public issues where power is contested. You’ll study racist algorithms, smartphones as political objects and climate change, learn to broker publics, develop engagement and work with diverse stakeholders in small interactive classes.
Career Outcomes:
Career opportunities include: strategist or policy officer at NGOs and community groups, journalist or media advisor, researcher in academia, think tanks or advisory councils, consultant for public institutions, municipal or ministry researcher and government policy officer. Roles use skills in public sociology, policy analysis and stakeholder brokering.
Is this the programme you're looking for?
If you're interested in a critical approach to the main contemporary forms of power, from capitalism to whiteness, and from patriarchy to coloniality, this master's programme (MSc) is for you.
The study programme in a nutshell
The programme:
- provides the tools to critically analyse power through the public issues in which power is contested;
- works from, and helps develop, students own engagement with public issues;
- has dedicated professors, awarded with the best teacher awards by students in their department, and with experience in public social science;
- has small-scale, interactive tutorials, with lots of attention for the individual student;
- improves students’ ability to meaningfully work with people who come from a variety of backgrounds.
What does this study entail?
If you’re interested in understanding how algorithms can be racist, how your smartphone is a political object, or how climate change becomes an issue for a growing number of people, this programme is for you. It deals with contemporary public issues such as racism, automation or global warming that mobilize people to work towards change. Such issues are shaped far beyond the traditional domain of electoral politics and involve publics with different identities and interests, and with wholly different ways of imagining the future.
This programme doesn’t place one issue front and centre. It provides you with the tools to navigate and broker public issues, to develop your engagement with them and to intervene in them.
This programme:
- improves students’ ability to meaningfully work with people who come from a variety of backgrounds and have different types of expertise.
- The Social Sciences Department of Erasmus University Rotterdam ranks the highest of all of the continental European universities in the Shanghai Ranking.
The study programme in a nutshell
Public issues such as global warming, racism, transphobia or capitalist exploitation are shaped far beyond conventional political arena's. In this programme, you’ll learn how such issues are, shaped by the multifarious workings of power, including the ways power works through capital, gender, whiteness and logistical infrastructures. You’ll also learn how people struggle against power, and the programme is designed to cater to your own interests and engagements. It leaves lots of choice to work on topics of your choosing in writing assignments and discussion in small groups, with lots of time with the core teachers in the programme.
Curriculum
This programme starts with an engagement with issues that concern you and trains you in advanced and publicly relevant social science. Situated in sociology but learning from other disciplines (media studies, science & technology studies, anthropology, postcolonial studies, urban geography, gender and queer studies), this master's programme helps you develop your engagement with 21st-century public issues.
During the programme, you get to work on issues you choose and ask questions such as:
- How are alternative futures imagined by climate activists, policymakers, and professionals?
- How does public mobilization around sexism or racism take shape?
- How do young people in precarious, flexible employment, organize new forms of solidarity?
- How are public issues mediated through online platforms like Instagram, twitter, or Facebook?
- How does the ‘smart city’ change urban politics?
- How do knowledge and expertise help shape public issues, and how do such issues shape access to, and the definition of, knowledge?
- How does European migration infrastructure shape the way people speak about immigration?
Next to studying social scientific approaches to such questions, you will be able to participate in field trips and seminars with people working on public issues.
The curriculum is subject to change. No rights can be derived from this information
Teaching at Erasmus University Rotterdam
Mode of education
The programme consists of 60 ECTS. It is comprised of three core courses, one methods course, one elective and a thesis. Next to studying social scientific approaches to different problems, you will be able to participate in field trips and seminars with people working on public issues.
Electives
The programme features some electives in block 2, but electives can also be selected from courses offered in other master specialisations in Sociology. Please note that electives only take place when more than 12 students are enrolled. In case of a lower number of enrollments electives will be cancelled and you will be kindly asked to enroll in another elective.
Curriculum
Block 1
- Social Science Research in Practice
- Publics and Issues: Introduction
Block 2
- Electives
- Infrastructures of Power
Block 3
- Thesis
- Public Knowledge
Block 4
- Thesis
Electives
Programme electives
- Political Attitudes and Behaviour in Context
- Family Inequalities
After graduation
After completing this master programme you will be able to:
- Understand how people become engaged with contemporary issues and form a public.
- Understand how knowledge, people’s identities and power are at stake in public issues.
- Analyze the interests, identities, infrastructures and imaginaries that shape public issues.
- Better intervene in public issues, based on an understanding of how public interventions are shaped.
- Critically evaluate and dissect academic texts, policy statements, expert judgments and activists’ statements.
- Work with diverse groups in society, with a better awareness of how your own background and identity shape your engagement with public issues.
- Present your insights and contribute to engaged discussions and struggles over publicly contested issues.
Opportunities after graduating - Master's in Sociology (MSc)
In a world shaped by science and technology, advanced and publicly relevant social science is needed to address the unequal ways in which people are affected by technological change, global warming or the flexibilization of employment. There is an urgent need for people able to understand the logic of how such issues and their publics emerge and evolve.
Whether you are part of a social movement trying to push an issue, or work as policy officer or in a company and are confronted with an issue, you are better equipped to address them when you understand how issues become public. That means you’ll learn to contextualise and dissect the interests at stake, the identities at stake in an issue, and the infrastructures and the forms of imagination of the future that make issues and their publics. To engage with issues ranging from the implications Big Data to the consequences of global migration, from the politics of climate change to transnational activism, companies, organizations and institutions are in need of generalists able to ‘broker’ public issues, and provide realistic courses of action for different stakeholders.
This is a state-of-the-art MSc in publicly relevant and critical social science, and it provides a solid basis for career opportunities in a variety of fields. Examples include:
- Strategist or policy officer at an NGO or community group engaged with issues ranging from climate change to technology and privacy.
- Journalist, media advisor or web editor for a variety of media outlets or companies.
- Researcher in academia, a public think tank or a social scientific advisory council.
- Consultant for governmental or non-governmental institutions.
- Researcher in a municipality or a ministry.
- Policy officer in a governmental institution.
Is this the right program for you?
This program:
- Improves students’ ability to meaningfully work with people who come from a variety of backgrounds and have different types of expertise.
- The Social Sciences Department of Erasmus University Rotterdam ranks the highest of all of the continental European universities in the Shanghai Ranking.
