PhD Defence Mark van der Giessen
In his dissertation 'Co-creating Safety and Security: Essays on bridging disparate needs and requirements to foster safety and security', Mark van der Giessen aimed to advance our understanding of how various actors with their disparate needs and requirements can collaboratively foster safety and security. Safety and security contexts are diverse, ranging from the widespread daily policing practices involving local governments, law enforcement and community groups, to highly extreme and complex local responses to grand challenges, such as the professionals, volunteers and local communities responding to a refugee crisis. Regardless of the specific context however, practitioners and management scholars do not yet have the tools and knowledge to address how the actors involved, engaging from different backgrounds and with their own needs and requirements, may collaboratively foster safety and security. Mark defended his dissertation on Friday, 8 April 2022 at 10:30. His supervisors were Prof. Gabriele Jacobs(EUR), Prof. Joep Cornelissen (RSM), and Prof. Saskia Bayerl (Sheffield Hallam University). Other members of the Doctoral Committee were Prof. Peter Scholten (ESSB), Prof. Martin de Jong (RSM), Prof. Steffen Giessner (RSM), Prof. Babak Akhgar (Sheffield Hallam University), Prof. Uri Rosenthal (EUR), and Prof. Ruza Karlovic (Police College Zagreb).
About Mark van der Giessen
Mark van der Giessen is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Organisation and Personnel Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). He previously obtained his MSc in International Comparative Criminology also at EUR, at the Erasmus School of Law.
Mark van der Giessen is interested in processes of cooperation and collaboration, specifically in the context of promoting safety and security. Combining learnings from criminology and management, he hopes to provide novel insights and practical tools to help local law enforcement, government, non-government organizations and communities promote a safe and secure environment for themselves and others. He conducts his research primarily through the lenses of sensemaking and identity. However, he has also taken a design perspective to provide practical tools for (online) engagement.
Mark van der Giessen has published some of his work in Human Relations, the International Journal of Drug Policy, and Studies in Symbolic Interaction. He has also contributed a book chapter to Community Policing – a European Perspective. He has presented his work at multiple international conferences, including the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, CEPOL Research and Science and Big Data in Law Enforcement.
Thesis Abstract
The co-creation of safety and security is a diverse, complex and persistent challenge that requires the simultaneous and continued engagement of many different actors. Safety and security contexts are diverse, ranging from the widespread daily policing practices involving local governments, law enforcement and community groups, to highly extreme and complex local responses to grand challenges, such as the professionals, volunteers and local communities responding to a refugee crisis. Regardless of the specific context however, practitioners and management scholars do not yet have the tools and knowledge to address how the actors involved, engaging from different backgrounds and with their own needs and requirements, may collaboratively foster safety and security. The overall aim of this dissertation is to advance our understanding of how these actors with their disparate needs and requirements can collaboratively foster safety and security.
View photos of Mark's PhD Defence
Photos: Chris Gorzemann / Capital Images
