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Femmianne Bredewold appointed as Endowed Professor of Living Together with Difference


'Living well together is something we have to reshape every day’


25 April 2024


The Executive Board of the University of Humanistic Studies has appointed Femmianne Bredewold as endowed professor 'Living Together with Difference' from 1 May. Established by the Ben Sajet Centre in Amsterdam, the chair focuses on how to realise inclusive citizenship for and with citizens with support needs. This includes a special focus on living together in contexts that include people with intellectual disabilities, people with psychosocial problems and people with combined and complex issues. 


Sociologist and researcher Femmianne Bredewold: "Living together is something we have to shape every day. In that sense, it is very mundane, ordinary and concerns everyone. On the other hand, it is challenging because citizens with a long-term dependence on care are living at home for longer and therefore rely more on family relationships and connections in the neighbourhood and district. In addition, we are currently struggling with an increasing lack of financial resources in care and staff shortages force us to ask more and more of the relationships we are part of. This puts pressure on our contacts and also on the relationships and connections that people who are long-term dependent on care are part of. Living together and living well together - including with citizens with long-term care dependency - is therefore becoming an increasingly urgent issue.'

Urgent issue

The special chair has been established by the Ben Sajet Centrum, a knowledge workplace in Amsterdam for long-term care. Hetty Vlug, director of the Ben Sajet Centrum, says: "As the Ben Sajet Centrum, we feel the urgency of this issue through close cooperation with our practice partners in long-term care. It is often a question of whether we can keep care in its current form, and we are thinking with our partners about how to organise care differently. For example, by working even more with relatives, informal carers, volunteers and local residents. Or by exploring how neighbourhoods and meeting spaces can support a different organisation of care. We are therefore pleased to be able to pursue this intensively through this chair. In this, we think it is important to make room for the difference a disability makes. As people with various disabilities become more a part of our society, we must also listen carefully to what they need within those contexts for a dignified existence'. 

Everyday living together

The Chair of Living Together with Difference focuses on citizens' own ideas about living together with each other. It will also focus on initiatives in which people experiment with new ways of sharing care and how these contribute to inclusive living together with difference. At the same time, the chair looks at what this shift means for professionals, organisations and local authorities. What should they do to continue making inclusive living together a reality for citizens with long-term dependency on care, despite today's care crisis? The chair examines the what and the how, bringing together questions that require not only a social scientific and philosophical, but also a managerial perspective. 

About Femmianne Bredewold

Sociologist Femmianne Bredewold is associate professor and researcher at the University of Humanistic Studies. She focuses on how very different citizens can live well together, and how we can improve the quality of living together in different contexts. Her particular focus is on how to include people with disabilities in care networks in our society. She has published on this subject in (inter)national journals and professional magazines. She also wrote books for a wide audience, including Lof der Oppervlakkigheid. Contact tussen mensen met een verstandelijke en psychiatrische beperking en buurtbewoners and Een Wereld van Verschil. Instellingsterreinen en het goede leven voor mensen met een verstandelijke beperking. She received her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2014 and has been at UvH since 2015. She was Visiting Research Fellow at The Centre for the study of Ethics and Community at Aarhus University in Denmark and The Tizard Centre at Kent University in the UK. 


The Executive Board of the University of Humanistic Studies has appointed Femmianne Bredewold as endowed professor 'Living Together with Difference' from 1 May. Established by the Ben Sajet Centre in Amsterdam, the chair focuses on how to realise inclusive citizenship for and with citizens with support needs.