Reflection and debate initiates academically inspired discussions on issues that are on the current policy agenda.

This article is about how education administrators value complex issues or dilemmas they are confronted with in their governance practices, and which strategies they adopt to cope with them. Professional governance of school organisations was introduced gradually over the past fifteen years, and at the same time governance in education has gained in complexity and raises considerable risks, requiring more time, knowledge and expertise of education administrators. We draw on the theoretical perspective of coping to investigate the potential of education administrators to deal with the complexity, impediments and social and regulatory pressure in their daily practice. Our study consists of a comparative case study of six education administrators in secondary education. Their agency has been researched qualitatively with the help of the hierarchical model of coping strategies of Skinner and colleagues. The results show that the issues and dilemmas education administrators find most complex are about educational innovation and numbers of students enrolled. Education administrators value these issues or dilemmas hardly as threatening, and they adopt various proactive coping strategies to deal with them, such as information seeking or bargaining.

This editorial offers an introduction to the current issue.

In this feature authors review recently published books on subjects of interest to readers of Beleid en Maatschappij.

For many reasons multiculturalism has become a convenient punching bag. One of the criticisms is that multiculturalism undermines social cohesion and therefore erodes the basis for a redistribution policy. Closely related to this critique is that multiculturalism pushes immigrants into unemployment and makes them dependent on the welfare state. In this article, both criticisms are evaluated. We clarify why multiculturalism does not necessarily undermine the (support for) welfare state nor impede the socioeconomic equality of immigrants. What is needed and what remains necessary is the outline of a multicultural welfare state.

In this article it will be argued that the contribution of political theory to European studies is rather one-sided and could be enriched by broadening the spectrum. To make this clear, the first part of this article will offer an overview of the contribution of political theory to European integration studies up to the present day. In the second part, avenues for further research will be presented with special attention to the importance of theories of justice for the EU. In close connection to this program, the value of ideal theory will be highlighted as a means to think about the further development of the EU and to critically assess the present functioning of the EU.

This article investigates whether group-based politics is still relevant in Belgian and Dutch politics. Based on the PARTIREP MP Survey it more precisely studies the extent to which Belgian and Dutch parliamentarians in comparison to other European countries attach importance to the representation of ‘old’ cleavage groups (class and religious groups) or new groups (age groups, women and ethnic minorities), and which strategies are considered most appropriate. Group representation of old and new groups is found to be of great importance in both countries. Class is not dead and age groups are also highly represented. In contrast, religious groups and ethnic minorities receive far less attention in the Low Countries. Notwithstanding these similarities, there is also cross-country variation regarding the level of importance (greater in the Netherlands), the represented groups and the strategies for representation.

Not a few continental philosophers are engaged with the debate on democracy, community and tolerance but also globalization, migration and human rights. They do not demand interpretation to get stopped in order to make action possible, as Marx demanded; every political action should start from a critical interpretation of what political acting demands. The work of philosophers such as Agamben, Benhabib, Honig or Nancy is deeply characterized by the challenge of the numerous difficulties and dilemmas our thinking of the other is confronted with, since the stranger or the other discloses limits by contesting who or what we are. He questions and deconstructs the identity of a given, particular community. The limits of community, that’s what it’s all about.