Jens Villiam Hoff

CV

Jens Hoff is a professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His research focuses on the importance of IT for political institutions and processes as well as for political culture and identity, and on citizen and user participation in different policy areas. During the last 20 years he has chaired numerous international and Danish research projects, among these the European research network Government and Democracy in the Information Age (COST Action A14), and worked as a Director of the cross-disciplinary and cross-university Centre for Research in Public Organization and Management  (COS) . He was chief editor of the Danish political science journal Politik from 2005-2010, and is on the editorial board of the journals Information Polity, Northern Lights, and International Journal of E-Politics, and regularly do reviews for the Norwegian, British and US Research Councils. He has recently finished a project on "Citizen's Use of the Internet During the Danish Election Campaign 2007", and is now working on a project on "The Importance of Campaigning in the Danish Local Elections 2009". In 2009 he also received a major grant for a 4-year project on Citizen Driven Environmental Action (CIDEA). In spring 2010 he has been doing fieldwork in New Zealand and Australia in relation to this project.

Primary fields of research

Primary research areas: 1) Sustainability and climate change governance, 2) Governance, citizen and user participation, 3) The use of ICT in politics, political processes and public administration. 

Research groups: comparative politics group 

The most essential contributions of my research is probably the following:

1) As initiator and chairman of COST Action A14  “Government and Democracy in the Information Age” (1998-2003); a European research network spanning 16 countries and around 70 researchers, i did pioneering work on the relations between democracy, politics and ICT, and was instrumental in establishing this as a research field within European political science.   

2) This was followed up by the Danish project ”Medier og demokrati i netværkssamfundet” (MODINET)(Media and Democracy in the Network Society). As an initiator of the project and member of the steering group I was instrumental in an interdisciplinary effort trying to bring media studies and political science together in innovative studies of digital media. 

3) As initiator and leader of the project “Citizen Driven Environmental Action (CIDEA), an interdisciplinary project involving researchers from both the social and natural sciences, I have insisted on the importance of integrating social science perspectives in the study of climate change and sustainability. I am now trying to establish a center on Sustainability and Society at the level of the Faculty of Social Sciences at UCPH.    

All three projects have resulted in numerous books and articles by renowed publishers and in peer-reviewed journals (see highlighted content). 

Current research

Current research concerns climate change mitigation and adaptation. In spring 2015 I spend three months doing research in New York City on the city's climate change adaptation plan in a stakeholder (bottom-up) perspective affiliated with NYU. From 2010-14 I lead the CIDEA (Citizen Driven Environmental Action) project, which primary research question was how to involve citizens in climate change mitigation efforts at the local level in Denmark. Inspiration was sought abroad, and doing a pilot project I spend 4 month in Australia and New Zealand in 2010 as a visiting professor at Victoria University undertaking an evaluation of the CCP-programmes in both countries. 

Also, research is currently done in the area of Internet and politics; especially concerning the effects of Internet campaigning during national elections (latest 2015). 

Knowledge of languages

Speaks and reads English fluently. Speaks and read some French, German and Spanish.