Dr Fabio Battaglia

Italian at heart, I was born and raised in Rome where in 2015, after spending a semester abroad in the country of kanelbullar, I earned my bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Relations. Then somehow life took a different path. First, I moved to London, where I completed my master's degree program in EU Politics, right during the Brexit referendum (what a coincidence). Then I moved to Edinburgh where I started working towards my doctoral degree while indulging in local fudge tablets and Shetland mussels (not together, obviously).​ A few years after, in 2022, I successfully passed my viva without corrections. My thesis, which you can find in the Publications section, investigated the factors promoting and inhibiting the use and impact of well-being metrics in Scotland and Italy.

My main research interests lie in well-being and public policy. In more detail, my research aims to understand whether and the extent to which well-being (or so-called "beyond GDP") metrics are being used in policymaking (as well as the media and society at large, which in turn exert influence on policymaking) and if not why. Among the things that I most interested in examining are the level of awareness of GDP and its flaws as well as the perception of economic growth and of post-growth scenarios among policymakers and journalists. Concurrently, another part of my research focuses on the policymaking process more generally in the attempt to elaborate a theory of policy change. Finally, a third part of my work concerns the use of research tools such as media monitoring platforms and AI-driven voice recognition programmes with the aim of providing methodological guidance on their use.