Research Director at the National Research Council, Paolo Landri has been acting Director of the CNR IRISS since July 1, 2024. He was the Director’s delegate for the Fisciano (SA) separate unit of the Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies (IRPPS-CNR). He was in charge of INPOS, a research project on innovation in social policies and welfare schemes until June 2024. He got a degree in Sociology, a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Science Data Analysis from the University of Essex (UK) and a PhD in Sociology of Innovation Processes in the South of Italy from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’.

His expertise covers the following fields: sociology of education, methodological research (with particular reference to qualitative and ethnographic methods), organizational studies, having participated in many research projects at national and international level on these topics. More recently, his research interests focus on educational organizations, professional learning and educational policies. He participates in national and international research projects on the new morphology of schools and, in particular, on the transformative effects caused by digital platforms and technologies.

Internationally, he was a co-founder and link convenor of the European Educational Research Association’s network 28‘Sociologies of Education’, an associate member of ProPEL (Professional Practice Education and Learning) at the University of Stirling. He is on the board of several international journals (Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies; Malta Review of Educational Research; Italian Journal of Sociology of Education; European Educational Research Journal). He is co-Editor in Chief of the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ).

He edited the collective book Taking Care of Welfare. Social policies in the lens of practice. Pavia: Altravista. He is author of the book The digital governance of education. Technologies, standards and the Europeanisation of education. London: Bloomsbury and of Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration through Actor-Network Theory (Critical Studies in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration). London: Routledge. Co-editor with Radhika Gorur and Romuald Normand of Rethinking Sociological Critique in Contemporary Education: Reflective Dialogue and Prospective Inquiry. London: Routledge.