Welcome to my homepage. I am professor of sociology at the Department of Sociology, at the Faculty for Social and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Groningen, and the ICS. I am also currently Director of Research of my department, and scientific director of the ICS. Further, since July 2021 I am the editor of the journal Rationality & Society (see here my editorial statement) and fellow of the European Academy of Sociology (since 2023).
Norms and networks
I study in particular modeling of norms and networks together with members of my research group “Norms and Networks”.
Research
My main research addresses addresses polarization, intergroup relations in a diverse society, opinion dynamics, cooperation problems, social networks and social learning. For this, I apply agent-based computational and game theoretical modeling, laboratory experiments, network research, survey research and various other methods.
My work has been published in social science journals like American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Conflict Resolution, or Organization Science, but also in multidisciplinary journals like the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or Science and specialized journals like PloS Computational Biology, Sociology of Education, Rationality and Society, or Journal of Mathematical Sociology. For a full list of publications, see my CV or Google Scholar.
SCOOP program
I am a member of the consortium of the NWO-financed gravity program SCOOP, a major effort to study sustainable cooperation in families, communities and organizations from a range of different disciplinary perspectives, launched in 2017 (PI: Rafael Wittek).
ICS
My research is embedded in the research program of the ICS (Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology), a leading research and PhD training center in Sociology. I am currently scientific director and board member of the ICS. I also coordinate the Theory Course in the ICS PhD training program.
Teaching
The main course I am teaching is “Introduction to Sociology”, a compulsory first year bachelor course with about 120 students/year. More information about the courses I teach can be found in my CV.
CV
In my CV you find a (nearly) complete overview of my publications and other activities in research, teaching and the scientific community in general. You can also check my Google Scholar, RUG Profile Page or ORCiD.