Dec.09

December 9, 2017
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Sociology Meme Contest

Last Wednesday, the Department organized a Student Research Day – a biannual event during which students present the results of their research. Together with Study Association Versot, we organized a meme contest. The idea was that students should create sociologically relevant memes. All submissions can be retrieved from the website I created: sociologymemes.eu.

Important in a meme contest is that winners were assigned. A ‘professional’ jury – consisting of members of the Department and representatives of Versot – chose for Yvette Jacobs’ meme on the European Values Study. Inside joke, but when we refer to specific survey years, we talk about “waves”. The link to surfing – wave riding – is therefore not that far-fetched.

The audience award – basically all students present at the Research Day – assigned the first prize to Mitchell Matthijssen his meme on colleague Bram Peper. Next to being a well-respected teacher within the Department (responsible for virtually Introduction to Sociology courses), he is also a deejay. Also at the end of the Student Research Day, Bram closed the event with a deejay-set. You can listen to it below! Don’t forget to check Tilburg University‘s newspaper Univers’ coverage about the meme contest!

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Bram Peper,Department,European Values Study,EVS,meme,memes,sociology,student research day,Univers

Nov.23

November 23, 2017
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Throwback Thursday

Last week, Tilburg University organized Night University. A unique event to give back to society. The Dutch team of the European Values Study was evidently present, as the theme of the evening was “Back to the Future“. Pictures on Instagram below show that this theme was quite visible on campus: the organization were even able to get their hands on a few DeLorean time machine cars!

Because of the theme, we decided to present on the question whether younger people these days have become more conservative – i.e. less postmaterialist – than age cohorts decades back. At least in the US, this concerns seem to be widely shared, not in the least because since the election of Donald Trump. After crunching several waves of the EVS, we showed that young people show, generally, more postmaterialistic values than the same cohorts several decades ago. There is, however, one difference. On the so-called Inglehart materialist-postmaterialist survey items, there is a shift towards more materialist responses. As we are presently collecting new EVS-data, we can update in a few months whether this shift towards materialism among younger age cohorts was an anomaly, or whether value change has been initiated already one decade ago.

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age differences,cohort effects,European Values Study,Inge Sieben,Loek Halman,Netherlands,Night University,postmaterialism,Ronald Inglehart,Tilburg University,Tim Reeskens

Nov.08

November 8, 2017
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EVS at Night University

On Thursday 16 November 2017, Tilburg University will turn into Night University. Science and society are brought together during this annual fun event. Whereas I was hosting karaoke with Peter Achterberg the last two years, this year I will bring in a more academic focus. In a joint talk with Loek Halman, I will talk about generational effects in social values, based on the European Values Study: is it true that young people are becoming more conservative than their parents? Loek and I will be present in room SZ 31 (Simon Building) from 9:00-9:45pm. Entrance is free!

During the same day, I will be a jury member during University’s Got Talent. This event is part of the Dies Natalis during the 90th anniversary celebrations of Tilburg University. During this event, 10 different acts (music, dance, debate, …) will try to conquer a place at Festival Mundial 2018! Together with Frank van Pamelen and Gino van Eijk, we will select the winner of this unique contest. More soon!

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Dies Natalis,European Values Study,Loek Halman,Night University,Peter Achterberg,sociology,Tilburg University,University's Got Talent

Sep.29

September 29, 2017
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Going Fast!

Four months since my last update, yet life has been going fast. I decided to take a well-deserved summer holiday and I spent one month in Colombia. It will take many more blog posts to summarize how amazing this trip actually was. Several great memories that simply cannot condensely be written out in an academic blog.

Many things have happened in the past four months. First of all, it is important that the Dutch fieldwork of the European Values Study is in the field. After a long trajectory of writing out a tender for fieldwork companies (and selecting the one with the best qualifications), translating the questionnaire, interviewer training, sampling designs, and so on, it’s with pleasure that I can add that the fieldwork has started about a month ago. The fieldwork is proceeding well, and response figures are heading in the right direction.

In addition, Edward Elgar publishing has worked hard to print an edited volume I have contributed to. Together with Wim van Oorschot, Femke Roosma, and Bart Meuleman, I brought together seminal authors working on welfare deservingness. After quite some time reviewing and revising chapters, it is with pleasure to see the end product on the shelf. “The Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare. Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness” is out!

At Tilburg University, the new academic year has started. For our Department, it’s an important transition, as we created an English track in the Bachelor program. We are pleased to host 16 students in the Bachelor International Sociology. The first bloc of the year started well: I’m teaching on social capital for 16 bright new students in the first year of the Research Master in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Next to that, I also teach the course “Diversity and Community” for about 30 students at University College Tilburg. In the Education Committee of Sociology, I made ‘promotion’ from staff member to chair. Apart of that, also the first Faculty Board with the new Dean has taken place, as well as the first meeting of the Dutch Sociological Association of the new academic year.

Least to say things are moving fast!

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book,Colombia,deservingness,diversity,European Values Study,EVS,Eward Elgar,International Sociology,migration,monograph,social capital,sociology,Tilburg University,welfare state

Jun.13

June 13, 2017
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Dag van de Sociologie 2017

Last week, we celebrated the most important day for Dutch and Flemish sociologists, namely the Dag van de Sociologie at the VUB. One important moment during this annual meeting was awarding the NSV Master Thesis Prize to the best thesis of the year 2016. As board member of the Dutch Sociological Association NSV, I served as secretary for this prize. Chair of the jury was Geert de Vries. He awarded the prize to Kay Polidano (UvA) who wrote a magnificent thesis titled “Caring through a ‘Plastic Box’: An Inquiry into the Use of Remote Care Technology in Later Life”. The laudatio that Geert in name of all other jury members wrote can be retrieved from the NSV-website. The picture below was taken after the prize ceremony – credits go to Tom de Winter. From left to right: Geert de Vries (chair of the NSV Master Thesis Prize jury), laureate Kay Polidano, me, Rie Bosman (secretary of NSV).

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Brussels,dag van de sociologie,NSV,sociology,VUB

Jun.07

June 7, 2017
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Sociology Day – The Preparation!

In less than 12 hours, they Dag van de Sociologie (Annual Meeting of the Dutch and Flemish Sociological Associations) takes place at the VUB Free University of Brussels. During this day, more than 200 sociologists from Belgium, the Netherlands and abroad gather to exchange recent research insights. In addition, the board of the Dutch Sociological Association (of which I am part of) will gather, and the Master Thesis Prize (which I was the secretary for) will be awarded (more about that tomorrow).

In the meanwhile, I’m happy to present a paper that I recently wrote together with Koen Abts. In this paper, we test a proposition put forward by Christian Bjørnskov. In a 2007 paper, he argues that parliamentary monarchies bring about social trust. The logic behind it is that while partisan politics can be quite divisive, the King might serve as a uniting and binding factor, and might serve as a common national conscience that stands above social tensions. Further positive effects are described in Pippa Norris‘ 2008 book on power-sharing institutions. Our paper brings this argument down at the individual level, and questions whether people with positive opinions about the monarchy are more trusting. Analyzing the 2014 wave of the Belgian National Election Study, we actually show a negative relationship: those skeptical about the monarchy are actually most trusting. Because this relationship is particularly strong in Flanders (while absent in Wallonia), we actually question the extent to which the monarchy in Belgium is a uniting force that brings about social cohesion.

The slides can be retrieved from SlideShare!

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May.31

May 31, 2017
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The Sociology of Birthdays

Yesterday, I celebrated my 35th birthday. Normally, not a big issue. This year, it was a bit different: the Department asked me to give the keynote lecture at the Student Research Day 2017 – a day where all our students present their research findings (the first year students present on their work for the Social Problems course, the second year students present findings of their Learning Project, whereas the Bachelor, Premaster and Master students present their thesis). I advertised to present my research on immigration and the welfare state. However, I quickly switched topic to something more unfamiliar but extremely timely: the sociology of birthdays! The presentation can be retrieved from SlideShare.

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birthday,immigration,learning project,slideshare,social problems,sociology,student research day,welfare state

May.29

May 29, 2017
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Our Kids Book Review is Out!

The European Sociological Review just published my review of Robert Putnam‘s Our Kids. The American Dream in Crisis. As the Dutch Universities seem to have put their license for Oxford University Press publications on hold because of Open Access perils, it’s even a challenge for me to read my own book review in print. Anyway, my latest version before it was sent to the book reviews editor can be retrieved by contacting me.

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book review,European Sociological Review,Our Kids,Oxford University Press,publication,Robert Putnam

May.25

May 25, 2017
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Talk at HSE

Finally, after some months, the invited talk, hosted by Christian Fröhlich, that I gave at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow) has reached the surface. In this talked, I discussed the consequences of immigration for the welfare state. More specifically, I combined two papers in the presentation, namely first of all the question whether national identity is able to foster support for the welfare state, and secondly about the relevance of identity as deservingness criterion. After my presentation, we had a great discussion, followed by a lovely dinner at one of the Khachapuri restaurants, known for its delicious Georgian cuisine. The talk was filmed by Dmitry Zakotyansky (see picture below the clip) – thanks for that!

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HSE,Laboratory for Comparative Social Research,Moscow,national identity,sociology,support for the welfare state,welfare state,YouTube

May.01

May 1, 2017
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Preparing for Athens

This week, the General Assembly of the European Values Study will take place in Athens. Being the European counterpart of the World Values Survey, the EVS is a large-scale cross-national survey on political and social attitudes carried out every nine years among representative samples of European countries. From this year onwards, I am the National Program Director of the Dutch fieldwork. In this role, I will participate in this EVS-meeting. The program on Friday is quite tight, with a discussion on the budget, the new questionnaire, insights on sampling strategies and the translation process, as well as information on how to collect data through web surveys. More information to come!

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Athens,European Values Study,EVS,General Assembly,questionnaire,sociology,survey,Tilburg University