My prime research interest is the micro-sociology of violence. This means that I study what actually happens in violent interactions. One question I am working on is how changes in the emotional states of the opponents are related to situational asymmetry. For instance by analysing how supportive groups impact the course of the interaction by increasing feelings of emotional domination in one party, or by degrading the opponent. Another question is how and to what extent the various cultural meanings expressed in violence are related to the emotional intensity of the interaction. Recent publications are on violent moral holidays in Human Figurations, on the emotional dynamics of extreme youth violence in British Journal of Sociology and on the cultural meanings and the intensity of forms of violence in Sociological Forum (forthcoming 2015). Some of this work attracted the attention of the Dutch media. For instance, in this television interview I explain why the riots in the village of Haren in 2012 can be understood as a moral holiday (see also the downloadable article in Dutch on moral holidays). Recently, I was interviewed at Radio 1 on extreme violence (see also the pieces by Dutch journalists Arnout Jaspers and Margreet Vermeulen).

Prior research I conducted was on various forms of inequality in education and also in the judicial system. Together with Ali de Regt, we published a book, Investeren in je kinderen (in Dutch) and several articles (in Amsterdams Tijdschrift voor Sociologie, Mens & Maatschappij, Journal of Education Policy) on private education in the Netherlands. In my doctoral thesis (link), defended in 2005, I analysed the relationship between fractions of the upper middle class and differentiation within the highest level of Dutch secondary education. Parts of the thesis appeared a.o. in International Sociology, Sociology, Journal of Education Policy and Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales. One of the themes of the thesis I am still working on is the question to what extent specific fractions of the upper middle class rely on cosmopolitan forms of cultural capital and how this form of capital is socially reproduced (link). Furthermore, my prior research on the unequal treatment of ethnic minorities in the Dutch judicial system (published in British Journal of Criminology) has resulted in an ongoing research interest in law as a social practice (link). 

I am a member of the Program Group Cultural Sociology of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.

I teach the following courses

- Sociological Theory 1: The Classics, from Comte to Durkheim (link in Dutch)

- Sociological Theory 2: The Classics, from Weber to the Frankfurter Schule (link in Dutch)

- Violence and Culture (link in Dutch)

- Body, Emotions and Culture (link in English)

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