Dr HG van de Werfhorst (b. 1972) has been appointed professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Herman van de Werfhorst conducts research which is primarily nationally comparative in nature, and which focuses on the influence of social origins on educational choices and of schooling on work outcomes (such as search duration, unemployment, job level and income) and citizenship (including social and political participation, and attitudes). This integrated nationally comparative study is important for gaining knowledge about what type of educational system will contribute to the successful integration of youth in society.

Within this area of research, Van de Werfhorst would like to focus in the near future on ‘mechanisms and methods’. His recent NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research)-honoured Vidi-project on the influence of schooling on the job market was an attempt to connect economic and sociological approaches, while his research on citizenship spans both sociology and political science. Methodologically, Van de Werfhorst will focus above all on the application of multi-level quantitative models to nationally comparative research, combined on a broad scale with models employed specifically to determine the causality of education for job market and citizenship outcomes.

Van de Werfhorst has worked in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the UvA since 2002, and has been a senior university lecturer there since 2006. In addition, he is member of the Amsterdam School of Social science Research (ASSR) and a fellow of the Amsterdams Instituut voor Arbeisstudies (AIAS). Since 2005 Van de Werfhorst has been co-coordinator of EQUALSOC (Economic Change, Quality of Life, and Social Cohesion), part of the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as a researcher at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford, after receiving a Prize Research Fellowship.