Maarten Hermans
LightNews LightNews
mhermans.net
Maarten Hermans
@mhermans.net
2.7K followers 4.3K following 170 posts
Sociologist, researcher, member @denktankminerva.be & @brispo-vub.bsky.social: labour relations, quality of work & open source data analysis.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
ejprjournal.bsky.social
Welfare politics is about who gets what 🎁😌

@petroleuse-sbd.bsky.social & Timothy Hellwig find evidence from Europe which shows economic security shapes welfare preferences, linking policy design directly to voter approval and electoral incentives
Welfare by design: Public responses to the distribution of old-age pensions | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
Welfare by design: Public responses to the distribution of old-age pensions
buff.ly
February 19, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
bdecourson.bsky.social
🔴 Gallicagram v2, nous voici ! 🔴
Nouvelle interface en react vachement plus stable et rapide, nouveaux corpus (Mediapart, Libé, le Parisien, Le Figaro…), recherche contextuelle, comparaisons inter-corpus, filtre rubrique, bilingue, infinite scrolling... on vous explique tout !

📌 www.gallicagram.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
nber.org
Younger firms and CEOs support far more work from home (WFH). This suggests WFH will grow over time as these companies expand and older CEOs retire, from Giray Aksoy, Maria Barrero, @nickbloom.bsky.social, Cranney, Davis, Dolls, and Zarate www.nber.org/papers/w34795
February 10, 2026 at 10:01 PM
mhermans.net
Two Belgian Bluesky politics & media clusters: one French-speaking to the south close to the big France cluster and one Dutch-speaking to the north towards the Scandinavian, English-speaking clusters. Seems the dimensionality reduction algo's can adequately capture our multilingual complexity ;-).
February 9, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
sampolmaandblad.bsky.social
De sociale zekerheid is géén verlengstuk van de overheid. Ze is van de werknemers en de werkgevers. @wvlancker.bsky.social
De welvaartsstaat is niét staats
Het is een hardnekkig misverstand dat de sociale zekerheid een verlengstuk van de overheid is. Ze is van de werknemers en werkgevers samen.
www.sampol.be
February 9, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
daniellaurison.bsky.social
I keep posting these images because they get at a really deep problem - the class divide in political participation.
Those who want our democracy to truly represent all its citizens need to create and sustain real connections with people and communities who do not currently feel represented.
Post Daniel Laurison ‪@daniellaurison.bsky.social‬ This is a great piece! One of the recommendations is to focus on turnout over moderation, which I 100% agree with. There were steep declines in turnout among low-income voters in 2024; Grumbach & Bonica point to the increased racial gap in turnout to ~11%, income gaps were closer to 30 points. Chart with Turnout on the Y axis & election year (2016, 2020, and 2024) on the X axis. 6 lines, 3 for White, Black, and Hispanic in households making over $100k/year, 3 for the same groups in households making under $30k/year. Overall you can see turnout increasing among higher-income people in all three racial groups, and declining (White and Black) or staying flat (Hispanic) among low-income people; the turnout gap by income is much larger in 2024 than in 2020 or 2016. from 2016 -> 2024: - White $100k turnout goes from 65% to 78% while white under $30k turnout goes from 55% to 49% - Black over $100k turnout goes from 51% to 64% while Black under $30k turnout goes from 48% to 33% - Hispanic over $100k turnout goes from 52% to 67% while Hispanic under $30k turnout stays flat at about 36% (higher in 2020 at 42%). Caption: "Our analysis, Cooperative Election Survey Data, Validated Votes." ALT ‪Jake Grumbach‬ ‪@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social‬ · 1d We have a Boston Review Forum out today on the Democratic Party in a time of authoritarianism www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no... Senator Chuck Schumer conducts a news conference in the U.S. Capitol in May 2025. Image: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images FORUM How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated. Adam Bonica, Jake Grumbach With responses from → Cori Bush, Amanda Litman, Matthew Yglesias, G. Elliott Morris, Julia Serano, Eric Rauchway, Suzanne Mettler & Trevor E. Brown, Thomas Ferguson, Timothy Shenk, Jared Abbott & Milan Loewer, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, Lily Geismer, Danielle Wiggi… chart showing family income of voters & non-voters in 2024; people in families earning under $50k/year were over half of nonvoters; more than half of voters had incomes over $70k.
February 4, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
alexbryson.bsky.social
Why is it that union membership density is rising in Japan? Find out here in our new Hitotsubashi Institute of Economic Research Discussion Paper www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/Common/publi... @sriucl.bsky.social @hitotsubashiu.bsky.social
www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp
January 22, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
alexbryson.bsky.social
Worker wellbeing rises in age in 103 countries. Find out more here www.nber.org/papers/w3478... @nber.org @dannyblanchy.bsky.social @sriucl.bsky.social
Well-being Increases in Age Among Workers: Evidence From 103 Countries
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
February 2, 2026 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
aeajournals.bsky.social
Forthcoming in the AER: "Effects of Parental Death on Labor Market Outcomes" by Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen and Ning Zhang.
Effects of Parental Death on Labor Market Outcomes
(Forthcoming Article) - We use Danish administrative data to examine the effects of parental death on labor market outcomes. Leveraging the timing of sudden, first parental deaths and a matched-control difference-in-differences strategy, we find that men's earnings decline by 2%, while women's earnings decline by 3% following a parental death. Both women and men experience mental health deterioration, leading to increased use of psychological assistance and prescriptions for mental health conditions and opioids. Women with young children experience a comparatively larger earnings decline (around 4%) likely due to the loss of informal childcare.
www.aeaweb.org
February 2, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
annastansbury.bsky.social
📢now forthcoming in ECMA!

The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia

Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations.

Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵
January 27, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
vladimirbortun.bsky.social
The paper on the class politics of Reform UK, which I've been working on with @aaronreeves.bsky.social for the last year and a half, is now available as a pre-print on SSRN. These are our main findings. Any feedback is more than welcome.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
January 28, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
johnholbein1.bsky.social
In academia, class background strongly shapes who advances and who stalls.
January 27, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
wepsocial.bsky.social
🎉 Online first:

How does owning a home change how people feel about politics?

In this article, @mhaslberger.bsky.social and @madselk.bsky.social find that owning a home is linked to feeling more politically included, especially for older people.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0140...
Abstract of "Homeownership and political efficacy: how housing wealth shapes whether people feel heard" by Matthias Haslberger and Mads Andreas Elkjær, published in West European Politics. Predicted levels of external efficacy by housing tenure and age, with 95% confidence intervals. Covariates fixed at: Married male Conservative voter without university degree living in Southeast England, full-time employed with average income.
January 27, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
r-foundation.bsky.social
We are responding to this call for evidence:
ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...

Do you have concrete examples of the added value of #Rstats in the public or private sectors?

Include the most important factors (risk, lock-in, security, innovation...) to assess the added value.

Thanks!
European Commission - Have your say
European Commission - Have your say
ec.europa.eu
January 22, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
pierrebat.cpesr.fr
🎈Parution ce jour de notre rapport sur les conditions de vie des doctorant·es à @ugrenoblealpes.bsky.social.

Un tour à 360° des conditions doctorales (du point de vue financier, logement, sanitaire, relationnel, pro) assez inédit et mixant quanti et quali.

Et une équipe de recherche au top!
Cette étude, commandée par l'Université Grenoble Alpes, explore de manière approfondie la précarité des doctorant·es en adoptant une approche multidimensionnelle qui va au-delà des simples aspects financiers. Elle combine une enquête quantitative auprès de près de 1000 doctorant·es (soit un tiers de la population) et une enquête qualitative basée sur 45 entretiens. Les résultats montrent un paysage contrasté. Environ 75 % des doctorant·es sont dans une situation peu ou pas précaire selon l'indicateur EPICES, utilisé pour évaluer la précarité dans la population générale. Cependant, le quart restant cumule des difficultés : réelles contraintes budgétaires pour les besoins élémentaires, isolement social et absence de complémentaire santé. L'analyse identifie des facteurs qui augmentent significativement l'exposition à la précarité. Les doctorant·es originaires de pays hors Union Européenne, celles et ceux qui sont inscrit·es en sciences humaines et sociales (SHS), et celles et ceux engagé·es au-delà de la quatrième année de thèse apparaissent comme les populations les plus vulnérables. L'enquête qualitative permet de d’approfondir ce portrait statistique et de comprendre les expériences vécues. Elle révèle une population fortement motivée par la recherche et l'idée de contribuer au service public, ce qui conduit parfois à l’acceptation de conditions matérielles difficiles. Les entretiens mettent aussi en lumière des défis spécifiques : le stress lié à l'incertitude de la recherche et à la compétition pour les postes académiques, les difficultés financières en fin de contrat doctoral (notamment en SHS où les thèses sont plus longues), et des situations d'isolement ou d'asymétrie de pouvoir avec l’encadrement de thèse qui peuvent conduire à des abus. Selon la nature de leur projet, les doctorant·es étranger·es ne sont pas tous·tes confronté·es aux mêmes difficultés. Certain·es d’entre elles et eux, le plus souvent dans des parcours en sciences, techniques, ingénierie et mathématiques (STIM), nous ont confié avoir choisi stratégiquement la France, pour ses faibles frais d’inscriptions et ses aides financières aux étudiants, sans nécessairement compter s’y installer à terme, car les emplois dans la recherche y sont trop mal rémunérés. Quelques-un·es réalisent même leur thèse depuis l’étranger. A contrario, pour la majorité des doctorant·es qui sont dans une recherche d’intégration, au moins temporaire, peuvent subir des discriminations culturelles et linguistiques. Les doctorant·es étranger·es sont susceptibles d’être confronté·es à de la glottophobie, c’est-à-dire à des stigmatisations et discriminations à prétextes linguistiques (Blanchet, Bergeron et Lebon-Eyquem, 2022), au sein du pays d’accueil et de leur milieu professionnel. Ce sont les doctorant·es dont la langue native n’est pas latine qui rencontrent les difficultés les plus importantes dans leur vie quotidienne. Yumei 30 ans, doctorante originaire d’un pays d’Asie et spécialiste de sciences humaines et humanités, peut éviter les stigmates à l’université où elle s’exprime en anglais depuis le master, mais elle y a été confrontée dans les commerces par exemple.
January 22, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
sabinepitteloud.bsky.social
Davos gave us globalism and now offers a front-row seat to its collapse.
With Grace Ballor, we examine both its historical momentum and weaknesses.
academic.oup.com/ser/advance-...
In an issue on the post-neoliberal order by @quinnslobodian.com @llchristyll.bsky.social @akentikelenis.bsky.social
January 22, 2026 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
standespiegelaere.bsky.social
Waarom wil men het boek "Mondige burger, stille werker?" lezen?
Niet minder dan 450 @acvpuls.bsky.social leden stuurden een motivatie voor een gratis boek. En daar zit goed materiaal tussen

youtube.com/shorts/d1tf_...

@epo-uitgeverij.bsky.social @denktankminerva.be
Waarom wil men het boek 'Mondige burger, stille werker?' lezen?
YouTube video by Stan De Spiegelaere
youtube.com
January 21, 2026 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Holy hell, what an obituary
Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program
www.nytimes.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
andrew.heiss.phd
Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers

“We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.”

(Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina Adam Scharpf Christian Gläßel Abstract: Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.
January 14, 2026 at 4:17 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
spoerhase.bsky.social
On autosociobiography and social mobility: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... @mikesavagelse.bsky.social @samfriedman.bsky.social
Beyond the ‘Scholarship Boy’ paradigm: Autosociobiography and social mobility - Sam Friedman, Mike Savage, Carlos Spoerhase, 2025
This article reflects on the potential of the rapidly emerging literary genre of autosociobiography to extend analyses of the personal experience and feelings a...
journals.sagepub.com
December 27, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
lopezblancojd.bsky.social
New paper on what happens after early school leaving in Spain (RSSM).

Even among a highly disadvantaged group, social origin still shapes how second-chance educational pathways are organized.

Inequality doesn’t stop at dropout
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
After dropout: Social stratification and the dynamics of educational re-entry in Spain
This study investigates how social origin shapes second-chance educational trajectories among early school leavers in Spain. Specifically, we focus on…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 12, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
cljeharvard.bsky.social
Check out new research from @adamdean.bsky.social and @jamiemccallum.bsky.social, which looks at the nation's first outdoor heat standard. Findings suggest that properly designed and enforced comprehensive heat standards can protect workers as temperatures rise
www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/...
Health Affairs Journal
www.healthaffairs.org
January 8, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Maarten Hermans
peterla.bsky.social
Very happy to see this out in CPS! We study class identities and their social and political relevance over several decades in Britain, Denmark, Norway, and the US. A small thread:

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/SIRW4...
January 8, 2026 at 9:27 AM
mhermans.net
New article: individuals experiencing workplace bullying were at higher risk of starting antidepressant treatment within 2 years. Higher frequency of bullying exposure was associated with an increased risk of initiating any psychotropic treatment and antidepressants. #OHS doi.org/10.1017/S204...
January 8, 2026 at 4:32 PM
mhermans.net
"Die agenten probeert aan te rijden" - djeezes @vrtnws.be, je hebt nieuwsberichten met ooggetuigenverslagen, meerdere video's die dat onkrachten, burgemeester & gouverneur die dat afstrijden en vragen zulke valse kadering niet te verspreiden. Copy-paste aub je titels niet van Truth Social :-/.
January 7, 2026 at 7:58 PM