I am a social scientist with an interest and expertise in sociology, political science, development economics, Islam studies, and gender studies. Insights in these field I connect in my work on democracy, populism, Islam, social media, gender equality, sexuality, migration, empowerment, and political participation.
Samenvatting Welke handelings- en interventiestrategieën van gemeenten dragen bij aan perspectief... more Samenvatting Welke handelings- en interventiestrategieën van gemeenten dragen bij aan perspectief op werk en een verbetering van het welbevinden en vertrouwen van mensen in de bijstand? Zes gemeenten – Groningen, Utrecht, Tilburg, Wageningen, Deventer en Nijmegen – hebben de afgelopen jaren (van 1 oktober 2017 tot 31 december 2019) unieke randomised controlled trials uitgevoerd in de bijstand. De volgende (combinatie van) interventies zijn onderzocht: ontheffing van re-integratieverplichtingen, intensivering van begeleiding en vrijlating van bijverdiensten. Er is zowel gekeken naar uitstroom naar werk als naar baanzoekintensiteit, welbevinden, zelfredzaamheid en sociaal vertrouwen. De uitstroom naar werk is bij alle interventies niet lager dan de huidige aanpak, terwijl de uitstroom naar deeltijdwerk in sommige gemeenten hoger is. Vooral intensivering op maat en vrijlating kan uitstroom naar werk (minimaal in deeltijd) vergroten. Voor wat betreft de effecten op baanzoekintensiteit, ...
Objective: This paper seeks to understand the changing roles of religiosity and gender attitudes ... more Objective: This paper seeks to understand the changing roles of religiosity and gender attitudes in the employment of women in Europe between 2004 and 2016. Background: Religiosity and gender traditionalism are both considered to decrease the likelihood of women’s employment. This study argues that this relationship needs to be decoupled, as religiosity and gender traditionalism have different underlying mechanisms. Method: We analysed rounds 2 (2004), 4 (2008), 8 (2010), and 10 (2016) of the European Social Survey (ESS), which include, among other data, information on employment, religious affiliation, religiosity, and gender role attitudes in 16 countries (N=39,233). Results: We show that taking religiosity into account further increases the already increased likelihood of employment for Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women compared to women with no religion. We also find, however, that religiosity decreases the employment gap between Muslim and Orthodox women on the one hand an...
Social media are said to be a core driver of populists’ current success. Yet, our knowledge of ho... more Social media are said to be a core driver of populists’ current success. Yet, our knowledge of how populist politicians use social media is limited. We argue that they can use Twitter and Facebook, politically the most important platforms, as a “double-barreled gun,” each serving a different target. Based on the architecture of the platforms and the populist ideology, we expect that Twitter is used to name and shame journalists publicly, Facebook to activate anger among citizens. Both types of use are examined by studying the Members of Parliament (MPs) of Austria, The Netherlands, and Sweden. We collected 9852 tweets for the 475 MPs on Twitter and 10,355 Facebook posts from the 287 MPs with a Facebook Page. Using negative binomial regression and content analyses, we find that populists seem eager to activate anger. They are not more likely to @-mention media accounts, but “shame” them roughly three times more often.
Have the Arab uprisings influenced the desire for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa? ... more Have the Arab uprisings influenced the desire for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa? This study presents a systematic explanation of the different impact the uprisings had on people’s desire for democracy across the region. It applies the relatively new consequence-based theory of democratic attitudes, and integrates the notion of deprivation into it. The expectations derived from this framework are tested empirically by examining data from 45 public opinion surveys in 11 Middle East and North Africa countries (2001–2014) and combining them with a systematic country-level case comparison. The study shows that the desire for democracy drops mainly in countries of major protest and initial political liberalization, but no substantial democratization (e.g. Egypt, Morocco) indeed, and that a lack of major protest or initial reform (e.g. Algeria, Yemen) ‘prevents’ disillusionment. The seemingly exceptional Lebanese and Tunisian cases also show the mechanism holds for specific...
This study examines inequalities in labor market outcomes between ethnic-majority women and Musli... more This study examines inequalities in labor market outcomes between ethnic-majority women and Muslim-minority women with a Moroccan or Turkish background in the Netherlands. It provides a comprehensive assessment of ethno-religious labor market gaps and investigates how a relatively broad range of explanatory factors are (differently) related to these gaps. We use nationally representative data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (2009), which oversamples minorities and contains high-quality measures of a comparatively broad array of potential explanations. Results reveal that Muslim-minority women less often have paid work, face longer job-search periods and hold lower status jobs than majority women. Interestingly, minority women work more hours than majority women in the Netherlands. These gaps are generally smaller for the second generation than the first generation. Our results show that human capital is a key factor that is associated with ethno-religious labor market gaps, but social capital, family features, gender role attitudes and veiling also play a role. Gaps in search duration and job status can be accounted for by these explanatory factors to a greater extent than those for paid work. Moreover, explanatory factors are related to the different gaps in different ways.
Samenvatting Welke handelings- en interventiestrategieën van gemeenten dragen bij aan perspectief... more Samenvatting Welke handelings- en interventiestrategieën van gemeenten dragen bij aan perspectief op werk en een verbetering van het welbevinden en vertrouwen van mensen in de bijstand? Zes gemeenten – Groningen, Utrecht, Tilburg, Wageningen, Deventer en Nijmegen – hebben de afgelopen jaren (van 1 oktober 2017 tot 31 december 2019) unieke randomised controlled trials uitgevoerd in de bijstand. De volgende (combinatie van) interventies zijn onderzocht: ontheffing van re-integratieverplichtingen, intensivering van begeleiding en vrijlating van bijverdiensten. Er is zowel gekeken naar uitstroom naar werk als naar baanzoekintensiteit, welbevinden, zelfredzaamheid en sociaal vertrouwen. De uitstroom naar werk is bij alle interventies niet lager dan de huidige aanpak, terwijl de uitstroom naar deeltijdwerk in sommige gemeenten hoger is. Vooral intensivering op maat en vrijlating kan uitstroom naar werk (minimaal in deeltijd) vergroten. Voor wat betreft de effecten op baanzoekintensiteit, ...
Objective: This paper seeks to understand the changing roles of religiosity and gender attitudes ... more Objective: This paper seeks to understand the changing roles of religiosity and gender attitudes in the employment of women in Europe between 2004 and 2016. Background: Religiosity and gender traditionalism are both considered to decrease the likelihood of women’s employment. This study argues that this relationship needs to be decoupled, as religiosity and gender traditionalism have different underlying mechanisms. Method: We analysed rounds 2 (2004), 4 (2008), 8 (2010), and 10 (2016) of the European Social Survey (ESS), which include, among other data, information on employment, religious affiliation, religiosity, and gender role attitudes in 16 countries (N=39,233). Results: We show that taking religiosity into account further increases the already increased likelihood of employment for Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish women compared to women with no religion. We also find, however, that religiosity decreases the employment gap between Muslim and Orthodox women on the one hand an...
Social media are said to be a core driver of populists’ current success. Yet, our knowledge of ho... more Social media are said to be a core driver of populists’ current success. Yet, our knowledge of how populist politicians use social media is limited. We argue that they can use Twitter and Facebook, politically the most important platforms, as a “double-barreled gun,” each serving a different target. Based on the architecture of the platforms and the populist ideology, we expect that Twitter is used to name and shame journalists publicly, Facebook to activate anger among citizens. Both types of use are examined by studying the Members of Parliament (MPs) of Austria, The Netherlands, and Sweden. We collected 9852 tweets for the 475 MPs on Twitter and 10,355 Facebook posts from the 287 MPs with a Facebook Page. Using negative binomial regression and content analyses, we find that populists seem eager to activate anger. They are not more likely to @-mention media accounts, but “shame” them roughly three times more often.
Have the Arab uprisings influenced the desire for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa? ... more Have the Arab uprisings influenced the desire for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa? This study presents a systematic explanation of the different impact the uprisings had on people’s desire for democracy across the region. It applies the relatively new consequence-based theory of democratic attitudes, and integrates the notion of deprivation into it. The expectations derived from this framework are tested empirically by examining data from 45 public opinion surveys in 11 Middle East and North Africa countries (2001–2014) and combining them with a systematic country-level case comparison. The study shows that the desire for democracy drops mainly in countries of major protest and initial political liberalization, but no substantial democratization (e.g. Egypt, Morocco) indeed, and that a lack of major protest or initial reform (e.g. Algeria, Yemen) ‘prevents’ disillusionment. The seemingly exceptional Lebanese and Tunisian cases also show the mechanism holds for specific...
This study examines inequalities in labor market outcomes between ethnic-majority women and Musli... more This study examines inequalities in labor market outcomes between ethnic-majority women and Muslim-minority women with a Moroccan or Turkish background in the Netherlands. It provides a comprehensive assessment of ethno-religious labor market gaps and investigates how a relatively broad range of explanatory factors are (differently) related to these gaps. We use nationally representative data from the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (2009), which oversamples minorities and contains high-quality measures of a comparatively broad array of potential explanations. Results reveal that Muslim-minority women less often have paid work, face longer job-search periods and hold lower status jobs than majority women. Interestingly, minority women work more hours than majority women in the Netherlands. These gaps are generally smaller for the second generation than the first generation. Our results show that human capital is a key factor that is associated with ethno-religious labor market gaps, but social capital, family features, gender role attitudes and veiling also play a role. Gaps in search duration and job status can be accounted for by these explanatory factors to a greater extent than those for paid work. Moreover, explanatory factors are related to the different gaps in different ways.
This book examines how social media have transformed politics in established democracies. Specifi... more This book examines how social media have transformed politics in established democracies. Specifically, the authors examine the influence of the unique qualities of social media on the power balance between and within parties. They present a generaly theory as well as an in-depth case study of the Netherlands and compare it to the US and European democracies. the authors show how and why social media's introduction leads to equalization for some and normalization for others. Additional to national politics, Jacobs and Spierings investigate often-overlooked topics such as local and European politics and the impact on women and ethnic minorities.
“Jacobs and Spierings are the first ones to provide a comprehensive account of the role social media play in politics. With their multi-method, comparative approach they debunk the common wisdom of massive social media effects, but also show in a nuanced way when and how these media actually matter. The book is a must-read for everyone wanting to understand how politics has changed due to the rise of new media.” - Rens Vliegenthart, Professor of Communication Science and Chair in Media and Society, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
“This book makes an important contribution to the literature on the internet and politics. In looking comparatively at elites’ use of Twitter and Facebook it extends our understanding of how far social media are affecting political practice in campaigns and elections worldwide. The authors update the standard normalization-equalization debate that has characterized the study of this topic by presenting a more nuanced understanding of party competition online.” - Rachel Gibson, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester, UK
Uploads
Papers by Niels Spierings
“Jacobs and Spierings are the first ones to provide a comprehensive account of the role social media play in politics. With their multi-method, comparative approach they debunk the common wisdom of massive social media effects, but also show in a nuanced way when and how these media actually matter. The book is a must-read for everyone wanting to understand how politics has changed due to the rise of new media.” - Rens Vliegenthart, Professor of Communication Science and Chair in Media and Society, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
“This book makes an important contribution to the literature on the internet and politics. In looking comparatively at elites’ use of Twitter and Facebook it extends our understanding of how far social media are affecting political practice in campaigns and elections worldwide. The authors update the standard normalization-equalization debate that has characterized the study of this topic by presenting a more nuanced understanding of party competition online.” - Rachel Gibson, Professor of Politics, University of Manchester, UK