Interdisciplinary in nature, and embrace sociology, economics, demography and development studies

My research interests are interdisciplinary in nature, and embrace sociology, economics, demography and development studies. I am particularly fascinated by the way these disciplines can interact in the analysis of social stratification, family structures, inequality, and social networks. My research goal is to evaluate how and when social networks exacerbate - or ameliorate - social inequalities. At the same time, I intend to investigate how social networks can be affected by widening inequalities. As a major driver of socio-economic inequality, I am interested in technology and technological change. Besides investigating the different ways through which networks drive and influence technological change, I aim to explore how social networks are being shaped by technological advancement. Moreover, I have an interest for questions of social capital and socialisation processes, and how they are being affected by technological changes, most importantly by automation processes. Analyses of social capital have become increasingly relevant for policy-making, as social capital has been shown to be correlated with fairer, more democratic, and stable societies. Due to the important political implications, I believe it is crucial to study how technological change might impact and shape social capital. In my thesis, I would like to focus on the gig economy, as it represents a striking example of an industry where socialisation has been severely affected by technological advancement, in what has been defined as "algorithmic management". The notion of algorithmic management describes the automation process typical of the gig economy, where traditional (often managerial) work roles once assigned to humans are now filled by software algorithms. In this context, the conventional notions of "employment" and "workplace" become obsolete, as gig economy workers usually rely exclusively on online, digital intermediaries, without being anyone's employee. It is my objective to address the individual responses and perceptions of workers that are confronted with such algorithms - and the impact of this phenomenon on socialisation and social capital. Therefore, my research questions primarily ask:
(i) How do people perceive, react to, and work with robots and algorithms filling roles traditionally held by
supervisors and colleagues? And
(ii) how does this trend affect socialisation processes, and ultimately, social capital?