Prof. dr. Rafael Wittek

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Prof. dr. Rafael Wittek

  • Home
  • Publications
  • Supervision
  • Research
  • Teaching

Research

Sustainable Coooperation

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Status, Reputation, and Gossip

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Organizational Change and Administrative Reform

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Intra-Organizational Networks

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Health and Well-Being

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The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research

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The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research

Wittek, R., T.A.B. Snijders, V. Nee (2013). The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

 

The Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research offers the first comprehensive overview of how the rational choice paradigm can inform empirical research within the social sciences. This landmark collection highlights successful empirical applications across a broad array of disciplines, including sociology, political science, economics, history, and psychology. Taking on issues ranging from financial markets and terrorism to immigration, race relations, and emotions, and a huge variety of other phenomena, rational choice proves a useful tool for theory- driven social research. Each chapter uses a rational choice framework to elaborate on testable hypotheses and then apply this to empirical research, including experimental research, survey studies, ethnographies, and historical investigations. Useful to students and scholars across the social sciences, this handbook will reinvigorate discussions about the utility and versatility of the rational choice approach, its key assumptions, and tools.

ISBN: 9780804784184

 

Best Book Award 2014, American Sociological Association (Rationality and Society Section)

Winner of the Outstanding Academic Title Award, sponsored by Choice

 

 

Table of Contents

Part I: Rationality and Decision-making

Chapter 1: Rationality, Social Preferences, and Strategic Decision-making from a Behavioral Economics Perspective

Simon Gächter

Chapter 2: Social Rationality, Self-Regulation, and Well-Being: The Regulatory Significance of Needs, Goals, and the Self

Siegwart Lindenberg

Chapter 3: Rational Choice Research on Social Dilemmas: Embeddedness Effects onTrust

Vincent Buskens and Werner Raub

Chapter 4: Modeling Collective Decision-making

Frans N. Stokman, Jelle Van der Knoop, and Reinier C. H. Van Oosten

Part II: Networks and Inequality

Chapter 5: Social Exchange, Power, and Inequality in Networks

Karen S. Cook and Coye Cheshire

Chapter 6: Social Capital

Henk Flap and Beate Völker

Chapter 7: Network Dynamics

Tom A. B. Snijders

Part III: Communities and Cohesion

Chapter 8: Rational Choice Research in Criminology: A Multi-Level Framework

Ross L. Matsueda

Chapter 9: Secularization:Theoretical Controversies Generating Empirical Research

Nan Dirk De Graaf

Chapter 10: Assimilation as Rational Action in Contexts Defined by Institutions and Boundaries

Victor Nee and Richard Alba

Part IV: States and Conflicts

Chapter 11: Terrorism and the State 

Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca

Chapter 12: Choosing War: State Decisions to Initiate and End Wars and Observe the Peace Afterward

James D. Morrow

Chapter 13: Rational Choice Approaches to State-Making

Edgar Kiser and Erin Powers

Part V: Markets and Organizations

Chapter 14: Market Design and Market Failure

Carlos Cañón, Guido Friebel, and Paul Seabright

Chapter 15: Organizational Governance

Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein

Chapter 16: Rational Choice and Organizational Change

Rafael Wittek and Arjen Van Witteloostuijn

 

  • Rafael Wittek
  • Awards
  • Honors and Fellowships
  • Guest Professorships
  • Major Grants
  • Journal Editorships
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Rafael Wittek

    rafael wittekProfessor of Theoretical Sociology at the University of Groningen, Department of Sociology. I am the Scientific Director of the Interdisciplinary Research and Training Center SCOOP: Sustainable Cooperation and a Board member of the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS). 

    My research focuses on problems of sustainable cooperation and how to prevent and solve them. My areas of expertise are the sociology of organizations, economic sociology, social network analysis, and social theory.

    I teach in the Bachelor and Master programs of the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Groningen. I am the coordinator of the Sociology Master Track Social Networks in a Sustainable Society, where I teach a course on Theories of Networks and Sustainable Cooperation. In the Research Master Behavioral and Social Sciences, I teach the course Economy and Society: Critical Transitions in Advanced Industrialized Societies. In our Sociology Bachelor program, I teach the course Organization and Society.

  • Awards

    • Best Book Award 2014
      American Sociological Association, Rationality and Society Section
    • Best Book Award 2013
      Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
    • Best Conference Paper Award 2012
      Latin American and European Meeting on Organization Studies
    • Best Journal Paper Award 2012
      Group and Organization Management 
    • Best Student Paper Award 2011
      International Network for Social Network Analysis
    • Best Conference Paper Award 2005
      Academy of Management, Organization Development and Change Division
    • Best Conference Paper Award 2004
      Irish Academy of Management, Strategic Management Track
    • Best Dissertation Award 2000
      SNS-Bank and University of Groningen
    • Best Article Selection 2000
      Handboek Interne Organisatie

  • Honors and Fellowships

    • European Academy of Sociology (EAS)
      Elected member since 2010
    • Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS)
      Fellow 2001-2002
      Member of the Selection Committee (since 2006)
  • Guest Professorships

    • Universita della Svizzera Italiana (USI Lugano, Zwitserland)
      Guest professor in the Humanitarian Management and Logistics Executive Master Program (2009-2014)
    • Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich, Zwitserland)
      Guest professor at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (2008-2009)
    • Cornell University
      Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Sociology (1998)
  • Major Grants

    • Teaching Transdisciplinarity: The TETRA-Initiative
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicants: Russell Spears, Ellen Janssen.
      Amount: ca. 350.000 Euro (Assistant Professor position,1 fte, four years)
      From: Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen (Teaching Innovation Fund)
      Year: 2017
    • Jongeren in een veerkrachtige samenleving. Naar nieuwe arrangementen voor inclusiviteit en participatie (JOIN)
      Member core team.
      Main Applicant: Bas van Bavel.
      Amount: 2.500.000 Euro
      From: NWO (Startimpuls National Science Agenda, Route Veerkrachtige en Zinvolle Samenlevingen)
      Year: 2017
    • Sustainable Cooperation - Roadmaps to Resilient Societies (SCOOP)
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicants: Naomi Ellemers, Russell Spears, Bas van Bavel, Martin van Hees, Tanja van der Lippe
      Amount: 18.800.000 Euro
      From: NWO (Gravitation Grant 024.003.025)
      Year: 2017
    • Sustainable Labor Market Integration of First Generation Migrant Groups
      Co-Applicant.
      Main Applicants: Nina Hansen, Liesbet Heyse
      Amount: ca. 220.000 Euro (4-year PhD-position)
      From: Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen
      Year: 2017
    • Resilience at a Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Coping with Social Devaluation
      Co-Applicant
      Other Co-Applicants: Russell Spears, Monicque Lorist, Jolien van Breen
      Amount: ca. 150.000 Euro (2 year Postdoc position)
      From: Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen
      Year: 2017
    • Cross-border network governance for sustainable training in health care
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicants: Liesbet Heyse, Francesca Giardini
      Amount: ca. 110.000 Euro (50% of 4 year PhD-position)
      From: NetwerkZon
      Year: 2017
    • Urban Collective Living Arrangements – Golden Key to Sustainable Communities?
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicant: Louisa Firnenburg
      Amount: ca. 200.000 Euro (4 year bursary PhD-position)
      From: PhD-fund, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen
      Year: 2017
    • Informal Social Networks and Organizational Inclusion: The Invisible Minority’s Dilemma
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicants: Sabine Otten, Julian Rengers
      Amount: ca. 200.000 (4 year bursary PhD-position)
      From: PhD-fund, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen
      Year: 2017
    • Sustainable Collaborative Networks. Design, Dynamics, and Decay of Cooperation in a Multilevel Organizational Field
      Co-Applicant
      Other Co-Applicant: Liesbet Heyse
      Amount: ca. 110.000 Euro (50% of 4 year PhD-position)
      From: NetwerkZon
      Year: 2016
    • Warsaw School of Data Analysis
      Co-Applicant.
      Main Applicant: Michal Bojanowski 
      Amount: 510.000 Euro
      From: European Social Fund
      Year: 2014
    • Good Governance and Corruption of Public Leaders in Indonesia
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicant: Mala Sondang Silitonga
      Amount: ca. 260.000 Euro (4 year PhD-position with tuition)
      From: World Bank Spirit Program, Bappenas Indonesia
      Year: 2013
    • Organizational Governance and Sustainable Health Care in Indonesia
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicant: Suwatin Miharti
      Amount: ca. 260.000 Euro (4 year PhD-position with tuition)
      From: World Bank Spirit Program, Bappenas Indonesia
      Year: 2013
    • The Education Divide in Indonesia: Determinants of Unequal Access to and Quality of Education
      Co-Applicant. 
      Other Co-Applicant: Tatang Muttaqin
      Amount: ca. 260.000 Euro (4 year PhD-position with tuition)
      From: World Bank Spirit Program, Bappenas Indonesia
      Year: 2012
    • Gossip and the Management of Reputation
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicant: Francesca Giardini
      Amount: 13.000 Euro
      Amount: NIAS-Lorentz Program
      Year: 2012
    • Self-Improvement Interventions in Organizations
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicant: Gabriël Anthonio
      Amount: 150.000 Euro
      From: FranklinCovey bv and Stenden University of Applied Science
      Year: 2010
    • Healthy Aging: Population and Society (HAPS)
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicants: Inge Hutter and Ronald Stolk
      Amount: 4.200.000 Euro
      From: Board of the University of Groningen
      Year: 2009
    • Graduate Program
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicant: Werner Raub
      Amount: 800.000 Euro
      From: NWO
      Year: 2009
    • Gendered Humanitarian Careers
      Co-Applicant.
      Other Co-Applicants: Liesbet Heyse and Melinda Mills
      Amount: 45.000 Euro
      From: Board of the University of Groningen
      Year: 2007
    • Handbook of Rational Choice Social Research
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicants: Tom Snijders and Victor Nee
      Amount: 100.000 Dollar
      From: Russell Sage Foundation, New York
      Year: 2006
    • Network Dynamics in Organizations
      Main Applicant.
      Amount: 100.000 Euro (Postdoc Position, 1 fte, 4 years)
      From: Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Strategic Fund
      Year: 2006
    • Reorganizations and Workplace Transformations in the Netherlands
      Main Applicant.
      Amount: 45.000 Euro
      From: NWO (Replacement Grant 400-05-704)
      Year: 2006
    • Solidarity at work and informal networks within semi-virtual teams
      Main Applicant.
      Amount: 51.000 Euro
      From: NWO (MES 014-43-722)
      Year: 2003
    • Governance by Reorganization
      Main Applicant.
      Amount: 1.500.000 Hfl (750.000 Euro)
      From: NWO (VIDI-Scheme 016.005.052)
      Year: 2000
    • Time Competition, Flexible Contracts, and Intrahousehold Negotiation
      Main Applicant.
      Co-Applicants: Tanja van der Lippe and Arie Glebbeek (Aandachtsgebied Time Competition)
      Amount: 225.000 Hfl (112.500 Euro)
      From: NWO (490-24-060-C)
      Year: 2006
  • Journal Editorships

    • International Sociology
      Member of the Editorial Board (since 2004)
    • Social Network Analysis and Mining
      Associate Editor (since 2011)
    • Sage Studies in International Sociology
      Member of the Editorial Board (2003-2006)
    • Netherlands Journal of Social Sciences
      Member of the Editorial Board (2003-2004)
  • Curriculum Vitae

    Updated May 5, 2017

    CV (PDF)

     

Contact

Department of Sociology
Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen
Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG Groningen, The Netherlands
Email: r.p.m.wittek@rug.nl, Phone: +31 50 36 36282

Secretary: Ms. Simon (+31 50 36 36469, s.simon@rug.nl)

News

18.8 million euro NWO grant for SCOOP

On Monday 8 May, 2017, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Jet Bussemaker, announced that the project SCOOP (Sustainable Cooperation: Roadmaps to a Resilient Society) is one of the six projects awarded 18.8 million euros in funding from the NWO programme Gravitation.

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