Daan Delespaul
@ddelesp.bsky.social
PhD’ing @KU Leuven // Cleavage theory, voting behaviour & political sociology // 🇧🇪 politics
In 2024 doorbraken MR en Les Engagés de hegemonie van PS. Is de Franstalige kiezer nu eindelijk verrechtst? En blijft Wallonië in 2029 een 'Gallisch dorp' tegen radicaal-rechts? Laatste Sampolcolumn voor het zomerreces! 🌞(www.sampol.be/2026/06/zijn...)
Zijn van alle Galliërs de Franstaligen de dappersten?
In 2024 doorbraken MR en Les Engagés de hegemonie van PS. Is de Franstalige kiezer nu eindelijk verrechtst? En blijft Wallonië in 2029 een 'Gallisch dorp'...
sampol.be
I recently had the opportunity to talk about my doctoral thesis, Astérix and Belgian stereotypes in @brusselstimes.com 🎙️📊 www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2046...
Are Flemish people really more right-wing than Walloons?
Flanders is often called a right-wing region, while Walloon attitudes skew much more to the left. But, as research shows, it's not that simple.
brusselstimes.com
📣 GASPAR is looking for a new PhD Candidate! Interested in working on political ambition or on how parties continue to structure the political debate through party cues? 📅 Deadline for applying is July 8th Any questions? Contact @bramwauters.bsky.social More information below 👇
🚨 I'm recruiting a PhD student for a new project on Parties' social group ownership, based in the @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social research group at KU Leuven! Deadline for applying is 26 June, estimated starting date is 1 Oct 2026. All info is here 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Share widely!
1 doctoraatspositie in kiesgedrag
1 PhD position to research how parties build connections with social groups
kuleuven.be
Voor De Gids op Maatschappelijk Gebied schreef ik een stuk over de rol van identiteit om stemgedrag te verklaren. Ondanks maatschappelijke veranderingen en groeiende volatiliteit blijft identiteit van belang! 🔗 visie.net/de-gids-arti... @visiemagazine.bsky.social | @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social
We kiezen nog steeds met onze groepsidentiteit
De afgelopen decennia is het kiesgedrag in België fundamenteel veranderd. Kiezers zijn volatieler...
visie.net
Was just reading a vg article by @ddelesp.bsky.social on how the far right have been denied political space in francophone Belgium not only by the cordon sanitaire médiatique but also by success of social democrats in keeping focus on the socio-economic issues. www.revuepolitique.be/electorats-f...
Électorats flamand et francophone : si loin, si proches ? - Politique
Parmi les démocraties d'Europe occidentale, la Belgique fait figure d'exception. Le pays connaît deux systèmes politiques strictement séparés, les Flamand·es
revuepolitique.be
🚨 New WP w/ @leonardocarella.bsky.social on OSF doi.org/10.31235/osf... We usually think that social identities precede preferences We show the reverse is also true: people update their social identities to match their immigration preferences Focus: class identity in 🇬🇧 + Christian identity in 🇮🇹
NIEUW VERKIEZINGSONDERZOEK Bij de verkiezingen van 2024 was het Franstalige electoraat voor het eerst volatieler dan het Vlaamse, leert nieuw onderzoek. (www.sampol.be/2026/01/de-g...)
De grote stemshift: hoe België van kamp wisselt
Bij de verkiezingen van 2024 was het Franstalige electoraat voor het eerst volatieler dan het Vlaamse, leert nieuw onderzoek.
sampol.be
Achter de kiesuitslag van juni 2024 gaan grote stemverschuivingen tussen de politieke partijen schuil. Een onderzoek van de KU Leuven legt die voor het eerst bloot. Dit zijn de tien belangrijkste lessen.
Het verborgen verlies van N-VA, het plafond van Vlaams Belang en de groene jongerenvlucht: de stemverschuivingen bij de verkiezingen in 2024 blootgelegd
demorgen.be
De eerste van 2026: Zijn Vlaamse en Waalse kiezers écht uit elkaar gegroeid? Met dank aan het geweldig fijne @stukroodvlees.bsky.social! 🥂
Stuk Rood Vlees@stukroodvlees.bsky.social · 7mo agoNieuwe blog: Zijn Vlaamse en Waalse kiezers uit elkaar gegroeid? https://stukroodvlees.nl/?p=18374
Check out this article, available #OpenAccess on #FirstView.
Daan Delespaul@ddelesp.bsky.social · 10mo agoThird dissertation paper is out now in @govandopp.bsky.social! OA: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... It studies the ideological structure of European electorates – finding broad similarities between countries, despite that party electorates and social groups remain structured nationally
Third dissertation paper is out now in @govandopp.bsky.social! OA: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... It studies the ideological structure of European electorates – finding broad similarities between countries, despite that party electorates and social groups remain structured nationally
#OpenAccess from @govandopp.bsky.social - A Common Two-Dimensional Structure? Comparing Demand-side Political Spaces of Eight European Democracies - https://cup.org/4ohFZ6N - @ddelesp.bsky.social #FirstView
JUST OUT: "Boundaries and Cleavages: Elements of a Cultural Sociology of Political Divides." OA: direct.mit.edu/ecps/article... It develops what the cultural sociology of group formation can contribute to research on political cleavages. (And why "Somewheres vs Anywheres" really doesn't cut it.)
Happy to report that I'm officially #PhDone! Thanks for joining me on this journey – in particular to supervisors @swyngedouwm.bsky.social, @cecilmeeusen.bsky.social & Koen Abts, and jury members @lwestheuser.bsky.social, @rdassonneville.bsky.social, @rlachat.bsky.social & Gert-Jan Put.
Radical left support increases for those who study more than their parents and do not achieve upward class mobility, as well as for those who experience upward class mobility but continue to struggle financially www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The unfulfilled promises of upward mobility and support for radical left parties in Western Europe
In recent decades, educational expansion has produced a large swathe of university graduates which labour markets are increasingly less able to absorb…
sciencedirect.com
🤝 @jochemvanagt.bsky.social, Katrin Praprotnik, @luanarusso.bsky.social, and @markuswagner.bsky.social show that when the mainstream right signals openness to govern with the far right, it eases tensions on the right but amplifies antipathy on the left 👇 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Partisan affect and political tolerance in the context of shifting norms: the effect of coalition signals towards the radical right
Mainstream political actors in many countries face the challenging decision of how to engage with radical-right parties. While some systematically exclude them from power, others accept them as coa...
tandfonline.com
Why do the Walloon social democrats have the most ethnocentric electorate of Francophone Belgium? I lay out some hypotheses (and cool graphs!) – out now in @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social
Migratie en het tweestromenland van de Belgische sociaaldemocratie
PS heeft het meest migratiekritische electoraat van Franstalig België. Desondanks staan de Waalse socialisten niet te boek als een welvaartschauvinistische partij.
sampol.be
Are you a junior scholar attending #ecprgc25 or #apsa25? Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to join a dynamic international research team at @sciencepoulb.bsky.social! 📢 Cevipol is hiring a full time postdoc researcher 🗓️ 1-year contract (possible extension) 📍based in Brussels 💼 Project: NOTLIKEUS
I'm hiring another postdoc (research-focused, for almost 5 years) for my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage! I'm looking for someone with strong quantitative text-analysis skills (e.g. #NLP, #LLM, etc.) to study the role of political actors in cleavage formation.
How much competition within the right field? ❗Segmentation is eroding, especially among young voters❗ New article out by @siljahausermann.bsky.social @dpzollinger.bsky.social @mrsteenbergen.bsky.social and myself @ipz.bsky.social @wepsocial.bsky.social tinyurl.com/ycxfx2aj A short 🧵 1/7
Some afternoon thoughts on UK politics and AI exposure and how it’s so different by geography politicalwhiteboard.substack.com/p/the-collar...
The "collar flip"....what if class politics shifted in the UK?
Why the rise of AI, might change our politics in the UK (and US!)
politicalwhiteboard.substack.com
I have a new paper out in @wepsocial.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... The paper situates discussions about the Educational Cleavage in a longer temporal context (back to the Medieval time) to show that there have ALWAYS been conflicts between educational groups. (1/3)
From educational conflicts to an educational cleavage? The multiple transformations of educational conflicts from medieval to post-industrial times
Major socio-economic transformations can create new cleavages, altering politics forever. The crucial contemporary transformation is the shift towards post-industrial knowledge economies, placing e...
tandfonline.com
West European Politics@wepsocial.bsky.social · last yr.Education is king in today's societies - socially, economically, & politically. @garritzmannj.bsky.social shows how conflict between educational groups transformed multiple times since the Middle Ages. doi.org/10.1080/0140... Part of the SI "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies"
Cannot stress enough how great this years’ #PolEtmaal2025 has been. Amazing people, warm (!) atmosphere and (as it turns out) great running trails 🤩 Thank you to all the organisers @rug.nl!
Only 10 days left to apply for this phd position on education-based identities, status, and political attitudes! Open to those interested in sociology, social psychology, political science, communication science or indeed a combination of all. jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-P...
PhD Researcher - Scientific project on Education-based social identities
PhD Researcher - Scientific project on Education-based social identities
jobs.vub.be
💡New article: 'Uncorking Europeanisation: the resilient journey of small #Georgian winemakers in the pursuit of the #EU market' by Margherita Gobbat 👉 doi.org/10.1080/2159... 🇬🇪🇪🇺 @adamfagan.bsky.social @lenkabustikova.bsky.social @andreapirro.it @petrkopecky.bsky.social
Uncorking Europeanisation: the resilient journey of small Georgian winemakers in the pursuit of the EU market
This article examines how Georgian wine producers respond to EU export standards and how they perceive them. What role does the Europeanisation process play in shaping their resilience through adap...
doi.org
I'm recruiting 2 PhD researchers to work with me on a project studying how social groups influence vote choices! Info on the position and how to apply 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Please share with interested students who would like to move to beautiful Leuven!
2 PhD positions in Electoral behavior
2 PhD positions to research how social group memberships become connected to vote choices
kuleuven.be
Er zijn voor politieke wetenschappers en nieuwsmedia geen excuses meer om te werken met slechte steekproeven, aldus politicoloog @swyngedouwm.bsky.social. De nieuwe steekproef, The Social Study, toont hoe het wél kan. www.sampol.be/2025/05/the-...
The Social Study: de steekproef die steek houdt
Er zijn voor politieke wetenschappers en nieuwsmedia geen excuses meer om te werken met slechte steekproeven. De nieuwe steekproef, The Social Study, toont hoe het wél kan.
sampol.be
