About me
Originally a social scientist from Tilburg University, I have worked for more than fifteen years in the IT and financial sector. In 2016 I returned to the academic world as PhD student on the GIStorical Antwerp Project. I worked as postdoctoral researcher on research projects Virtuafort and The Social History of Finance. Over the years I have built extensive expertise in using socio-spatial research methodology and applying GIS tools and network analysis in historical research.
Dealing with Dearth. Inequality and Grain Shortage in 16th-Century Antwerp
Historical research into vulnerability and resilience during food crises often focuses on the consequences for living standards at an aggregate level and is usually based on average wages for specific social-economic groups in relation to the consumption needs of a standard household. This analysis of the Antwerp grain survey of 1586 adds to this in two ways. Firstly, it brings in another aspect of coping capacity as it focuses on buffer capacity in kind, in the shape of grain reserves. These reserves can then be specified according to grain type. As during periods of dearth people frequently switched to the cheaper grains or substitutes, the extent to which such deviations took place in Antwerp provides additional information on coping capacity. Secondly, household level data enable detailed analysis of the impact of household size, socio-economic profile and location on buffer capacity, and thus on the vulnerability or resilience of households. The historiographies of Augsburg and Coventry provide insight in local grain stocks and consumption to place the Antwerp findings in a broader perspective.
(With Jessica Dijkman, Utrecht University)
Dealing with Dearth
Inequality and Grain Shortage in 16th-Century Antwerp
Mapping the Market. The Credit Transactions of Antwerp's Business Community in the 19th Century
With Ruben Peeters, Marc Deloof and Oscar Gelderblom, financially supported by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), I studied the evolution of social and spatial credit networks in Antwerp between 1800 and 1900. We compare credit relationships through notaries and so-called private (peer to peer) contracts.
Publications:
Ruben Peeters and Rogier van Kooten (2024). "Looking for Dark Matter Credit: Exploring Notarial Credit Markets in Antwerp and its Surroundings ca. 1835 ", in: Elise Dermineur en Matteo Pompermaier (red.), Credit Networks in The Preindustrial World. A Social Network Analysis Approach, Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, Londen: Palgrave Macmillan. (release: 26-12-2024)
in:
Mapping the market part 2
Notarial credit transactions in the Antwerp region 1833-1873
Mapping the market part 2
Notarial credit transactions in the Antwerp inner city 1833-1873
Mapping the market
Notarial credit transactions in the Antwerp region 1833-1837
Mapping the market
Notarial credit transactions in the Antwerp inner city 1833-1837
The Social History of Finance
From October 2021 to December 2023, I worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Urban History on research project The Social History of Finance. This project breaks new ground as it offers a structural, long-term perspective on the role of the financial sector and alternative arrangements used by households to organize payments, loans, savings, and insurance.
Premodern Healthscaping - Plague, Religion and Urban Space in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp
Social and spatial study of a forgotten plague epidemic exploring disparities between socio-economic, spatial and religious groups. This resulted in: Plague, Religion and Urban Space in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp | Social History of Medicine | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
(With Claire Weeda (LU), Janna Coomans (UU) and Léa Hermenault (UvA / UA)
N.W. Posthumus Institute
At the University of Utrecht I work as Education Programme Director of the N.W. Posthumus Institute (Utrecht University)
