Currently I am working as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam.
I graduated with distinction as MSc in Sociology. My thesis was on motivations for people to go to the gym and the development of fitness chains. In 2016 I published my PhD-thesis A Call for Respect, on how long-time unemployed workers who are ‘distanced from the labour market’ and participating in citizen activation projects, protect and build their self-respect in an increasingly meritocratic society. How do people experience their unemployment, how do they cope, and what does this mean for their self-respect, are questions I studied in the context of a meritocratic society. Sources of self-respect, meanings of paid work, and the role of financial rewards in building self-respect are central concepts in my thesis. Here, financial rewards must be understood not only in a material sense but also, and perhaps primarily, in a symbolic, immaterial sense.
Please find the English summary here: A Call for Respect: Experiences of Unemployed Workers in a Meritocratising Society.
You can find a full list of my (Dutch) publications on this page: Publicaties. Or please take a look at this scientific article: Elshout, J., Kampen, T. (joint first author) & E. Tonkens (2013) The Fragility of Self-Respect. Emotional Labour of Workfare Volunteering. Social Policy and Society, 12 (3): 427-438.
I am interested in themes like dignity and (informal) work, work and identity, fitness culture, and gender (in-)equality.
