I am Professor at The Institute for Analytical Sociology and at Leipzig University, member of the steering group of the Swedish Excellence Center for Computational Science, Vice-President of the International Network of Analytical Sociology, and elected fellow of the European Academy of Sociology.
At the IAS, I am involved in three research groups:
The text analysis group studies dynamics of public discourse. Using digitized corpora as social sensors, our research explores swings in public opinion and shared interpretations of societal developments and events.
The cultural dynamics group looks at cultural markets and social media platforms as testbeds for socially influenced behavior. One research question is whether social influence can change people’s behavior—and thus render collective outcomes socially produced. Other research questions concern the spread of misinformation and the politicization of culture.
The spatial inequality group investigates the self-reinforcing dynamics of urban growth, the pace of life in cities, and the escalating urban-rural divide in economic prosperity and individual life chances.
