Daan Delespaul

Ever wondered why Flanders and Wallonia vote so differently? 🇧🇪🗳️ In my second PhD chapter – out now in EPSR – we look at cleavage structures in both regions Very (!) happy to see this published: cambridge.org/core/journal...

📢🎓 PhD position in our "Perceptions of Democracy in the Age of Populism" project 💶 Good salary & money for conference travels 📝 Interdisciplinary supervision team 🌍 Trondheim 🇳🇴 lively student city with great nature 🗓️ DL 10.10. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... Thanks for sharing & RT! #polisky #EUsky

Wallonia's remarkable lack of a far-right party is attracting international attention, so I was invited to summarise my thesis in @fesonline.bsky.social's IPS journal! 👉 www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democ...

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...)

I recently had the opportunity to talk about my doctoral thesis, Astérix and Belgian stereotypes in @brusselstimes.com 🎙️📊 www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2046...

📣 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!

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

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...

🚨 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...)

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.

De eerste van 2026: Zijn Vlaamse en Waalse kiezers écht uit elkaar gegroeid? Met dank aan het geweldig fijne @stukroodvlees.bsky.social! 🥂

Check out this article, available #OpenAccess on #FirstView.

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.)

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...

🤝 @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....

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

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...

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)

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...

💡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

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!

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-...

Fresh from the press: "Rethinking political space in Europe: the modernisation and globalisation dimensions" together with @nilsjungmann.bsky.social We challenge dominant assumptions about the structure of political conflict. a 🧵1/ x

How researchers at Bocconi guessed the Pope using network analysis ⬇️ www.unibocconi.it/en/news/netw...

1 more week to apply to one of 2 postdoc positions, 5-years each, in my @erc.europa.eu project!

I probably relate to this quote more than I should.

🚨 Talking about harassment in politics hurts your political career. Yes, even in 🇸🇪. And, yes, for both women & men. Here’s what me and @sandrahkansson.bsky.social found in our Political Behavior paper using both experimental and descriptive approaches: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 👇

Two weeks left to apply for a post-doctoral position in my project on social cleavages and political party competition in Europe. Thanks for helping me alert interested researchers!

1/7. In case you haven’t been following, here is a short summary of the misnamed Russian-American "peace process" regarding Ukraine.

In the coming months, I'll be recruiting two PhD students to work with me as part of the Voting & Democracy research group at @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social. So watch this space if you want to join the team and work on this lovely campus!

The results are highly geographically clustered, even after accounting for demographics. Areas with a history of heavy industry or mining seem to be much more economically segregated than the rest of Britain:

New paper out at @cpsjournal.bsky.social! With Ian McAllister, we examine how party competition and party positions condition the presence and size of an age gap in voting for the left. A short 🧵 below! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

🤔 Wordt ook a/d KU Leuven een vrouwelijke arts de nieuwe rector? Severine Vermeire is kandidaat en lanceert inspraakronde o/d toekomst v/d universiteit 🚀👩🏼‍⚕️ 👉 severinevermeire.be

ECR Seminar Series! 📅 Feb 28 | 🕑 14:00-15:00 CET Topic: Machine Learning in Causal Inference 🎤 Speaker: Guido Priem (KU Leuven): A Conjoint Experiment on Religious Tolerance 💬 Discussant: Jorien Veldwijk (Erasmus Uni Rotterdam) More information: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... @ecpr.bsky.social

On Jan 29, Germany's conservative CDU/CSU broke a longstanding taboo by accepting votes from the far-right AfD. How did German citizens respond? A preliminary analysis of an ongoing survey suggests that the conservatives might have actually benefited from their move (at least in the short term). 1/5

“If the centre-left is to have any chance of prevailing in today’s hostile political conditions, it needs to ensure that the conflict between the interests of the top and those of the rest, as well as the legitimate demands of the less well-off majority are at the heart of public debates.” 👇

@liesbethooghe.bsky.social & Gary Marks measure the extent to which political parties on the contemporary socio-cultural divide are cleavaged. doi.org/10.1080/0140... Part of the forthcoming Special Issue "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies". #polisky #academicsky