dr. (Maarten) MF van Dijck

Biography

Maarten Van Dijck (1980) is associate professor in history and theory of the social sciences at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. His teaching concerns the theories and methodologies used in historical and social research. Maarten is specialised in urban history from long-term perspective. His PhD research dealt with the complex relation between criminalization, urbanization and behavior changes in the urban societies of the Low Countries during the late medieval and early modern period. This thesis claims that urban growth in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries caused the decline of interpersonal violence in Europe. Homcide rates tend to be lower in larger cities, especially after 1500. He also studied the evolution of democracy, civil societies and public spheres in the Low Countries during the late medieval and the early modern period. A third research line deals with the unequal distribution of social resources in the Low Countries during the early modern period. 

Maarten's research makes use of concepts from the social sciences to understand long-term historical developments such as the rise of democratic societies. Methodologically, he makes use of digital humanities techniques in his research such as GIS and Social Network Analysis.