Centre for Social Theory

CST is a scholarly hub for social, critical, creative and engaged theoretical thinking in relation to current societal dynamics and concerning the social production of knowledge. At the CST, we eagerly explore new sociological imaginations and interdisciplinary conversations in relation to key contemporary clusters of debate. We currently centrally focus on social inequalities, citizenship and solidarity, climate justice and environmental action/practice, migration and border regimes, and epistemic inequality in knowledge production. We pursue theoretical work and grounded-theory oriented empirical research, embodying research as a reflexive praxis and striving for more inclusive methodologies.

More specific, we wander through the academic fields of (global) social theory, sociology of knowledge, historical sociology, political sociology, economic sociology, citizenship studies, civil society and third sector research, science and technology studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, critical border studies, and feminist theory, among others.

Coordinator of the CST: Prof. dr. Lesley Hustinx

Current key research lines

Social inequalities: on the persistence of old forms of inequality and the rise of new forms, especially linked with educational inequalities, gender, and ethnicity/race
Social differentiation: on the determinants of change in different fields or systems of modern society, such as religion, education, or science.
Social boundaries: on the recognition of society’s environment, such as animal rights debates and environmental problems
Solidarity and civic engagement: organizational and institutional embedding of 'altruism' and 'voluntary action' (blood donation, volunteering), practices of grassroots activism with illegalized migrants and the climate justice movement
Reflexive sociology: on the history and the future of the social sciences, especially considering the challenges posed by globalization and de-/postcolonial thinking.

Collaborations

Members

Camila Contreras Vera	Camila Contreras Vera is a doctoral candidate in sociology. She is jointly affiliated with the Centre for Social Theory at Ghent University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC). She holds a BA in Political Science from PUC and an MSc in Governance and Development from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Her research explores migrant integration in host societies, with a particular focus on the role of religious institutions in fostering social cohesion in Chile. Her broader academic interests include local governance, migration policies, and the sociology of religion.
Pieter De Pauw	Pieter De Pauw is a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at Ghent University. He holds a PhD in Communication Sciences and a Master’s degree in Sociology. His research is situated at the intersection of social theory and empirical research on inequality, citizenship, and civil society. He currently studies how patterns of participation in volunteering reflect and reproduce broader forms of social stratification. His work is particularly interested in how organizational and institutional contexts shape opportunities for civic engagement. Methodologically, he combines mixed-methods research, including survey analysis, multilevel modelling, and qualitative interviews. His earlier research focused on youth, socio-cultural participation, and media literacy.
Laura Goditiabois	Laura Goditiabois is a PhD student at Ghent University, She obtained an MSc in criminology and in sociology. Her PhD research focuses on a critical sociological analysis of power in multispecies relations. Her project mainly explores paradoxes between care and power in relations between human and nonhuman companions. Her qualitative research explores different contexts where nonhuman and human animals interact, such as the veterinary practice. She was the recipient of the Marthe Versichelen award for her master’s thesis research, which examined discourses on animals in court cases involving slaughterhouses. She is co-founder of the interuniversity collective Belgian Centre for Human-Animal Studies (BeCHAS – www.bechas.be).
Lesley Hustinx	Lesley Hustinx is Professor of Sociology. Her fields of interest include social theory, political sociology, citizenship studies and third sector research. Her research currently focuses on volunteering and blood donation. Her work has been published in, among others, Voluntas, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Citizenship Studies, and European Sociological Review. She serves on the editorial board of Journal of Civil Society. She formerly was a board member of the International Society for Third Sector Research, editorial board member of Voluntas, and an expert member of the High Council for Volunteering in Belgium.
Yasmien Khaled	Yasmien Khaled is a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant. She is interested in understanding how civic engagement in Arab society is molded by cultural practices and institutions. Drawing on survey data and using quantitative analysis, she investigates how religious values, along with political attitudes, shape charitable giving in the Arab world.
Laura Stielike	Laura Stielike is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies at Osnabrück University and affiliated with the Centre for Social Theory at Ghent University. In her current work, she explores the digital transformation of migration-related knowledge production. For her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin, she investigated the ‘migration&development dispositif’ with a focus on Cameroonian migration to Germany. Her fields of interest include sociology of knowledge, STS, discourse analysis, intersectionality, postcolonial studies, digital migration studies and critical data studies.
Toyah Van der Poten	Toyah Van der Poten is a doctoral candidate. She has a background as a filmmaker, with experience in both documentaries and socio-artistic projects. The doctoral research she is working on focuses on the underrepresentation and (re)presentation of ethnic groups in blood donation and challenges the organizational field of blood donation. The experiences of individuals with a migration background are studied through fieldwork in Ghent (BE) and Leicester (UK).
Raf Vanderstraeten	Raf Vanderstraeten is Professor of Sociology. His work is in the field of sociological theory, sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and sociology of education. In recent years, he has been Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology of the University of Chicago (USA) and Visiting Professor in the London School of Economics and Political Science (England). He is also a member of the Academia Europaea. He recently co-edited the Elgar Encyclopedia of Global Social Theory.