André Grow

Home

Since October 2018, I work in the Laboratory of Digital and Computational Demography at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (headed by Emilio Zagheni). My current research interests lie in family sociology, social stratification, and agent-based computational modeling.

Between September 2013 and September 2018, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research of KU Leuven, where I was part of the GENDERBALL project team (principal investigator: Jan Van Bavel). In the context of this project, I have examined the implications of the shifting gender balance in education for reproductive behavior in Europe, mostly by means of agent-based computational modeling.

In my Ph.D. research at the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology at the University of Groningen, I have examined the emergence of status differentiation from small group interaction by means of agent-based computational modeling and social network analysis (supervisors: Rafael Wittek and Andreas Flache). I was particularly interested in the social construction of status characteristics such as gender, age, and ethnicity. A digital copy of my dissertation can be obtained here.

News and upcoming events

In April 2019, I will attend the Population Association of America Annual Meeting in Austin, USA, to present the papers 'Gender, Resources, and Status: An Empirically Grounded Model of Status Construction Theory' and 'Social Networks and Long-Term Fertility Trends: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach'.
I am a member of the program committee of the 4th international conference on Digital Transformation & Global Society, which will take place 19–21 June in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In June 2019, I will teach at the BIGSSS Summer Schools in Computational Social Science in Sardinia, Italy.
In June 2019, I will give a course on 'Agent-Based Computational Modeling in Population Studies' at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.

Past news and events

In December 2018, I have presented the paper 'Gender, Resources, and Status: An Empirically Grounded Model of Status Construction Theory' at the 2nd European Symposium on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science in Cologne, Germany.
In November 2018, I have presented the paper 'Gender, Resources, and Status: An Empirically Grounded Model of Status Construction Theory' at the Digital Traces Workshop at the University of Bremen, Germany.
In November 2018, I have participated in the workshop Uncertainty and Complexity of Migration, which will take place at the British Academy in London, United Kingdom.
On 30 October 2018, I have presented the paper 'Occupational Gender Segregation, Gender Norms, and Occupational Homogamy Across Europe' at the conference of the European Consortium for Sociological Research in Paris, France.
On 17 October 2018, I have presented a poster titled 'The Income Cliff in Households: Insights from Agent-Based Computational Modelling' at the Symposium on Digital Demography at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
I was a member of the program committee of the 2018 SocInfo conference, which has taken place 25–28 September in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
On 5 September 2018, I have given a talk on the empirical calibration and validation of agent-based models at the BEHAVE Summer School on Agent-Based Modelling for Social Scientists at the University of Brescia, Italy.
I have been awarded a travel grant by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) to present the paper 'The Income Cliff in Households: Insights from Agent-Based Computational Modelling' on 19 July 2018 at the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, Canada.
I was a member of the program committee of the 2018 Annual International Conference on Computational Social Science, which has taken place 12–15 July at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
On 9 June 2018, I have presented the paper 'The Changing Importance of Women’s Labor Market Position for Union Formation: Evidence from European Cohorts Born between the 1940s and the 1980s' at the European Population Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
On 17 May 2018, I have given a talk on 'Agent-Based Modelling of Family Formation and Dissolution' at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.
On 9 March 2018, I have presented my work on agent-based modeling in the workshop Sozialwissenschaftliche Simulationen und die Soziologie der Simulation (Simulation in the Social Sciences and the Sociology of Simulation), at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
On 27 February 2018, I have given a guest lecture in the Master course European Social and Population Issues at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.