The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is an internationally oriented university located in the heart of Europe: Brussels. The VUB has 8 main faculties, offering in total 144 different study programmes to almost 18,000 students and employs more than 2,000 academic staff members.
vub.be >
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is an internationally oriented university located in the heart of Europe: Brussels. The VUB has 8 main faculties, offering in total 144 different study programmes to almost 18,000 students and employs more than 2,000 academic staff members.
Interface Demography (ID) is part of the Department of Sociology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. ID is recognised as a group of excellence in fundamental research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel since 2012, but its recognition reaches beyond its alma mater. ID is widely recognised as an expert centre in demographic and social scientific research in Belgium and internationally, with a strong reputation in construction, linkage, management and analysis of survey and registry-based population databases.
A growing research line, coordinated by prof. dr. Christophe Vanroelen, is concerned with various aspects of people’s work and employment situation. The topic of this project belongs to the core of our research experience. Members of our team have been investigating different aspects of job quality, precarious employment, well-being and health at work using both qualitative and quantitative empirical research methodologies. In doing our research, we have always adopted a theory-based approach with attention towards the embeddedness of workers’ health and well-being in the wider context of structural labour market developments.
Apart from studies in the Flemish/Belgian context, our research often adopts a cross-national European perspective. Moreover, our research group has ample experience with analyses of the EWCS surveys related to the fields of quality of work and employment.
Interface Demography Research Group >
Project Staff
Prof Dr Christophe Vanroelen
PhD in Social Health Sciences
Director and associate professor of Interface Demography
+32 261 48 125
christophe.vanroelen@vub.be
Christophe Vanroelen is associate professor and the director of Interface Demography, a research centre connected to the Department of Sociology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He holds a PhD in social health sciences and master degrees in sociology and applied social science statistics.
He collaborated in several scientific research projects regarding socio-economic health inequalities, work-related health and job quality. His current research focuses predominantly on the quality of work and employment as determinants of health and well-being among workers.
Jessie Gevaert
Jessie Gevaert is a doctoral student connected to Interface Demography since 2017. She holds a master’s degree in Sociology, which she completed with a MA dissertation on the working conditions and work-related health of the self-employed.
She has been involved in research projects regarding work-related health and job quality for the European Foundation for Working and Living Conditions and the Belgian Federal Public Service of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue. Her current research interests focus mostly on the work-related well-being of people in self-employment and small enterprises.
Karen Van Aerden
Karen Van Aerden joined Interface Demography in November 2011. In 2018, she successfully defended her PhD, entitled “Contemporary employment arrangements in Europe and their relation with workers’ well-being. A typological approach towards employment quality”.
Currently, she works as a postdoctoral researcher on different projects related to her main research interests: job and employment quality in relation to employees’ mental and physical health.