Eelke Heemskerk
Eelke Heemskerk (1978) is a social scientist, a management consultant and loves sailing and kiteboarding. He works at the University of Amsterdam and the Galan Group, and lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
News
May 2012Three generations of social science
What a great honor to publish an article together with Robbert Mokken and Meindert Fennema. Together, we represent three generations of social network scholars at the University of Amsterdam. Rob Mokken introduced network analysis in the Netherlands during the early 1970s. Meindert Fennema, his apprentice, pioneered in the study of international networks of interlocking directorates in the late 1970s. As a student of both Fennema & Mokken I represent the third generation. Our paper 'Fading of the State' (see publications) investigates the declining state-business networks from times of neo-corporatism to neo-liberalism and is very much in line with the path-breaking work of Mokken in his ' Traces of Power' research program.
Meindert Fennema gave his valedictory address last week. For the (sad?!) occassion I wrote an essay where I reflect on the work and the practice of Meindert as a network scholar and entrepeneur. It's also at the publication page.
March 2012
Governance and decision making
A number of recent (working) papers are available for download at the publication page, some I recently presented at a number of conferences. Next few months I will be working on decision-making in corporate boards, among others a series of interviews. Hope to be able to post preliminary results soon!
August 2011
Visiting Columbia University
This fall I am a visiting scholar at Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University, New York. Many great people there I am fortunate to be able to work with. During my stay I will focus mainly on further developing the theoretical framework for my research on social networks and decisions making of corporate directors (and perhaps visit some of the jazz joints and hike in the surroundings).
June 2011
Conferences this summer
Conference season has arrived again. I am presenting some new work on the European corporate elite networks at the Networks in Political Science conference at Michigan Universty, Ann Arbor. Check the paper here >
At this years Society for the Advancement of Socio Econmics in Madrid I present some collaborative work with Uli Mans on the networks of cleantech directors. It’s in an infant stage yet, hope to post a first version of the paper early fall.
February 2011
Prepublication paper
The prepublication of my paper 'The Social Organization of the European Corporate Elite: A network analysis of an emerging social field.' Is now available at the website of Global Networks. In the paper I investigate the emerging patterns of the European corporate elite network as an example of a European social field. Although the project of European unification has been quite successful in organizing the formal institutional structures by 2005, it has not yet led to reproduction of a European business community reminiscent of the national communities.
November 2010
Constituting Corporate Europe
Antipode has published the paper Constituting Corporate Europe: A Study of Elite Social Organisation, which I co-authored with Bill Carroll and Meindert Fennema. It builds on the laborious work Bill Carroll did on global networks of the corporate elite. We examine the cohesion of corporate Europe through the network of interlocking corporate directorates and memberships in the European Round Table of Industrialists. At the threshold of the current economic crisis, corporate Europe comprised the most integrated segment of the global corporate elite. More >
July 2010
VENI research grant
The Dutch Science Foundation NWO recently awarded me with the VENI research grant for excellent young scholars. The VENI is part of the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (www.nwo.nl/vi), and allows me to design and implement a new, four-year research project. The awarded research project is entitled "Towards a social theory of corporate governance: Interaction, Incentives and information in Private and Semi-public managerial decision-making".