Marcel van den Haak

Marcel van den Haak (1976) studied Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. His main interest lies in Cultural Sociology, especially taste differences and cultural hierarchies. During an internship at the Boekman Foundation in Amsterdam in 1999 he interviewed secondary school teachers about the new course CKV1 (Cultural Education). In 2000 he graduated with a thesis about the film preferences of 15 to 18 year old pupils, focusing on the differences between "cinema" and "arthouse" films and the usefulness of film education: Lola hilft. Een verkennend en kwalitatief sociologisch onderzoek naar jongeren en films (in English: Lola helps. An explorative and qualitative sociological study on young people and films). Both studies resulted in articles in the Boekmancahier.

After graduation he worked for two years at the Sociology and Anthropology Department of the University of Amsterdam as a teacher for first year students, and as an assistant to the Bachelor Master committee. From 2003 to 2007 he had a part-time secretarial job in a psychiatric hospital in Amsterdam, while working on a research proposal in his spare time. From 2006 to 2008 he also wrote film reviews at 8weekly.nl.

In January 2008 he started his PhD research Perceptions of cultural hierarchies, funded by NWO (Open competition). This project investigates which criteria and classifications people in present-day Dutch society use in defining their own and others’ cultural tastes. Unlike other research on cultural participation, this project does not take standard classifications of cultural artefacts or genres as given. Instead, it will focus on the ways people of different social backgrounds themselves define their own and others’ cultural preferences and dislikes, and what meanings they attach to them.