Werner Raub has been a professor of sociology at Utrecht University and the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) since 1996, meanwhile pursuing his research and other scholarly activities as a professor emeritus.

Research and teaching
His research and teaching cover a variety of areas in sociology and at the intersection of analytical social science and philosophy. He has contributed to establishing choice-based models as a paradigm in modern sociology, including but not restricted to rational choice models and applications of game-theoretic models. Using complementary research designs such as surveys, experiments, and quasi-experimental designs for repeated tests of the same hypotheses and implementing this approach in empirical studies, he tries to integrate formal theoretical models and quantitative empirical research in sociology. Quite some of his work focuses on voluntary cooperation and on mechanisms supporting voluntary cooperation in social and economic life.

Academic positions
Prior to his position as professor and chair at Utrecht University, Raub held appointments at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, until 1988 as an assistant professor and 1995-1996 as professor and chair, and at Utrecht University as an associate professor, 1988-1995. He was a Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford (2010-2017). Visiting appointments at, for example, the University of Chicago, the European University Institute, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS). He is an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences - Leopoldina and a Fellow of the European Academy of Sociology. 

Academic service
From 2012 to 2017, Raub served as Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Utrecht University. Before, he was Vice-Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Graduate School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Utrecht University (2010-2012). From 1996 to 2011, Raub served as Research Director of the Department of Sociology of Utrecht University and as a member and Chairman of the National Board of the ICS. 

Recent book (hardback edition 2022; paperback edition and Open Access edition 2023) The Handbook of Sociological Science: Contributions to Rigorous Sociology offers an integrated perspective on research programs and ongoing developments in sociological science. It highlights key shared theoretical and methodological features, thereby contributing to progress and cumulative growth of sociological knowledge . More information Open access site Download pdf of Handbook Review: Jesper B. Sorensen (2024) Contemporary Sociology 53: 248–250.

Curriculum vitae (including list of publications): download PDF.

Expertise
Research: theoretical sociology; organization theory; economic sociology; mathematical sociology; game-theoretic models in the social sciences; philosophy of science
Teaching: theoretical sociology; social theory and history of social thought; organization theory and economic sociology; mathematical models in the social sciences; philosophy of the social sciences

Links

Department of Sociology, ICS Utrecht

Nuffield College, University of Oxford

European University Institute

European Academy of Sociology (EAS)

Akademie für Soziologie

(Updated August 13, 2024)