Michel van Slobbe (1972) studied public administration and cultural anthropology at Thorbecke Academy Leeuwarden and Utrecht University. After graduation (2000) he worked for The Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie) at The Hague Court of Appeal on organisational change projects which concerned organizing so called 'mega cases' and internal legal cooperation. He returned to Utrecht University in 2002 and currently works at the School of Governance as associate professor. His doctorate thesis (PhD) in 2019 was the result of an ethnographic study on the dynamics in established-outsider relations at a sports club with the government as third actor. His training as anthropologist and his interest in the local organization of every day life took him to ethnographic work in sport organizations.

Since 2001 he lectures and guides graduate students in the master program “Organization, Change and Management”. In 2006 he started as course manager for the master program "Sport management and sport governance’. His teaching and research focuses on organisational and social change and the meaning of locality and complexity of daily practises in public (sport) organizations, as expressed in symbolic interaction rituals, stories, objects and language.