dr. Robert Dorschel

Bio

Robert Dorschel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. He is a sociologist of class and inequality, with a particular focus on class relations in the context of digitalization and climate change. Previously, Robert has analyzed how the growing middle-class fraction of tech workers cultivates a habitus that departs from the ideal of the entrepreneurial self, opening the potential both for a new ‘spirit of capitalism’ and for a culture that might resist processes of capital accumulation. In his most recent work, Robert also examines contemporary social inequalities through an analysis of ecological class divides and the new forms of distinction that correspond to them.

Robert completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Cambridge after studying sociology and political science at Duke University, Humboldt-University Berlin, and the University of Kiel.

Courses

• Research Project Premaster Sociology Spring

Top publications

1. A new middle-class fraction with a distinct subjectivity - Tech worke…

   Dorschel, R. (2022). A new middle-class fraction with a distinct subjectivity: Tech workers and the transformation of the entrepreneurial self. Sociological Review, 70(6), 1302-1320.

2. Discovering needs for digital capitalism - The hybrid profession of d…

   Dorschel, R. (2021). Discovering needs for digital capitalism: The hybrid profession of data science. Big Data & Society, 8(2).

3. Reconsidering digital labour - Bringing tech workers into the debate

   Dorschel, R. (2022). Reconsidering digital labour: Bringing tech workers into the debate. New Technology Work and Employment, 37(2), 288-307.

4. Professionalisierung mittels Ambiguität. Die diskursive Konstruktion …

   Dorschel, R., & Brandt, P. (2021). Professionalisierung mittels Ambiguität. Die diskursive Konstruktion von Data Scientists in Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft. Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 50(3-4), 193-210.