He has a PhD in Sociology from Lancaster University (UK). He worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the School of Geography at Oxford University for the FP6-project DEMOLOGOS and as a post-doctoral fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders at the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Spatial Planning and the Department of Geography at K.U. Leuven. He also participated in SOCIAL POLIS and KATARSIS. His research is concerned with (welfare) state spatial restructuring and social urban renewal and community development in cities, more specifically with the analysis of social innovation and local development coalitions in disadvantaged urban areas.