Bas van Bavel

Balthassar Jozef Paul "Bas" van Bavel (born 24 June 1964) is a Dutch historian. He has held the chair of Transitions of Economy and Society at Utrecht University since 2011, and has been professor of Economic and Social History since 2007. His research has mostly focused on pre-industrial Northwestern Europe. He was one of the winners of the 2019 Spinoza Prize, the highest award in Dutch science.

Bas van Bavel (2013)

Career

Van Bavel was born on 24 June 1964 in Breda.[1][2] He obtained an MA in history at Utrecht University in 1988, and continued at the university as a post-graduate, gaining his PhD in 1993.[3] From 1993 to 1995 Van Bavel was a university lecturer at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam. He then worked as a research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences until 1998. In 1999 he returned to the University of Amsterdam as postdoctoral researcher funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Between 2001 and 2008 he led a research project on 'The organisation of markets in late medieval Holland', and between 2007 and 2012 he led a project on 'Economic growth and stagnation in the pre-industrial era: Iraq, Italy and the Low Countries, 600-1700', both at Utrecht University and funded by the NWO.[3] He was appointed as professor of Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages by Utrecht University in 2007. Furthermore, in 2007 he became the academic coordinator for the Utrecht University focus area “Origins and Impacts of Institutions”, which developed into the Utrecht University strategic theme Institutions for Open Societies in 2012, for which he became the programme director. Between 2011 and 2014 he served as head of the section Economic and Social History of the Department of History. In 2014 he was appointed as professor Transitions of Economy and Society and started directing a research team for the project 'Coordinating for life. Success and failure of Western European societies in coping with rural hazards and disasters, 1300–1800'.[4]

Van Bavel was active for football club NAC Breda from 2002 onwards. Between April 2010 and April 2011 van Bavel was its board chairman.[5][6][7]

Research

The majority of van Bavel's research has focused on pre-industrial Northwestern Europe especially on the divergent development of societies and the influence of institutions on this process. In more recent research he has also included other parts of Europe and the Middle East, while also including more recent history.[8]

Van Bavel has argued that gross domestic product is a subjective manner of representing economic growth and strength, and is not an objective analysis. He also criticizes using it, as it only shows a partial view of the quality of life experienced.[9] He has argued for the encompassing of social factors - such as equity and welfare, and the resilience to shocks and disasters - and ecological factors - such as sustainable use of resources.[8]

In an article published in Past & Present in 2009, van Bavel and Oscar Gelderblom disagreed with British historian Simon Schama on the origins of historic Dutch cleanliness. While Schama argued that it was founded in Calvinism and patriotism, van Bavel and Gelderblom argued that it originated for economic reasons, hygiene being necessary for the production of cheese and butter.[10]

In 2014 van Bavel contributed to a report on economic disparity published by the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy.[11] He called the increased disparity in personal capital between 2008 and 2013 "quite shocking" (the capital of the wealthiest 1% had increased from about the same as the least owning 20%, to around 25%).[12]

Honors, awards and grants

In 2001 van Bavel was awarded a VIDI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for the research project 'The organisation of markets in late medieval Holland'.[3] In 2006 van Bavel won a VICI grant from the NWO for the research project 'Economic Growth and Stagnation in the Pre-Industrial Era: Iraq, Italy and the Low Countries, 600-1700'.[2] In 2013 van Bavel was awarded a European Research Council Advanced grant for the research project 'Coordinating for life. Success and failure of Western European societies in coping with rural hazards and disasters, 1300–1800'.[13][14]

Van Bavel was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013.[15] The Academy praised his research for providing a new perspective on the economic history of the Middle Ages.[15] He was elected a member of the Academia Europaea in 2016.[16]

In 2019, Van Bavel was named one of the four laureates of the Spinoza Prize.[17] The awarding institution, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, praised Van Bavel for: "providing an entirely new vision on the role of the market economy in our society."[17]

Works
  • Bavel, Bas van. Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries, 500–1600, New York: Oxford University Press, March 2010.
  • Bavel, Bas van. The Invisible Hand? How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined since ad 500, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2016.

References
  1. "Prof.dr. B.J.P. van Bavel (1964 - )". Catalogus Professorum Academiæ Rheno-Traiectinæ, Utrecht University. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  2. "Toekenningen Vici 2006" (in Dutch). Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. 10 March 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  3. "Curriculum Vitae". Utrecht University. 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  4. "CV prof. dr. Bas van Bavel". Utrecht University. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  5. "NAC Breda heeft met Van Bavel tijdelijk een nieuwe voorzitter" (in Dutch). Voetbalzone.nl. 20 April 2010. Archived from the original on 23 April 2010.
  6. Andre Stompers (12 February 2011). "Van Bavel niet in nieuw NAC-bestuur" (in Dutch). BN de Stem.
  7. "NAC vindt nieuwe voorzitter binnen eigen gelederen". Voetbal International. 21 April 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  8. "Onderzoek prof. dr. Bas van Bavel". Utrecht University. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  9. Bas van Bavel (30 August 2012). "Meet eens de lengte van mensen in plaats van de economische groei" (in Dutch). Sociale Vraagstukken. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  10. Dirk Vlasblom (18 December 2009). "Cheese making made the Dutch cleanest people of Europe". NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  11. "Hoe ongelijk is Nederland? Een verkenning van de ontwikkeling en gevolgen van economische ongelijkheid – 28" (in Dutch). Scientific Council for Government Policy. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  12. Wilco Dekker (19 January 2015). "Kloof tussen arm en rijk groeit snel in Nederland" (in Dutch). de Volkskrant. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  13. "Bas van Bavel ontvangt 2,25 miljoen voor onderzoek naar de veerkracht van samenlevingen" (in Dutch). Utrecht University. 14 August 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  14. "Coordinating for life. Success and failure of Western European societies in coping with rural hazards and disasters, 1300–1800". European Research Council. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  15. "Bas van Bavel". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 23 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  16. "Bas van Bavel". Academia Europaea. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019.
  17. "NWO Spinoza Prize 2019". Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. 21 June 2019. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020.
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