Bridging theory and practice: SocioQuest

Searching for a way to bridge the gap between theory and practice, the Department of Sociology at the University of Groningen set up SocioQuest, an interface that takes concrete initiatives to put knowledge into the services provided to organizations. Their successful initiatives includes the rolling out of KiVa, an anti-bullying programme for primary schools. ‘KiVa is a great example of how sociological research can be used to solve problems in society,’ explains dr. Theo van der Zee, co-founder of SocioQuest and today's speaker . His colleague in this venture is professor René Veenstra, who has carried out pioneering research into bullying behaviour among children. Veenstra and his research group, including today's other speaker Gijs Huitsing, introduced the Finnish anti-bullying programme, KiVa, into Dutch primary schools to examine its effectiveness in the Netherlands.