Faculté des sciences de la société Sciences de la société

Mattia Vacchiano

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Dr Mattia Vacchiano

Lecturer / Maître-assistant

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Biography

After my studies at the University of Bologna (MA), I obtained my PhD in Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (‘Extraordinary Thesis’ award 2019). I currently work as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Geneva. I have also been a Senior SNF Researcher at the University of Lausanne (2018-2021) and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Buenos Aires (2016). I am a member of the Swiss Center of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES. 

I am currently leading the project The Empty Office, an international study on the effects of teleworking on social relations and well-being, funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies. In recent years, I have been working on the integration of Social Network Analysis and life course research through peer review articles and co-editing the special issue Networked Lives for Advances in Life Course Research. For my research on young people, in 2023 I was nominated for the SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence of the British Sociological Association.

My work has been published in Advances in Life Course Research, Social Indicators Research, European Sociologial Review, Computers in Human Behaviour, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, Sociological Research Online, PLoS ONE, Community, Work & Family and other peer-reviewed international journals.

Publications

Special Issues

  • Vacchiano, M., Hollstein, B., Settersten, R., & Spini, D. (2024). Networked Lives: Probing the Influence of Social Networks on the Life course. Advances in Life Course Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2024.100590.
  • Vacchiano, M, Cullati, S & Cianferoni N. (2027) Understanding the impact of remote working. Forthcoming special issue for Social Indicators Research

Book

  • Vacchiano, M.(forthcoming 2026). Human after all. A guide to social capital. Under contract for Palgrave Macmillan

Journal Articles 

  • Vacchiano, M. Fernandez, G. Widmer E. A personal network analysis of remote workers. R&R in Social Networks

  • Vacchiano, M. Fernandez, G. Fernandez. Five ways remote work, social support and well-being are intertwined: a systematic review. R&R in BMC Public Health

  • Bulti, A., & Vacchiano, M. Working from home and wellbeing: the mediating role of social interactions. R&R in Community, Work & Family

  • Valente, R & Vacchiano, M. (2026). The long-term effect of childhood residential mobility on social capital. European Sociological Review, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcag001

  • Vacchiano, M., De Bel, V. & E. Widmer (2025). Being Your Own Boss: Network Determinants of Young People's Orientations towards Self-Employment. Social Indicator Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-024-03443-3

  • Vacchiano, M., Fernandez G, Fernandez-Garcia J (2025). Mediating effects of social support between telework and wellbeing: protocol for a systematic review. BMJ Open. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089828

  • Vacchiano, M., Fernandez G, Widmer E, Arntz, M, Azzi, M, Bulit, A, Cianferoni, N. Cullati, S, Junte S, Massoudi, K, Molina Romo, O, Ramirez A, Steinmetz, S. (2024). The Empty Office: protocol for sequential mixed-method study on the impact of telework activities on social relations and well-being. BMJ Open, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089232.

  • Vacchiano, M, Fernandez, G, & Schmutz, R. (2024) What’s Going on With Teleworking? A Scoping review on Its Effects on Wellbeing. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305567

  • Vacchiano, M. & Valente, R. (2023). Going out before the COVID-19 pandemic protected psychological health during the first lockdown: a model based on social capital theory, Leisure Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2023.2280037

  • Vacchiano, M., Politi, E., & Lüders, A. (2023). The COVID-19 pandemic as an existential threat: evidence on young people’s psychological vulnerability using a Multifaceted Threat Scale. PLoS ONE, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.029289

  • Vacchiano, M., Lazega, E., & Spini, D. (2022). Multilevel Networks and Status Attainment. Advances in Life Course Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2022.100479

  • Vacchiano, M. (2022) How the First COVID-19 Lockdown Worsened Younger Generations' Mental Health: Insights from Network Theory, Sociological Research Online, https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804221084723

  • Vacchiano, M., & Valente, R. (2021) Did the Screens Win? An Autoregressive Model Linking Leisure, Relatedness and Mental Health. Computers in Human Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106755

  • Vacchiano, M., & Spini, D (2021). Networked Lives. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 1–17.  https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12265

  • Vacchiano, M. (2021) Nine Mechanisms of Job-Searching and Job-Findings Through Contacts Among Young Adults, Sociological Research Online, https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211009525

  • Vacchiano, M., & Bolano, D (2020). Online and Offline Leisure, Relatedness and Psychological Distress: A Study of Young People in Switzerland. Leisure Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1862282

  • Valente, R., & Vacchiano, M. (2020). Determinants of Fear of Crime in Argentina and Brazil: A Cross-national Comparison of Non-Criminal Factors Affecting People’s Unsafety. Social Indicators Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02545-y

  • Vacchiano, M.,  Yepes-Cayuela, L., & Martí, J. (2019): The Family as (One- or Two-Step) Social Capital: Mechanisms of Support During Labor Market Transitions, Community, Work & Family, DOI: 10.1080/13668803.2019.1687425

  • Muntanyola-Saura, D., Barranco, O., & Vacchiano, M. (2019). Inequality Beyond Networking: Personal Networks and Mobilization of Contacts by Young Job Seekers in Barcelona. Revista Española de Sociología, 28 (2), 207-226

  • Vacchiano, M., Martí, J., Yepes, L., & Verd, J.M. (2018). Personal Networks in Job Insertion Among Young adults in Times of Crisis: An Analysis in Barcelona. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 161, 121-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.161.121

  • Vacchiano, M., & Mejia Reyes, C. (2017). Reflexiones sobre los juegos de azar en la sociedad contemporanea: hacia una biografía del riesgo. AtheneaDigital, 17(2), 79-94

  • Verd, J.M., Yepes, L., & Vacchiano, M. (2016). Trayectorias laborales y capital social en la población joven : Elementos para analizar la precariedad laboral juvenil más allá de los grandes focos. Anuario IET de Trabajo y Relaciones Laborales, Vol. 3, 144-158.

PHD thesis

Book Chapters

  • Spini, D, Li, Y, Vacchiano, M & Valente, R (forthcoming 2026). Geosocial activity spaces and life course transitions, in Settersten R., Stauber, B. & Walther, A. (eds) Handbook of Life Course Transitions.

  • Martì, J, Vacchiano, M. & Molina, O. (2022). Concepts and Methodologies in SNA: Implications for Employment Relations Research In Brandl, B., Larsson, B., Lehr, A., & Molina, O. (Eds.). Employment Relations as Networks: Methods and Theory (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003125730

  • Spini, D & Vacchiano, M. (2023). Vulnerability in Context. In Spini, D. & Widmer, E. (Eds.). Withstanding Vulnerability throughout Adult Life. Dynamics of Stessors, Resources and Reserves. Palgrave Macmillan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4567-0_13

Working papers

  • Vacchiano, M., & Merino, J. (2018). Introducción a la Lógica Multinivel: un Análisis Longitudinal con SPSS y R. Incasi Working Paper series, N.2

  • Vacchiano, M., & Spini, D. (2020). Networked Lives. LIVES Working Paper, doi:10.12682/LIVES.2296-1658.2020.84

Thesis supervisions (Bachelor and Master)

  • Bulti, A (2026). Working from home and well-being: the mediating role of social inetractions. Master thesis. Univ. Geneva

  • Kalem, Y (2026). Parenting and remote working. Master thesis. Univ. Geneva

  • Torrelas, E (2024). Le sens du football (en un societé liquide). Bachelor thesis. Univ. Geneva

  • Bulti, A (2023). Rap et collaborations : une analyse relationnelle du monde du rap à Genève. Bachelor thesis. Univ. Geneva

  • Torrelas, E (2024). Le sens du football (en un societé liquide). Bachelor thesis. Univ. Geneva

  • Bernasconi, R (2022). The Influence of Buyer-Supplier Relationships on Supply Chain Sustainability: Evidence from the Italian Agri-Food Context’. Master thesis. University of Geneva

  • Lacalamita, M. (2022). Le capital social et les réseaux sociaux : Une étude sur le rôle des contacts personnels dans l'intégration professionnelledes des jeunes. Bachelor thesis. University of Geneva.

Sociologie