Toon Vercauteren

(he/him)

BACKGROUND

Toon obtained his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) with research on civic engagement among older adults, within the CIVEX project.
 
He currently works for the project A Lonely Planet, which examines loneliness. Toon uses quantitative data to analyse how social exclusion relates to loneliness among older adults.
 
He holds a bachelor's degree in secondary education (Dutch-History-Economics) and a master's degree in Educational Sciences (Agogische wetenschappen) from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. As a student, he was also involved in the CALICO and SEE ME projects at VUB.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

  • Vercauteren, T., Nyqvist, F., Näsman, M., Brosens, D., & Dury, S. (2026). Civic engagement in later life: A multilevel European analysis. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648261417405

  • Vercauteren, T., Nyqvist, F., & Näsman, M. (2025). "2: What characterises civic engagement in later life? Micro-, meso- and macro-level influences". In Civic Engagement in Later Life. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447373551.ch002

  • Vercauteren, T., Van Regenmortel, S., Näsman, M., Nyqvist, F., Brosens, D., Serrat, R., & Dury, S. (2024). Multi-dimensional civic engagement of older Europeans: A latent class analysis. Ageing and Society, 1-26. 

  • Serrat, R., Peiró-Milián, I., Torres, S., Vercauteren, T., Näsman, M., Häkkinen, E., & Ågård, P. (2026). Barriers to Multidimensional Civic Engagement Among Older People Living in Residential Aged Care Facilities: A Qualitative Content Analysis. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2026.2617240

  • Näsman, M., Nyqvist, F., Nygård, M., Vercauteren, T., Dury, S., & Serrat, R. (2026). Multidimensional Civic Engagement in Later Life in 32 European Countries—an Exploration of the Roles of Socio-Structural Resources and Welfare State Commitment. Research on Aging, 48(2), 113-126.

For a full overview: Pure Databank.  

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4142-5745 

RESEARCH EXPERTISE

  • Civic participation and engagement 
  • Social inclusion and exclusion 
  • Life story interviews, Latent class analysis, Statistical analysis using SPSS 

GET IN TOUCH

Email: toon.vercauteren@vub.be  

Telephone: +32 497 65 31 48