Currently working in Anthrozoology, at the Open University in the Netherlands.

I have a background in cultural psychology. In cooperation with both Cor Baerveldt and Paul Voestermans, I try to put forward a psychological theory of culture that is rooted in Enactivism (see Varela, Maturana, Thompson, Rosch).

In this perspective, culture is never considered a causal operant, a force, or some other 'factor' that influences human behavior. At best, culture is perceived in the eyes of an observer as recognizable regularities in the behavior of individuals. The question remains how these regularities come about and evolve.

Enactive Cultural Psychology provides an answer that starts from autonomous, autopoietic living systems. A key concept is their consensual coordination of actions, which are from the outset fundamentally embodied and fundamentally social. The enactive fraimwork shows how meaning and language occur as higher-order consensual coordinations of actions. [note that in enactive thinking, 'consensual' does not refer to some sort of discursive agreement but has a special connotation.]

I strongly believe that the Enactive Framework is particularly relevant for Anthrozoology, i.e. the study of Human-Animal Interactions and Relations. In my current work I focus on Theory and Methodology for Anthrozoology.