Francesca Giardini

Francesca Giardini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen. She serves as Director of the research theme 'Risk, crises and resilience' of the Rudolf Agricola School for Sustainable Development. Her interdisciplinary work bridges sociology, computer science, and social psychology with a focus on understanding social phenomena through computational methods.

Dr. Giardini is an interdisciplinary social scientist specializing in the micro-foundations of social phenomena. Her research employs theoretical analysis, agent-based modeling, and lab experiments to investigate how individual minds achieve social sustainability and resilience. She focuses particularly on gossip and reputation as social mechanisms that shape sustainable cooperation depending on the interplay between individual cognitions and network structure. Her work has significant applications for improving risk communication, emergency management, and disaster resilience through realistic modeling of human behavior. She coordinates the Special Interest Group SIG-BRICSS (Building Resilience with Social Simulations) of the European Social Simulation Association.

Her recent publications reveal a strong trend toward applying computational social science methods to real-world problems, particularly in disaster response and organizational behavior. Her work increasingly integrates mobile phone data, social network analysis, and agent-based modeling to understand collective behavior during crises. She has made significant contributions to understanding reputation systems, cooperation dynamics, and the complex role of gossip in social organization.

• Interfaculty Incentive Funds RUG (2021)
• Vittorio Girotto Award for the Best Paper AISC 2016

Dr. Giardini has been actively engaged in public discourse through multiple media appearances discussing the social science of gossip, reputation, and crisis communication. Her work connects academic research with practical applications for organizational resilience and disaster management, demonstrating the value of interdisciplinary approaches to complex social challenges. She contributes to several major research initiatives focusing on sustainable social systems and crisis response.