Social Integration and Boundary Making in Adolescence (SOCIALBOND)

Funding agency: European Research Council
Fundling line: ERC Starting Grant
Duration: 2017-2022

The SOCIALBOND project examines peer dynamics across a large number of schools in order to gain a deeper understanding of social boundary making. The ultimate aim is to develop a theory of boundary making that explains which combinations of attributes tend to become the basis of peer group affiliation and identities depending on school context.

Realizing this agenda has recently become possible through advances in multilevel longitudinal social network analysis and the collection of unique panel data on complete networks of over 18,000 students in more than 900 Dutch, English, German, and Swedish classrooms in 2010 and 2011. In order to investigate how the current influx of refugees transforms the configurations of boundaries, we will strategically complement this data by conducting a new three-wave panel study in 54 schools located in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, which is the most populous state of Germany and received the greatest number of school age refugee children as part of the recent wave of immigration.

The project is situated in the interdisciplinary fields of boundaries studies, immigration research, and network science and could help to identify new factors that support or hinder the social integration of minority students.

For more information, publications, and results, visit our project homepage: https://www.socialbond-insights.eu

German-language homepage and information for participants:
www.socialbond-project.com