Jona de Jong

We stress the importance of social structure for polarization along a new cleavage --> policies shaping network segregation matter!

Also see this paper by @jonadejong.bsky.social @jonnekamphorst.bsky.social who come to similar conclusions based on different data/countries. tinyurl.com/47edtwtc

How are contemporary cleavage structures stabilized in times of declining mass social and political organizations?

In this new paper with @davidattewell6.bsky.social @bjpols.bsky.social, we suggest that homogeneous social (educational) networks provide part of the answer.

tinyurl.com/49cs8jwp

“We All Ended Up in Islington”: The Hidden Multi-Dimensionality of UK Segregation This post introduces a new Composite Segregation Index combining ethnicity, class, and education to capture spatial sorting - and shows why UK's census architecture hides the social dynamic beneath.

It's Monday morning, so time to share my new Substack: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle... (caution: I'm very far from being a sociologist so pls do provide feedback)

@dpzollinger.bsky.social and I are thrilled "Cleavage Politics in Western Democracies" is out as an SI at @wepsocial.bsky.social!

Its papers explore the foundations of the cleavage pitting new left against radical right parties, and how it compares to the classic cleavages of Lipset & Rokkan:

🧵⬇️

Amazing, congratulations!

Congratulations!

Thanks a lot Mohamed!

Thank you Rense!

Thanks a lot!

Jona de Jong awarded 2025 Linz Rokkan Prize This years Linz Rokkan Prize for the Best EUI Doctoral Thesis in Political Sociology was awarded to Jona de Jong during the EUI Degree Conferring Ceremony on

🎉 Congrats to @jonadejong.bsky.social for winning the 2025 Linz‑Rokkan Prize for the best EUI thesis in Political Sociology! His work sheds new light on how social networks shape divides and reduce partisan hostility. 👏

Read more 👉 www.eui.eu/news-hub?id=...

Taken together, politically heterogeneous social relationships remain common and reduce partisan animosity. Our findings nuance worries about partisan echo chambers and suggest that partisan division, at the interpersonal level, might not be as widespread and
constitutive as previously thought.

Moreover, we show that 'seeing the other side', casual exposure to a politically diverse set of acquaintances, contributes to correcting the misperceptions that partly fuel animosity. We find both cross-sectional and experimental evidence in favor of this complementary mechanism

Traditionally, close relationships are thought to buffer partisan animosity by exposing citizens to cross-cutting political discussion. We find that heterogeneous discussions still take place frequently, even during a contentious election, and still reduce partisan animosity

Both out-partisan close relationships and out-partisan acquaintances are associated with lower partisan animosity. In the paper, we complement traditional measures of affective polarization with a behavioral-incentived experiment where expressing animosity costs respondents actual money.

Nuancing worries about partisan echo chambers, we first show that both close relationships and acquaintances remain politically heterogeneous, even in today's polarized political climate. Especially acquaintance networks expose US citizens to more diverse political contexts

New publication in @sociologicalsci.bsky.social with Delia Baldassarri. We show that in the US, social relationships remain politically heterogeneous, and that heterogeneous close ties and acquaintances lower partisan animosity through distinct mechanisms. A thread on the main findings:

Where's Wally?

No, that's me proudly celebrating four great PhD students flying out!

@awaldendorf.bsky.social @jonadejong.bsky.social Pedro Martin and Anna Clemente @eui-eu.bsky.social @eui-sps.bsky.social

Thanks Tarek!

I have a new paper out in @wepsocial.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The paper situates discussions about the Educational Cleavage in a longer temporal context (back to the Medieval time) to show that there have ALWAYS been conflicts between educational groups. (1/3)

Thank you Endre!

Thanks Weverthon!

Thank you Arnout, also for your fantastic supervision!

Dankjewel Sarah!

Thanks a lot Dave!

Very happy that my doctoral thesis was awarded the EUI's Linz Rokkan Prize in Political Sociology. I am grateful to my supervisors, Hanspeter Kriesi and @arnoutvanderijt.bsky.social, and @eui-sps.bsky.social's amazing research ecosystem. The thesis can be read here (cadmus.eui.eu/entities/pub...)

Only 10 days left to apply for this phd position on education-based identities, status, and political attitudes! Open to those interested in sociology, social psychology, political science, communication science or indeed a combination of all.

jobs.vub.be/job/Elsene-P...

Hoe kon radicaal-rechts zo groot worden? ‘Deze groep kiezers was er altijd al, maar hield zich stil vanwege de sociale consequenties’ Hoe komt het dat radicaal-rechtse partijen de afgelopen jaren zo enorm zijn gegroeid? Het antwoord van politicoloog Vicente Valentim: de gevoelens waren er altijd, maar de schaamte om ze te uiten is v...

For today’s edition of @volkskrant.nl, I talked to @loesreijmer.bsky.social about my work on the normalization of far-right views and what that means for European democracies.

If you’re interested, you can find the text here: www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/h...

Vacancy — 2 Assistant Professors: International Relations (option a) and EU Politics and Governance (option b The Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for two tenure-track Assistant Professor (Universitair Docent) positions in Political Science with a specializat...

🚨 Jobs 🚨
Two tenure-track Assistant Professor positions in IR and EU Politics over at UvA (Amsterdam, NL).

Check them out here:
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Join our wonderful department!

Tax cuts for the rich lead to higher income inequality. However, they do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment.

Empirical evidence for advanced economies over 1965-2015: