COALESCE Lab

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I will be presenting at an open online seminar hosted by TripleS (Maastricht University) on March 12th (16:00-17:00 CET). Title: Social Categories and Boundary-Making: Exploring the Potential of Interactive Visual Tools to Study Boundary Work in Relationally-Oriented Semi-Structured Interviewing

a bunch of cinnamon rolls are sitting on a pan ALT: a bunch of cinnamon rolls are sitting on a pan

Yummy.

The 8th European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN 2026) The 8th European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN 2026) will take place on 11–15 August 2026 in Norrköping, Sweden, hosted by the Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS), Linköping University. The...

Interested in people's acquaintances, their determinants and consequences for social cohesion, integration or inequality?

Submit to "Networks of Weak Ties and Social Cohesion" session at EUSN2026, co-organized with @mbojan.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy and @pschuler.bsky.social

liu.se/en/event/eus...

📢 Three of our lab members, @gonzalofranetovic.bsky.social, @pschuler.bsky.social and @mbojan.bsky.social organize the session "networks of weak ties and social cohesion" at the EUSN 2026, come and participate!

Picture of Alice Ferro

We are happy to welcome Alice Ferro at @coalescelab.bsky.social for a 3-month visit. Alice is a PhD student in Political Science & Sociology at the Centre on Social Movement Studies of the Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, and a dedicated social networks & social movements scholar. Welcome Alice!

Don´t miss Louise Ryan's seminar this Thursday! (online or in person) Organized by the INMIX research group (@danrodriguezgarcia.bsky.social) and the COALESCE Lab (@nuriatargarona.bsky.social and @mirandalubbers.bsky.social)

Nos complace anunciar la próxima reunión de la Sociedad Española de Sistemas Complejos

🗓️ 21-23 enero 2026 |📍Sevilla
✏️Manda tu contribución hasta el 30 Oct 2025
🌐 Info: cs3.es/conference-2...

¡Esperamos veros a todos en Sevilla!

This figure shows the distribution of the estimated acquaintanceship network size for the two measurements, and compares the individual estimates for all participants between the measurements. It shows that the estimates are pretty stable for more common sizes, but those with high network sizes ("hubs") fluctuate heavily

This figure shows the colorful response card we used for the data collection as a visual aid for respondents. It says "acquaintances are all the people that you know and who know you by SIGHT and by NAME. For instance, you can think of..." followed by 16 boxes for "partner", "family", "friends", "neighbors"; "at work"; "in clubs or associations", "religious community", "education", "people to whom you provide a service"; "social media"; and "other acquaintances". In each box, there is some more help, like "at work" is followed by coworker, boss, employee, client etc. Each box has 1 or 2 icons for further visual aid.

New paper in Sociological Methodology with @mbojan.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy, @alexciordia.bsky.social, & @nuriatargarona.bsky.social about the measurement properties of aggregated relational data (responses to "how many people do you know who..?") and NSUM estimates: doi.org/10.1177/0081...

Toward a Unified Conceptualization of Social Capital - International Social Capital Association (ISCA) Social capital is among the most broadly used concepts in social science. Despite its shared understanding as beneficial resources available from the connections between people, authors vary widely in...

I gave a webinar from this work with the International Social Capital Association, available here - www.intsocialcapital.org/event/toward...

I hope @ageinves.bsky.social will at some time abolish the limiting research team-work team separation. European grants are 10-20x bigger and they work well without it. And the 100-50% rule. Imagine what collaborations would be possible if research groups don’t have to hoard their time.

New pre-print out! 🤩

Co-authored with @mirandalubbers.bsky.social (from @coalescelab.bsky.social), Eva Jaspers and Jan-Willem Simons (both from @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social).

A fresh look into why people discuss some topics with particular contacts and not with others in their personal networks.

📣 I am thrilled to announce this Hybrid Open Seminar on November 27th at 3PM co-organised by @coalescelab.bsky.social @mirandalubbers.bsky.social and INMIX - UAB Research Group featuring leading expert in migration studies Prof. Louise Ryan ☘️
@teoriantropolog.bsky.social @uab.cat
See U there! ✨

Measuring distributional preferences: opportunities and challenges - The Journal of Economic Inequality This article introduces, and puts in context, the fourteen papers in the special issue, "Inequality perceptions and fairness judgments."

📣 New special issue in the Journal of Economic Inequality on inequality perceptions and fairness judgments:

This collection of papers focuses on the core issues of individual and social preferences in the field of inequality.

Read more ⬇️
buff.ly/CWl4ADl

We are very excited to share the launch of a special issue in Global Food Security!

👉 Understanding Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: New Theoretical Approaches, Multidimensional Perspectives, and Innovative Practices and Policy Responses

Read more and find the link below🔽

Congratulations to @nuriatargarona.bsky.social (COALESCE Lab), Louise Ryan & @alexciordia.bsky.social (@erc-foodcharities.bsky.social / @sns.it) for their ⭐new article⭐ in @socresonline.bsky.social, discussing two visual tools to inductively explore social boundary making in relationships! #socsky

Very glad to join the COALESCE Lab at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona!
I’ll be working as a postdoc researcher on the PATCHWORK project, studying social cohesion and exclusion through computational and network-based approaches.
Many thanks to @coalescelab.bsky.social for the warm welcome :)

Use of aggregated relational data in agent-based modeling Aggregated relational data (ARD) provides valuable information for inferring structural features of personal social networks at scale. Following recen…

📢Just published! Yunsub Lee (COALESCE Lab) & Xinwei Xu (@socialnetworkslab.bsky.social) show how incorporating more realistic network features dramatically alters Axelrod’s cultural dynamics model, in their new article in Social Networks: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #NetSci #SocialNetworks

Welcome new lab members! We are excited to welcome three new members to the lab: Paul Schuler, Gonzalo Franetovic, and Chen Wang. We look forward to working together!

We are delighted to welcome not one, not two, but three fantastic new members to the COALESCE Lab: @gonzalofranetovic.bsky.social (r), @pschuler.bsky.social (l) and Chen Wang (m)! 🥂 coalesce-lab.com/en/news/40/w...

🚨🚨📢📢 New open-access article (co-authored w/ @nuriatargarona.bsky.social & @mirandalubbers.bsky.social), just out in American Behavioral Scientist:

“The Relational Toll of Political Involvement in Polarized Times: Relationship Decay Within Activists’ Personal Networks” doi.org/10.1177/0002...

Work from our lab published in the European Sociological Review

“Parlar de política amb tothom? Sí, d'acord, però...”

Inspirat en la sèrie YES, BUT d'Anton Gudim.

Un fil curt 🧵

“¿Hablar sobre política con cualquiera? Sí, de acuerdo, pero…”

Inspirado en la serie YES, BUT de Anton Gudim.

Un hilo corto 🧵

Inclusive dialogue? “Yes, but…” - INCLUSIVITY - Inclusivity Norms to Counter Polarization in European Societies Exceptions to the principle of inclusive dialogue Authors: Noé Gras-Aura, Marc Alcalà-i-Rams, Alejandro Ciordia & Miranda J. Lubbers As part of the INCLUSIVITY research project, we interviewed 76 citi...

Want to read more about this? Check the original post here: inclusivitynorms.com/inclusive-di.... Find versions in Spanish (coalesce-lab.com/en/news/32/e...) and Catalan (coalesce-lab.com/en/news/33/e...) in our website too.

Funding from a @volkswagenstiftung.de grant.

(3) Yes, but not with you: justification for avoiding dialogue with social contacts who differ in political views (for example, independentists and Spanish nationalists with each other), or with any intolerant (mainly in political terms), uneducated or disrespectful individual.

(2) Yes, but not about this: feeling it is impossible to talk about certain sensitive topics such as the debate over Catalan independence or something against the law; but also avoiding diverse forms of hate speech and tricky issues that should be avoided to prevent discomfort.

(1) Yes, but not like this: situations where participants believed that the conditions for genuine political dialogue were lacking; lack of a possible agreement or shared outcome for those expecting something out of such dialogue, or the impossibility of changing someone’s mind.

As part of the INCLUSIVITY research project, we asked 76 citizens of Catalonia (between 2022 and 2023) their views on a general and abstract principle of inclusive dialogue. Most agreed, but then revealed how their actions contradicted their opinions. This is what we found:

“Talk about politics with everyone? Yes, I agree, but…”

Inspired by the YES, BUT series from Anton Gudim.

A short thread 🧵

There are new social network groups and researchers joining Bluesky! I have just updated this starter pack (for example: @socialnetworkslab.bsky.social @coalescelab.bsky.social @ansna.org.au @networkscijournal.bsky.social @mitchellsna.bsky.social )

Post-doctoral researcher (2025DILIFRUA24) Job position

📢 Postdoctoral position opportunity! We're seeking a full-time postdoc for 22 months to dive into societal cohesion research using network science/network statistics. At the COALESCE Lab in sunny Barcelona, Spain: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/319601. Apply before March 7th! #sociology #NetSci