Séminaire SRM | Change and stability - an analysis of personal networks over time

With Gerald Mollenhorst, Associate professor, Utrecht University
 

Presentation

Network research recurrently shows that personal networks are highly dynamic. Over time, people lose many relationships, including very close ones, and replace them with new contacts. Other relationships do last and some are even ‘for life’, but we know relatively little about these relationships. Knowledge about change and stability in personal network members contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of personal networks and the social resources people have at their disposal over the life course. I will present and discuss change and stability in the personal networks of a large sample of Dutch panel survey respondents of whom we have very detailed longitudinal information about their personal relationships over almost two decades.