Collaborating in Project Social Networks

How do people come up with new ideas together? And how does an innovative idea spread through an organization? In our new course Project Social Networks, students learn how to conduct empirical research on the structure and functioning of social networks.
This year, fifteen sociology students collaborated on a study of so-called changelabs -collaborative networks in middle and high schools focused on educational innovation. To properly understand a network, it is crucial to interview everyone in the network, otherwise you run the risk of missing exactly one important link in the whole. Together, the students interviewed twenty-five professionals to map out their individual networks.
What is unique about the project is the interwoven way students work together: Putting together all the individual networks collected creates a complete picture of the entire network. In small groups, students then wrote reports on questions such as: How do people in the network work together? and Which individuals have a key role in spreading innovations?
In this way, students not only learned new and essential research skills, but also contributed together to a current and practical issue.
Last modified: | 07 February 2025 09.45 a.m. |
More news
-
06 June 2025
India-Netherlands Hydrogen Valley Fellowship Programme announced
To coincide with World Environment Day, 5 June 2025, the Indian Department of Science and Technology and the University of Groningen yesterday announced a Hydrogen Valley Fellowship Programme Partnership, allowing talented Indian scholars working on...
-
24 March 2025
UG 28th in World's Most International Universities 2025 rankings
The University of Groningen has been ranked 28th in the World's Most International Universities 2025 by Times Higher Education. With this, the UG leaves behind institutions such as MIT and Harvard. The 28th place marks an increase of five places: in...
-
05 March 2025
Women in Science
The UG celebrates International Women’s Day with a special photo series: Women in Science.