TIES THAT MATTER: NETWORKS, TRUST, AND SOCIAL COHESION IN EUROPE
PATCHWORK Final Conference & Data Use Workshop
COALESCE Lab
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
February 24-26, 2027
Barcelona, Spain
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
What do everyday interpersonal ties reveal about social cohesion in diverse and polarized societies? How do broader acquaintanceship networks cut across social boundaries of migration, class, religion, and politics, and how do they relate to trust, tolerance, and social integration? The PATCHWORK survey investigates these questions. It is one of the first projects to estimate society‑wide acquaintanceship networks from representative population surveys, allowing researchers to link everyday interpersonal ties to sociodemographic data and subjective experiences of cohesion and exclusion. The data were collected in four European countries in 2025,
We now invite proposals for original research that make innovative use of the PATCHWORK cross-national dataset. Selected contributors are invited to present their analyses at the PATCHWORK Final Conference & Data Use Workshop in February, 2027, where data users and project members will come together to discuss their findings and explore new directions. Authors of selected proposals will receive pre‑public‑release access to a curated PATCHWORK data package and funding for travel and accommodation to attend the event for the first or presenting author. We welcome a broad range of research topics, whether closely aligned with PATCHWORK’s core themes or connecting the data to questions in neighbouring fields. Proposals may focus on substantive questions, methodological innovation, or novel combinations of network‑analytic, statistical, and simulation‑based approaches. Proposals may also combine PATCHWORK data with external data.
Background
The research project “A network science approach to social cohesion in European societies” (PATCHWORK, funded with an ERC Advanced Grant, PI Miranda Lubbers, 2021–2027) studies social cohesion from a network perspective in contemporary European societies facing rising inequality, diversity, and polarization. The project integrates a theoretical framework for structural cohesion with an empirical strategy that estimates society‑wide acquaintanceship networks from representative face-to-face surveys (CAPI and CAVI) in four European societies: Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden (N=1,500 per country). The survey took approximately an hour, and collected data on ideational cohesion (e.g., social and institutional trust, feeling thermometers for religious and political groups, preferences of welfare distribution and migration policy, justice, perceptions of incomes and migration rates, civic engagement, everyday discrimination, loneliness, social provisions scale), core and acquaintanceship networks (using both a core network generator and aggregated relational data (a.k.a. NSUM) followed up with name interpreters – gender, occupation, country of birth, role, closeness, (dis)trust, geographical proximity, and name interconnectors), and sociodemographic data (e.g., region of residence, gender, age, country of birth, education, household income, civil status, occupational status and occupation). While the core data were collected for all countries, some data were collected for subsets. This survey informs both statistical analysis and simulation‑based reconstructions of societal network structures and the design of agent‑based models (ABM) to examine how the breadth and composition of everyday ties shape subjective manifestations of cohesion—such as tolerance, trust, and acceptance of diversity.
Our website (https://patchwork-erc.eu/) provides further information on the project, and the master questionnaire can be found at 10.17605/OSF.IO/HBX3Q.
Selected contributors will be granted early data access (under a Data Use Agreement) to the documentation and selected data. The package will include the variables needed to address the research question, and their precise content will be discussed with successful teams upon selection. Our aim is to support proposals that make innovative use of the data.
What makes the PATCHWORK data unique?
• Representative, one‑hour face‑to‑face surveys (N=6,000) in four European countries
• Joint measurement of core personal networks and acquaintanceship networks
• Rich name‑interpreter data (including emotional closeness, detailed relationship roles, gender, occupation, country of birth, political orientation, religion, geographical proximity, (dis)trust) of both core relationships and a selection of acquaintances
• Detailed measures of ideational cohesion (e.g., social and institutional trust, welfare and migration attitudes, feeling thermometers to religious and political groups, justice, loneliness, civic engagement, social support provision)
Proposals
We welcome proposals of at most two pages (approximately 1,000 words, references and any small appendices not counted in that total) that clearly articulate a research question and anticipated contribution, position the work within relevant theory, and outline how PATCHWORK data will be used, and which methods will be adopted. Please include a title and the names, university affiliations, and contact information of all authors and indicate who is the lead or corresponding author at the beginning of the document.
Please submit your proposal as a single PDF to mirandajessica.lubbers@uab.es with copy to paulkilian.schuler@uab.es with the subject line “PATCHWORK Proposal – [Lead Author’s Last Name]”. Questions may be directed to these addresses as well.
Evaluation
Submissions will be evaluated for their methodological or empirical contribution, fit with PATCHWORK data, methodological rigour and clarity, feasibility within the project timeline and data constraints, and potential for impactful results at the conference. Evaluation will also take into account the diversity of contributions. Methodological innovation, including the adoption of agent-based models in combination with the data, is appreciated. We welcome contributions from academic researchers at all career stages and are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive program.
Potential topics
We welcome contributions addressing substantive, methodological, or novel combinations of network‑analytic, statistical, and simulation‑based approaches, covering topics and perspectives such as (but not limited to):
- Core and weak ties network segregation
- Intersectionality in acquaintanceship networks
- Social determinants of people’s core and acquaintanceship network sizes
- Rural-urban differences in network size or composition
- Social and institutional trust
- Out-group social proximity and discrimination
- Socioeconomic and migration perceptions
- The link between networks and loneliness
- Social capital and access to social resources
- Association between civic engagement and networks
- Cross-country network comparisons
- Network visualization and simulation techniques
- Agent-based models linking micro-ties to cohesion
- Innovative network analysis methods
Timeline
- Deadline for proposals: June 15th, 2026 (23:59 AoE)
- Decision: June 30th, 2026.
- Early data access: July 20th, 2026.
- Abstract for conference: December 15th, 2027
- Conference: February 24 - 26, 2027
Successful teams will receive a data use agreement on June 30, 2026, and will be asked to return the form and confirm the data they will need before July 7th. We will schedule a short video-meeting around October 1st, 2026, to address any data or methodological questions.
All participants who are granted access to early materials will need to sign a Data Use Agreement (DUA) that sets the terms of use for research and presentation at the conference, including confidentiality and non‑reidentification requirements, secure storage, and non-sharing outside the indicated authors’ team. The DUA will also clarify acknowledgment of PATCHWORK and ERC funding and will outline our open‑science expectations—for example, sharing code and replication materials once data are publicly released, with any embargoes specified in the agreement.
Travel and accommodation will be arranged for invited presenters, with details included in acceptance communications. We will support visa letters. The event will be structured over three days, with the first day devoted to research presentations and discussion, the second to an interactive Data Use Workshop, and the third to future directions, networking, and project synthesis.