OSC Scientific Seminar 2021-2022

Friday 10th June 2022, 11:30 am
OSC meeting room (1, Place Saint-Thomas)

From Diversity to Mixing?
Socioeconomic Homophily in French Desegregated Middle Schools

Timothée Chabot

PhD European University Institute, Post-doc INED (ELVIS Project)

À quel point l’origine sociale des élèves de collège structure-t-elle leurs relations les uns avec les autres ? Pour répondre à cette question, une cohorte d’environ 800 collégien·nes français·es a été suivie pendant trois ans, dans quatre établissements socialement mixtes. L’analyse de leurs réseaux de relations, notamment via les méthodes de la statistique de réseaux, permet de mieux comprendre les causes de l’homophilie sociale entre élèves, c’est-à-dire de la tendance à la ségrégation sociale des amitiés.

Socioeconomic mixing at school is often considered to be a desirable objective, as it would reduce academic inequalities and help pacify inter-group relations.
Does spatial diversity imply relational mixing, or do students keep interacting with socioeconomically similar peers even in formally desegregated contexts? This raises the question of homophily, the principle by which relationships occur at a higher rate among similar individuals.
I study socioeconomic homophily among a cohort of 800 middle school students in four schools in France, followed during three years.
Based on the statistical analysis of students’ friendship networks and on qualitative interviews, I examine the magnitude of this homophily, and try to disentangle the relational processes through which it emerges.

Registration is mandatory. Thanks!