SEC is 30 years old. In addition to all the special lustrum activities we organize, we also celebrate this by modernizing SEC. A new website is being made and now you can also find us on Instagram (sec_amsterdam)! As you can see, the newsletter has been changed too and has a new name: ‘SEConde Wijzer’ (SECond Pointer). With this monthly newsletter you will be informed in a few seconds of everything that matters to you. We also added some extras to the content of the newsletter: further in the newsletter you will find a column, written by the UvA teacher of the year 2011, Gerben Moerman!
Facts
New treasurer
The search for a new treasurer was successfull. From now on, Koen Ansmink is working on all the financial issues of our association. We’re happy to have Koen in our board. Do you want to meet Koen in person? Come to our room (REC-C0.06) where you can find him most of the time, as well as the other board members.
Transferal General Meeting (16/10)
Because of our search for a new treasurer, we also had to move the date of the Transferal General Meeting. The new date is Monday, October 16th. Come and let your voice be heard! Listen to the plans for the new academic year and take a critical look at the policy plans. The exact time and location will be announced later.
Athenaeum discount card
Attention book lovers! As a member of SEC you can recieve a discount card from Athenaeum bookshop. With this card you get a 10% discount on all non-Dutch books in the store as well as online. Come to our rooom (REC-C0.06) to pick up this card or ask for your personal discount card by mailing sec@sociologen.nl.
Column by Gerben Moerman
Friends by SEC
I’ve known Mark since we were both four years old. We sat next to each other at kindergarten. We can still laugh together, we can cry together. We’ve experienced travel adventures, we can have great discussions and great fights as well. But he will always stand be me and I will for him. However, …. he lives in New Zealand for some years now and so, we won’t see each other for years. Is it possible to call someone a friend even if you do not meet for a long time?
What really makes a friend?
For my PhD-research, I organised interviews about what people define as a friend. Often an explanation as above followed, but more often a much longer and personal story was shared. What we consider a friend seems to be quite dependent on how people define friendship, and that seems to relate to lifeworld and social background.
Origin
In friendship research one thing is quite clear, namely how friendships arise. My former colleague (and still kind of friend, though he works at the VU) Gerhard van de Bunt has followed a group of first-year students in his PhD research and found out that friendships happen to be dependent on opportunity, but there are three principles.
1. Being together
It’s an open door, but for friendships you have to come together. Smokers are more often friends with smokers, because they together pave their lungs together. Sociologists become friends with sociologists because they are closest to each other in the workgroup or are grouped together in the matching.
“If, within a certain context, a group of individuals (either initially mutual strangers or not), has the opportunity to interact for a certain period of time, friendly relationships and friendships will undoubtedly be established and as a result, an affective relation network will arise (Van De Bunt, et al.: 1999).”
2. Sharing Interests
But just by chance at the same time in the same place are not enough. Having the same interests is also important. Sociologists who follow subjects, and participating in SEC activities together, turn out to be friends for living because they have something to talk about and share opinions.
3. Investing
Many friendships seem to arise out of nothing, however Van De Bunt shows that people invest without noticing. You prepare meals for each other, you are joining for sports, binge-watch Netflix together or simply help each other in you studying.
What really makes a study association?
In my opinion, SEC is the aforementioned affective relation network in which the same principles apply. To make a study association successful, togetherness, shared interests and investment are needed. That seems to be perfectly possible with this board in this lustrum year, but a board would be nothing without affectionate relationship network, the members.
By the way, Mark is definitely still a friend. When he was in The Netherlands two weeks ago, it was proven again; I still have pain in my belly of laughing about old memories.
Van De Bunt, G., Van Duijn, M. A., & Snijders, Tom AB. (1999). Friendship networks through time: An actor-oriented dynamic statistical network model. Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory, 5(2), 167–192.
