Proposed SNA on the ERASMUS program at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Strasbourg and International Careers

Proposed SNA project by Ryan Spagnolo, who will be taking D217.

Overview

In the Fall of 2007, I embarked on a semester long stay in France as part of an exchange program placing me at an international relations program in Strasbourg. The program – ERASMUS (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) – left an indelible impression on me as the most transformative and unforgettable experience I’ve had to date. As a topic that is close to my heart, the ERASMUS program at IEP Strasbourg gathered students from 10 European countries, the United States, Canada and Australia to study for a year in a country and an educational system much different from their own.  The goal of the ERASMUS program is to connect European students with one another, build cross-cultural relationships across language and national identity, and to train young leaders. One of the uniting factors in the 2007-8 ERASMUS program (other than our language proficiency in French) was that we were all pursuing degrees in the international affairs or public policy field.

A possible research question could analyze whether the program influenced participants (by their time there and the connections they made) to pursue actually internationally focused careers post-graduation? What would be interesting to find out is whether there is a correlation between who kept in touch with who based off of certain characteristics.

Another research question to ask is: was the experience as transformative for them as well? It would be easy just to chalk up ongoing correspondence to the friendships forged in Strasbourg, but again it would be interesting to see if patterns exist (if any) regarding attributes of life after ERASMUS.

From this angle of the “transformative” nature of the ERASMUS program, I would be curious to analyze if cross-cultural, cross-sectoral and cross-lingual (native) ties were established and maintained five years after the program. Doing a social network analysis of this group would be really helpful in finding the answers to these questions, most importantly these three: whether these connections exemplified the goals of the ERASMUS program, whether people are now in internationally-focused careers (or headed in that direction) and if the program was personally transformative (in terms of the qualitative aspects of the relationships forged during the program) for the participants.

Hypothesis
I hypothesize that the majority of people will have kept in contact with people who share the same native language and possibly, but not necessarily, the same country.  There might be variation in terms of what sectors will have significant connections, but the public sector and international/multilateral organization sector may have the most interconnections or might have cliques, based on the focus of academic study in our ERASMUS program.  Of course, the most obvious connections will be with those who spent the most time together during the program and formed friendships. But, again, my question is did they meet people based on interest and then carry that relationship to their professional lives.

Methodology

The one-mode nodes of analysis would be the participants themselves (ideally all the ones for 2007-2008, regardless of whether they spent a semester or a year in Strasbourg). The ties would represent the top 3 people from the program that participants keep in contact with the most. Centrality measures will be important to determine whether certain people are linked with others regarding current professional sector, native language, country, education and other attribute characteristics.  All of these characteristics and the proposed survey questions are listed below.

Data, for the most part, would be moderately easy to obtain if everyone responds to the survey. Unfortunately, one of my close friends from the program is no longer with us and the data set would not give a complete picture of all the participants in the 2007-8 IEP Strasbourg ERASMUS program. Assuming everyone would respond back to the survey, the data set in UCINet and the network map in NetDraw would be manageable to upload and analyze.

Since the three main goals are transformative experience (through different connections), internationally-focused careers among the participants, and meeting the mission of the ERASMUS program, there are certain questions we need to ask. Aside from personal friendships, did we keep in touch with each other based on other factors, such as similar career/professional paths by sector? Did participants go on to have international careers or domestic careers? Does our ongoing communication really depend on our native languages and countries of origin? Did pursuing a higher degree have an impact on the ongoing relationships forged?

Proposed Survey Questions

Network Question
Who are the top 3 people you stay in touch with the most?

Attribute Data Questions

1.       What country are you from?
                    a.       United States
                    b.      Canada
                    c.       Norway
                    d.      Iceland
                    e.      Spain
                    f.        Italy
                    g.       Ireland
                    h.      UK
                    i.         Australia
                    j.        Poland
                    k.       Sweden
                    l.         Latvia
                   m.    Germany

2.       What is your first (native) language? Please select one.

                    a.       English
                    b.      French
                    c.       Spanish
                    d.      Norwegian
                    e.      Icelandic
                    f.        Polish
                    g.       Italian
                    h.      Russian
                     i.         German

3.       What sector do you currently work in?

                    a.       Private/for-profit
                    b.      Non-profit
                    c.       Public/government
                    d.      International/multilateral organization
                    e.      Grad student
                    f.        Academia

4.       Do you currently work abroad from your home country?

                    a.       Domestic
                  b.      Abroad

5.       Did you pursue a higher degree (Masters, MBA, Law) after ERASMUS?

                    a.       Yes
                    b.      No

6.       Does your job currently involve international travel?

                  a.       Yes
                  b.      No

7.       Do you interact with international colleagues/counterparts in your current job?

                    a.       Yes
                    b.      No

As the project develops, there may be additional attribute questions added in order to pick up relevant characteristics essential to understanding our post-ERASMUS ties.