Bridging Versus Bonding Practices: Setting the Context

Abstract

This chapter first describes the data collection procedure before turning to the characteristics of the organizations. I will analyze the organization’s formal characteristics (mission statement, location, and size), structural features (ethnic composition, ratio of volunteers to participants, and members), their spectrum of activities, and finally network connections. This chapter also examines variations in the activity levels of the individual participant and to what extent close ties between participants are reported. Close ties, particularly in mixed organizations, are pivotal for a contact mechanism to take effect. Consequently, the two types of groups should not be expected to differ too much across organizational characteristics and individual factors when investigating the role of interethnic contact or else we might have to control for these in the multilevel model in the Chap. 3.