On Wednesday, November 13, 2024, Sonja Radivojević, MA, research assistant of the SASA Institute of Ethnography, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled "Closeness in the Age of Digital Connectivity: Towards a Reconceptualization of Family, Friendship, and Partnership Bonds in Serbia" at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.

Sonja Radivojević’s doctoral dissertation explores the ways in which close social relationships are practiced and shaped - established, maintained, nurtured, transformed, and dissolved - in the contemporary, digitally connected world. The study focuses on three types of close social ties: familial, friendship, and romantic relationships. The research is grounded in a qualitative methodological framework, with the primary method of data collection being multi-sited duoethnography. This approach is based on conversation, experience-sharing, observation, and attentive listening, as well as the inclusion of secondary meta-texts such as field notes and a field diary.