Tracking Friendship Across Space and Time: A Case Study of a Mobile Peer Group

This article explores the dynamics of personal relationships within a geographically mobile, large peer group (PG) over time. Based on a case-study of a PG examined within the broader Qualitative Longitudinal Study (QLS) on ‘Peer Groups & Migration’ in Poland, the analysis focuses on the transformations of friendships from early adolescence to adulthood. The paper sheds light on friendship relationships and gauges strength of bonds over fifteen years from a spatial perspective. By specifically examining three critical moments of the PG formation (ca. age 15), leaving home (ca. 18–19), and the current transition to mid-adulthood (ca. 27–29), a retrospective and temporally dynamic portrait of friendships continuously affected by mobility is proposed. We demonstrate the entanglement of youth friendships in space (mobility) and time, arguing that a rise of transnationalism did not alleviate the preference for having one’s friends in close spatial proximity.