Clemens Kroneberg

Clemens Kroneberg is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology within the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne. He is also a member of the ECONtribute Center of Excellence (Universities of Bonn and Cologne) and an external fellow of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. Since 2013, he has served as a Council Member (Treasurer) of the European Academy of Sociology.

Dr. Kroneberg studied sociology, political science, and economics at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim. His research focuses on analytical sociology, migration and integration, crime and deviance, social networks, and social boundary making. He has made significant contributions to developing the Model of Frame Selection, a dual-process theory of action that explains how actors interpret situations, select action scripts, and perform behaviors through both automatic-spontaneous processes (as-mode) and reflected choice (rc-mode).

His scholarly work examines how ethnic boundaries form in educational settings, patterns of adolescent violence, and the mechanisms of social integration. Kroneberg's research often employs longitudinal social network analysis and large-scale panel studies to investigate social dynamics in school contexts across multiple European countries.

His publications reveal a consistent focus on understanding social boundary formation, particularly how ethnicity, gender, and social class interact to shape peer relationships, friendship networks, and patterns of violence in adolescent populations. His work bridges theoretical frameworks from analytical sociology with empirical investigations of social phenomena.

• 2013 Distinguished Publication Prize winner of the European Academy of Sociology
• Robert K. Merton Best Paper Award 2021 of the International Network of Analytical Sociology
• Best Article Award of the Rationality and Society section of the American Sociological Association (2013)

Professor Kroneberg has directed several major research projects including the ERC Starting Grant project SOCIALBOND (Social Integration and Boundary Making in Adolescence), the panel study Friendship and Violence in Adolescence (funded by the German Research Foundation), and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU). His doctoral students include Maria Gerth, Sonja Schulz, André Ernst, and Harald Beier, with whom he has collaborated on various research initiatives. He currently leads the FUGJ research team and the SOCIALBOND project team, conducting innovative work at the intersection of analytical sociology, criminology, and migration studies.