Research projects

Climate ethics and future generations

Duration: 2018–2023

What should the current generation do about climate change when our decisions do not only affect how future generations will live, but also who and how many people will exist?

IneQint - Inequality and Integration

Duration: 2024–2028

This study will focus on inequality and spatial sepgregation, and how they affect the children of immigrants in Sweden in terms of their wellbeing and structural, social and cultural integration.

Transformative partnerships 2030

Duration: 2020–2025

As part of the 2030 Agenda, all UN member states agreed that sustainable development should be achieved through multi-stakeholder partnerships. But do they?

Automating authority

Duration: 2024–2030

The aim of this project is to build an interdisciplinary research environment that analyzes the proliferation of AI in the public sector, its impact on the decisions being made and its effects for democracy.

4C – The Swedish Consortium for the study of Contemporary Criminal Collaboration

Duration: 2024-2030

4C seeks to expand the focus beyond narrow phenomena like gun violence by generating knowledge on the formation and group dynamics of criminal collaborations; how they arise, evolve, dissolve, and draw in people.

Causes and consequences of environmental protests

Duration: 2023–2028

Environmental protest events are increasing. Does it have any consequences for policy? With global data-sets, this project will try to answer that question.

The Mimir Center for Long Term Futures

Duration: 2023-2025

A research environment at IFFS with a mission to carry out world leading, rigorous academic basic research on issues regarding the long-term future of civilization.

Ethics of coordination

Duration: 2023–2026

We need new ethics to understand our duties towards others in matters such as climate change.

Finding popular solutions to climate change

Duration: 2024–2028

A global investigation of public opinions about climate policies and their determinants.

Conservative climate justice for a sustainable transformation

Duration: 2024–2028

 The purpose of this project is to determine whether, and how, conservative principles can support an effective and just low-carbon transition.

Ethnic stereotypes over time - a Nordic comparison

Duration: 2022-2025

How has stereotypes of immigrant and minority groups evolved in Finland and Sweden? Comparative text analysis is used to understand how they have changed since 1945.

Kremlin influence and the destabilization of Swedish democracy

Duration: 2024–2028

An analysis of geostrategic market offensives, Russian influence operations, Swedish partners, and the threat of oligarchic capitalism

Sustainable population in the time of climate change

Duration: 2021-2023

What level of population is sustainable, given the available resources and a certain level of well-being? How can we achieve a stable or declining population?

Beyond reductionism: Contingent grounding and the Mind-Body Problem

Duration: 2023–2026

I det här projektet undergrävs de två traditionella sätt på vilka man har betraktat kropp-medvetandeproblemet och föreslår en ny teori.

Eyewitness video and human rights practice

Duration: 2022-2026

This project will study the interplay between eyewitness videos in a digital media landscape and human rights practice.

Hidden convergence in ethics

Duration: 2024–2027

Ethics has for a long time been dominated by several competing traditions. But is it entirely true that these traditions have not moved closer with time. That is what this project aims to investigate.

Predicting the diffusion of artificial intelligence

Duration: 2020-2024

A framework for predicting the spread of AI applications.

Integration of youth in Sweden in a multidimensional perspective (SEMI)

Duration: 2020-2024

How is the integration among youth developing? This project will study different dimensions of integration among 14-22-year-olds in Sweden.

Who cares for children and elders in welfare states?

Duration: 2021–2024

In Sweden, Germany and Italy welfarecapitalists, churches and migrants have been given the responsibility for health and social care. How did this happen and why?

Migration and equity in sexual and reproductive health

Duration: 2019–2024

Providers in reproductive health are encouraged to incorporate gender equality perspectives, as well as provide services sensitive to other cultures. How handle the conflict of values?

Social norms and collective threats

Duration: 2022-2025

Do social norms help dealing with collective threats? This project studies the behavior of people in the face of risk, and asks how social norms can motivate people to cooperate.

Swedish preparedness for silent health crises and organizational learning after the swine flu, the heatwave, and the COVID-19 pandemic

Duration: 2024–2027

This project aims to identify organizational conditions for efficient crisis management within intensive care units and special accommodations. It will also give recommendations on how the regions can strengthen their preparedness for silent health crises.

Status and stability

Duration: 2024–2027

The past years the migration laws have shifted from the permanent to the temporary. What does the aspect of time mean for the individual's legal status?

The territory of democracy

Duration: 2022-2025

The presumption that the jurisdiction of the state extends to the borderes of a certain territory is increasingly being challenged, both by indigenous people within this territory, and by extraterritoriral border control.

How policy creates politics

Duration: 2023–2026

Why do political actors find it increasingly difficult to design effective policies and address pressing social problems. This project tries to find the answer in changes of the policy feedback mechanisms by using longitudinal datasets from 30 countries.

Evaluated by a robot. A study of the automation of the recruitment process in a Swedish municipality

Duration: 2022–2027

In a unique project the researchers will study the differences between an AI-based interview robot's and human recruiters' evaluations of jobseekers in a Swedish municipality during a year.

Ghost Platform: Generating the "Complex Image" of Data, Labour, and Logistics

Duration: 2024-2025

This project aims to create a platform that makes visible the conflicts in transport logistics that are mostly being concealed from public view.

The Black Shore

Duration: 2024–2027

How can we understand life on the former Swedish Caribbean colony Saint-Barthélemy? This project aims to add to our undestanding using artistic methods as a complement to the juridical documents available in archives.

A new theory about the relation between cognitive ability and moral opinions

Duration: 2022-2025

Why is it that people with higher cognitive ability tend to have more liberal opinions on moral issues? This project will try to offer an explanation.

Dreamers

Duration: 2022-2025

Why are educational inequalities by gender and immigrant background not those we would expect given students’ aspirations, confidence, and stress?

Intrinsic motivation and outer sanctions as drivers of prosocial behaviour

Duration: 2020-2025

Why do we cooperate? This project studies drivers of cooperation, generosity and pro social behaviour.

Modern Vikings in the East

Duration: 2021–2024

What role did Swedish institutions, experts, and elites play in the economic and political development in post-Soviet Russia, with corruption, tax evasion and the emergence of the oligarchy as a result?

Expertise in crises

Duration: 2023-2026

Governments are now reevaluating their post-pandemic preparedness. The project analyzes how society can use expertise to develop science-based policies in times of crisis.

Claim-based distributive theories

Duration: 2023–2026

The overarching purpose of this project is to present a framework for claim-based distributive theories. Since scarcity is a ubiquitous societal problem, the project has wide-reaching relevance for society.

How do human norms form and change?

Duration: 2017-2024

Many societies are dominated by norms that are, in the long run, harmful to their members. How can these norms change?

Mission: Artistic Director

Duration: 2020-2024

This project considers artistic leadership and managerial skills in Swedish theatre, a subject which has been debated both publicly and internally the past few years.

Social norms, implicit bias and discrimination

Duration: 2020-2024

Why are ethnic discrimination and inequality widespread in Sweden when studies suggest that Swedes are among the most egalitarian people in the world? This project analyses implicit biases in relation to social norms.

BRIDGEGAP

Duration: 2024–2027

A multidisciplinary project researching corruption with innovative methods and technologies.

Social norms for cooperation under collective risk

Duration: 2024–2027

How could people be individually motivated to cooperate to reduce the risk of a collective loss?

Immigrant women in European labour markets

Duration: 2023–2027

Why do immigrant women experience a double disadvantage in the labour market? Understanding the reasons is the first step towards creating efficient measures to change the situation.

The future of disabilities: The ethics and politics of disability and technology

Duration: 2024-2027

This project will investigate how theories on equality and justice are affected by the fact that many disabilities are becoming a matter of choice as a consequence of the use of new technologies.

Politics of AI & Health: From Snake Oil to Social Good

Duration: 2021-2027

The potential for AI to improve health and healthcare systems is considerable. However, there is a pressing need to critically engage with the politics of AI and health, and this project will do so from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Firms as Political Activists

Duration: 2019-2024

This project explores the changing political role of corporations in the 21st century by combining political science, sociology, and business science.

Setting priorities during pandemics

Duration: 2023–2026

This projects aims to present a framework for making sound decisions in times of pandemics - when experience and time is scarce, and uncertainties are many. 

Climate emotions and affective dilemmas

Duration: 2023–2026

An interdisciplinary projects that tries to understand the normativization of climate emotions. How "should" we feel about climate change?

How do social norms change?

Duration: 2018-2025

Social norms change all the time, in all societies. But what determines which norms change and which norms do not?

Risks, resources and rewards at the frontier of labor market change

Duration: 2023-2025

How can we shape politics to protect those whose careers are most affected by the labor markets changes? This question is explored in this registry-based analysis of careers in young and innovative companies.

Household-distributed national accounts: New perspectives on the distribution of income and wealth in Sweden, 1930-2020

Duration: 2023-2025

This project examines new perspectives on economic inequality in Sweden.

Expanding minds - together

Duration: 2024–2026

Developing a new format for research communication, where performative elements and the participants' own experiences serve as the starting point for discussion.

A lost generation? A study of long-term influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on business students and their career networks

Duration: 2022–2025

What impact did the pandemic have on business students' social networks, and how will it impact their career possibilities?

Reducing populations' vulnerabilities to mis-disinformation related to scientific content

Duration: 2023-2024

The purpose of this project is to develop evidence-based strategies to address populations’ vulnerabilities to scientific mis-disinformation.

Inclusion and exclusion at the labor market

Duration: 2020–2024

This project will investigate the role of employer hiring discrimination in the reproduction of ethnic and gender segregation, and inequality in the labor market.

Children of immigrants. Longitudinal study in Norway

Duration: 2021-2024

Explaining socioeconomic outcomes and cultural adaptations in early adulthood among children of immigrants in Norway.

Digital development and educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Duration: 2023–2024

A project on how the spread of digital information and communication technology in Sub-Saharan Africa has affected educational outcomes and inequalities.

Cultural Evolution in Digital Societies

Duration: 2024

This project will build on evolutionary models and insights to study how conditions change with new information pathways, and technologies capable of acting with increasing authonomy from human control.

Understanding Political Climate Passivity in Sweden and the US

Duration: 2023-2026

Many are concerned about climate change and inadequate climate policies. This project aims to figure out why most adults don't use their democratic opportunities to make an impact.

Dilemmas of democratic self-defense in European public broadcasting

Duration: 2021-2024

This project examines how public broadcasting organizations have responded to the growing presence of broadly defined populist and extremist parties.

Wicked problem governance

Duration: 2023-2026

By investigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change on the interaction between science, policy and the public, this project aims to solve how public governance can better deal with severe crises in the future.

Algorithms in public decision-making

Duration: 2023–2024

How can we ensure the transparency required in a democracy and still make us of new AI technology in the public sector?

Forensic Art and Documentary Film as Non-Governmental Rights Campaigns: Possibilities and Limitations

Duration: 2024–2025

This project consists of three research-initiation workshops on aspects of a unifying theme: forensics in art and documentary film.

How to solve the climate crisis together

Duration: 2024–2027

This projects aims to solve ideological conflicts when it comes to climate politics, by suggesting climate work that aligns with the different ideologies' values.

New Methods for Sharing Research Findings with Society

Duration: 2024–2025

Finding new formats for presenting policy-relevant research results.

Using impure altruism to promote pro-environmental behavior

Duration: 2023–2025

Is it possible to nudge people into more environmentally friendly behaviour using impure altruism as a driver?

School impacts of violent relgious extremism

Duration: 2023–2024

How does the spread of violent extremism in the Sahel region in Africa affect the access to education for boys and girls?

Waiting for Life

Duration: 2024

A minitour with screening of the film "Waiting for Life" and a panel discussion including three former life-sentenced men, two criminologists and a documentary filmmaker will be made in San Fransisco, Washington DC and Stockholm. How can culture and meaningful content change life in prison?

International Panel on Social Progress

Duration: Ongoing

Many wealthy societies face challenges and developing countries tend to attempt to imitate their solutions in order to end poverty and hardships instead of finding new models. Can we hope for a better society in the future?

World Values Survey

Duration: Ongoing

World Values Survey is a global research network studying trends in values all over the world. Their secretariat is located at the Institute for Futures Studies.

Global Social Norms

Duration: 2022-

The Global Social Norms network is a research collaboration with its base at the Institute for Futures Studies, connecting social norms researchers from over 130 countries.

Progress in Ethics

Duration: 2022–

This is an international network of researchers from a variety of disciplines, providing a forum for discussions on what progress have been made in the field of ethics.