Here you can find information on the Institutes previous research programs during the 2000s. Contact us for more information about previous research programs.
Gustaf Arrhenius first research program was named Which future? Challenges and choices for the 21st century and comprised five themes that were all interdisciplinary; Our responsibility towards future generations, Democracy in the 21st century, New technologies and the future of humanity, Discrimination, sexism and racism, and Equality.
Research Program 2015-2020 Which future?
Peter Hedström was director of the Institute November 2011 until August 2014. His research program Social Change in the 21st Century focused on large-scale social change and its implications today and in the future. The program was particularly concerned with changes in social and political values, the economic impact of demographic change, social segregation processes, and methods useful for analyzing and predicting long-term change. The use of advanced simulation methods and large-scale databases were at the core of the program. In September 2014 the research program moved to the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University.
Research Program 2011–2014 Social change in the 21st century
Sweden and the Future was a research program led by Professor Joakim Palme that began in 2009 and continued until November 2011. The four prioritized research areas were meta-analysis of strategic foresight analysis the development of methods for future studies, financing the welfare state, integration and pluralism, and the causes and effects of social exclusion.
Research Program 2009-2011 Sweden and the Future
The research program Society and the Future was also developed by Joakim Palme. The aim of the program was to deepen and systematize our knowledge concerning what is actually occurring in our social institutions. How do structural changes and reforms affect peoples’ welfare? How is resource distribution and agency affected by this?
Research Program 2005-2008 Society and the Future
In 1999 economic historian Lena Sommestad was appointed Director of the Institute. She initiated the research programShaping the Future that focused on the demographic changes and an ageing society. The main question was how anticipated shifts between age-groups would affect democracy and the economy. Other important areas in this program were gender, power and citizenship of the future welfare state, and the development prospects of local communities in the face of new economic and political conditions.