Research projects

Climate ethics and future generations

Duration: 2018–2024

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?

Transformative partnerships 2030

Duration: 2021–2025

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

Violent threats and internal security

Duration: 2020–2023

Both Canada and Sweden experience serious problems with violent groups. This project aims to answer a range of questions about these groups, and to initiate a national network for researchers studying internal security.

The Mimir Center for Long Term Futures

Duration: 2023-2025

A planned 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: 2023–2027

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

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.

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?

Eyewitness video and human rights practice

Duration: 2022-2027

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

Predicting the diffusion of artificial intelligence

Duration: 2020-2025

A framework for predicting the spread of AI applications.

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

Duration: 2020-2025

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: 2021-2026

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: 2019–2025

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: 2022-2026

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.

The power over expert reports: contents, origins and consequences

Duration: 2018-2023

This project examines how the reports and investigations ordered to address the organizational problems in health care are actually used.

The territory of democracy

Duration: 2022-2026

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.

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.

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

Duration: 2022-2026

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?

Can AI in job recruitment enhance the inclusion of disadvantaged groups?

Duration: 2020–2024

The use of AI in job recruitment is said to make the process both more efficient and less discriminatory. But is this really true? This project will study the effects of using this new tool.

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: 2021-2025

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.

Predictions of changes in opinion on moral issues

Duration: 2020-2024

Today, moral questions tend to become more important to voters in many countries. Is it possible to understand - and predict - how the public opinion changes on moral issues?

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.

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.

Firms as Political Activists

Duration: 2019-2023

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

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?

Social contract theory and future generations

Duration: 2020-2024

How should principles of justice be applied to a constantly changing society, where new types of injustices emerge, and dynamic decision making affects potential future generations?

Longtermism

Duration: 2022-2024

What happens to moral philosophy, decision theory, and our real-life decisions, if we consider that in fact many of the decisions we make should take into account the consequences in a very far future?

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.

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: 2020-2023

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.

Preferences for coordination - their function and evolutionary foundation

Duration: 2022-2023

Using behavioral game theory, this project aims to provide a deeper understanding of how collective action decisions are made and why people make the choices they do.

Digital development and educational outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Duration: 2023

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

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: 2021-2023

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.

School impacts of violent relgious extremism

Duration: 2022–2024

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

Social networks and immigrant integration

Duration: 2022–2024

Is it possible to improve immigrants' social and economic situation by matching them with native Swedes? This projects seeks the answer to that question.

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.