The paper argues that the Swedish ‘neo-liberal’ party (Moderaterna) has adapted its policies due to the popularity of the ‘universal’ Swedish welfare state. Over time, the party in its rhetoric and id

in: Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security (ed. Roman Yampolskiy), CRC Press. Abstract Developing a superintelligent AI might be very dangerous if it turns out to be unfriendly, in the sense of hav

Hidden convergence in ethics

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.

in: Big Data and Democracy. Ed: Macnish, K. & J. Galliott (2020) AbstractThe aim of this paper is to discuss anonymity and the threats against it—in the form of deanonymization technologies. The qu

Jonathan Boston, Professor of Public Policy, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington.ABSTRACTFundamental to good governance is the active anticipation, assessment and management of risBased on this analysis, the paper applies the concept to the policy challenges posed by climate change adaptation, particularly sea-level rise. In this regard, humanity is confronted with a slow-motion disaster that will grow progressively in scope and scale, sometimes abruptly. Societies will face significant uncertainty, multiple and compounding risks, immense costs and difficult intertemporal and intragenerational trade-offs. More specifically, rising sea levels will have a major and increasing impact on the built environment in coastal regions. Globally, hundreds of millions of people could be forced this century to relocate from areas at risk from coastal erosion and inundation, higher water tables, and more frequent and intense rainfall events. Mitigating some of the risks and increasing societal resilience via anticipatory, pro-active, prudent and adaptive policy responses will be politically challenging, not least because of the large upfront costs, the likelihood of powerful blocking coalitions, and the complexities of inter-governmental and inter-agency coordination. This paper outlines how, in the interests of sound anticipatory governance, these challenges might be addressed through the creation of new governmental institutions, funding mechanisms and revised planning processes.

Maja Fjaestad: Crises management and the concept of “following science”

Maja Fjaestad was state secretary for health in Sweden during the Covid 19 pandemic. Recently she published the book (with Emma Lennartsson) “Mitt i krisen” (In the Midst of the Crisis) (Volante, 2024

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 69, p. 59-64. Abstract The ultimatum game is a common economic experiment in which some participants reject another's unfair offer of how to split some

Research seminar with Maja Fjaestad: Post-pandemic reflections on leadership and preparedness: Crises management and the concept of “following science”

Venue: Institutet för framtidsstudier, Holländargatan 13, 4th floor, Stockholm, or online.Research seminar with Maja Fjaestad, IFFS researcher, expert coordinator at the Center for Health Crises at KI

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

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

Theory & Society Abstract The main aim of this article is to start a discussion of social pattern, a term that is commonly used in sociology but not specified or defined. The key question can be phrsociologicalconcept of social pattern may look like. A useful and theoretically solid concept of social pattern can in our view be constructed by basing it on Weber’s concept of social action. This means thatboththe behavior of the actorsandthe meaning these invest their behavior with must be taken into account. The article ends with a brief discussion of how to use the concept of social patterns in an effective way and what may endanger such a use.