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Arne Jarrick & Maria Wallenberg Bondesson: The cultural dynamics of law-making – A world history
Prof. Arne Jarrick and PhD. Maria Wallenberg Bondesson, Centre for the study of Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University and Institute for Futures Studies.ABSTRACTOur presentation gives significant hig
Publications
These are publications resulting from the project. For a full list, get in touch with the project members. Askanius, T.(2021) "On Frogs, Monkeys, and Execution Memes: Exporing the Humor-Hate Nexus at t 22(2): 147–165.
The Affirmative Answer to the Existential Question and the Person Affecting Restriction
in: Weighing and Reasoning. Themes from the Philosophy of John Broome, Eds.Iwao Hirose and Andrew Reisner, Oxford University Press. The person affecting restriction states that one outcome can only be
Transformative Experience and the Shark Problem
Philosophical Studies Abstract In her ground-breaking and highly influential book Transformative Experience, L.A. Paul makes two claims: (1) one cannot evaluate and compare certain experiential outcomes evaluate and compare certain intuitively horrible outcomes (e.g. being eaten alive by sharks) as bad and worse than certain other outcomes even if one cannot grasp what these intuitively horrible outcomes are like. We argue that the conjunction of these two claims leads to an implausible discontinuity in the evaluability of outcomes. One implication of positing such a discontinuity is that evaluative comparisons of outcomes will not be proportionally sensitive to variation in the underlying features of these outcomes. This puts pressure on Paul to abandon either (1) or (2). But (1) is central to her view and (2) is very hard to deny. We call this the Shark Problem.
Equality of opportunity and the precarization of labour markets
European Journal of Political Theory, DOI: 10.1177/1474885117738116 Abstract How can we equalize opportunities while respecting people’s freedom? According to a view that I call libertarian resourcism, pbecome a powerful weapon to criticize work conditionality as unfair and perfectionistic (or illiberal), and to motivate political struggles for the emancipation of the precariat. However, similar views are also expressed in many other justifications of basic income that stress the strategic importance of exit-based empowerment. This article argues that the reliance of these theories on concepts and assumptions of libertarianism makesthem ill-equipped to justify core requirements of social empowerment, and to identify the forms of agency needed to sustainably advance the radical objectives they favour. The implication of this is not to reject the link between social justice and unconditional resource endowments but to dissociate the justification and design of such measures from libertarian ways of thinking.
The Origins and Maintenance of Female Genital Modification across Africa
Bayesian Phylogenetic Modeling of Cultural Evolution under the Influence of Selection Human Nature, 27(2), 173-200. DOI 10.1007/s12110-015-9244-5 Abstract We present formal evolutionary models for the oristratification appear to play a more important role in the cross-cultural distribution of FGMo. To explain these cases, one must consider cultural evolutionary explanations in conjunction with behavioral ecological ones.We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study for policies designed to end the practice of FGMo.
Global variations in online privacy concerns across 57 countries
Computers in Human Behavior Reports, vol 9 Abstract Cross-cultural studies have found national differences in how concerned people are about online privacy. However, it has not yet been settled what cau
Torsten Persson: Who Becomes a Politician?
Torsten Persson is Professor of Economics at Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University. ABSTRACT Can a democracy attract competent leaders, while attaining broad representation?

Jan O. Jonsson
Professor of Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University; Official Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford University; member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science
The Role of Education for Intergenerational Income Mobility: A comparison of the United States, Great Britain, and Sweden
Social Forces, Volume 96, Issue 1, pp. 121–152, doi.org/10.1093/sf/sox051 Abstract Previous studies have found that intergenerational income persistence is relatively high in the United States and Brita