This issue is about unexpected futures in five separate areas: demography, medicine, the environment, superpowers and technology. Contents Is it harder to foresee the future nowadays?Arne Jernelöv ImaginArne Jernelöv

Åsa Wikforss: Bad Beliefs and Knowledge Resistance

Research seminar with Åsa Wikforss, professor of theoretical philosophy at Stockholm University and member of the Swedish Academy. Her research involves topics such as the philosophy of language, the

Venue: Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13 in Stockholm, or online. Research seminar with Åsa Wikforss, professor of theoretical philosophy at Stockholm University and member of the Swedish

Completed: Firms as Political Activists: The Scope and Nature of Corporate Political Responsibility

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

Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 12, No. 4, July 2017, pp. 396–407. Abstract Experiments on economic games typically fail to find positive reputational effects of using peer punishment of selfish behav

"Knowing the Game: Motivations and Skills Among Partisan Policy Professionals", Journal of professions and organizations, Advance Access published September 21, 2016, doi: 10.1093/jpo/jow008 Abstract This

Edward Elgar Publishing This ground-breaking book investigates the work of policy professionals. They consist of political actors who, although not elected to office, are nonetheless employed to affect

Working Paper 2016 no.1(Published in Journal of Professions and Organization, Vol 4 (1):55-69 (2017). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/jow008) This paper focuses on “policy professionals”, i.e. people whinfluence the course of affairs, while their working-life satisfaction comes from getting their message into the media without becoming personally exposed. The key resource of policy professionals is context-dependent politically useful knowledge, in three main forms: “Problem formulation” involves highlighting and framing social problems and their possible solutions. “Process expertise” consists of understandingthe “where, how and why” of the political and policy-making processes. “Information access” is the skill to be very fast in finding reliable and relevant information. These motivations and skills underpin a particular professionalism based in an “entrepreneurial ethos”, which differs from both the ethos of elected politicians, and that of civil servants, and which has some potentially problematic implications for democratic governance.

Demokratin och det nya offentliga samtalet

– om nya mediavanor, ökad polarisering och förändrade maktförhållanden Idag präglas det offentliga samtalet inte sällan av en aggressiv åsiktskultur färgad av polarisering. En debatt har uppkommit

På senare tid har fler beskrivit Sverige som ett land i kris. Inte sällan kopplas krisen till svensk integrationspolitik. Samtidigt får vi rapporter om att mycket överlag har blivit bättre i dagens Sv