More Women in Politics Means Less Corruption, with Lena Wängnerud
While a growing body of work suggests that women representatives are less likely to be involved in corruption scandals, we know less about if changes in representation patterns also have implications for citizens’ first-hand experiences with corruption in public service delivery. Research presented at the seminar suggests that women elected representatives reduce street level bribery, in particular when the share of women increases in contexts where relatively few women are elected or when the absolute increase in women’s representation is relatively large. Using newly collected data on the share of women in 128 regional level parliaments in 10 European countries and four rounds of the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey (2010–2021), results show that on average, the proportion of women in regional parliaments is strongly associated with citizens’ self-reported experiences of bribery across all countries and years.Furthermore, results show that the level of bribery in public service provision dropped more sharply in regions that experienced a greater absolute or greater marginal increase in women’s representation. These results may be understood in light of women candidates placing priority on well-functioning and low corrupt public service provision and the important signals of inclusiveness, non-discrimination and decreased tolerance towards corruption that women’s representation conveys to civil servants.Research seminar with Lena Wängnerud, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg. Her work involves topics such as representative democracy with a focus on gender equality. Recorded at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, in March 2025.
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1:12:55
The Social Life of Elite Students with Anna Tyllström
Elite education fosters elite alumni. Earlier studies indicate that peer networks formed during higher education are essential to elite socialization, and that such peer networks form early on during the course of education. Moreover, the composition of such peer networks can be highly consequential, impacting long-term career outcomes such as pay and position.In this research, Anna Tyllström and colleagues study how students’ early peer socialization plays out during the first months of elite business education. Drawing on structured interviews with students entering high-ranking bachelor programs in business studies, they find that the first few weeks, or days even, at university seem essential to students’ social integration, and identify four stereotypical socialization tactics, i.e. strategies that constitute separate sets of behavior and thoughts about social life, placed on a continuum between academic and social focus. They also find these tactics to be heavily gendered: while male respondents are over-represented in groups applying super-strategizing and loning tactics, female students tend to crowd in the middle categories of balancing and swotting, working hard to balance academic and social expectations during the first intense months of higher education.As this is a work in progress, spanning several social science disciplines, Anna Tyllström and colleagues presented the work at the seminar to brainstorm together with audeince around the potential relevance of these findings, and also around framing and outlet.Recorded at the Institute for Futures Studies in November 2024.
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1:12:26
Towards a Critical Theory of Trust with Rainer Forst
Research seminar with Rainer Forst, Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy at the Department of Political Science and Department of Philosophy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main. His work in moral and political philosophy focuses on questions of justification, justice and toleration.This paper challenges widespread assumptions in trust research according to which “thick” forms of trust emerge in homogeneous communities, or which regard trust and conflict as opposing terms or where trust is generally seen as a value. The paper suggests a distinction between a general (non-normative) concept and various normative conceptions of trust, depending on context. With regard to the justification of trust, a distinction between particular and full justification is introduced, and the justification of trust is linked to relations of justification between trusters and trusted. Finally, trust in conflicts emerges where such relations exist among the parties of a conflict, often by way of institutional mediation. Research seminar recorded at the Institute for Futures Studies in december 2024.
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47:46
The Invention of Modern Conservatism with Emily Jones
This paper will explore key findings drawn from Emily Jones' monograph, Edmund Burke and the Invention of Modern Conservatism, 1830-1914: An Intellectual History (OUP, 2017) and her forthcoming book, One Nation: The Disraeli Myth and the Making of a Conservative Tradition (Princeton). In particular, she discusses how, by taking a generously conceived ‘reception history’ methodological approach to the history of modern political ideologies, we can locate significant moments in the ‘when’ and ‘how’ in their construction, but gain insights into both the historical contingency and relational nature of political ideologies, as well as the significant role that history and historical reconstruction had in the invention and reinvention of conservatism for much of its history.Emily Jones, Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester.This research seminar was recorded at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm in April 2025.
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1:19:51
Should Experts be Open and Honest? With Joe Roussos
How should experts behave when communicating with non-experts? In this talk Joe Roussos presents a paper on the science-policy interface, with a focus on communication between scientists and policymakers. The central question of the paper is: should experts communicate strategically, with an eye to the policy outcomes they think are best, or should they rather be open and honest? The paper centers on the cases of climate change and covid-19, high-stakes situations in which there is a significant demand for science advice. Joe Roussos frame the discussion around a provocative 2018 paper by Stephen John, titled “Epistemic trust and the ethics of science communication: against transparency, openness, sincerity and honesty”, and argue in favor of a specific form of honesty (about scientific uncertainty) and against some forms of openness or transparency, although not for strategic reasons.Joe Roussos, researcher in philosophy at the Institute for Futures Studies. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics, with a thesis entitled Policymaking under scientific uncertainty. He often works on issues related to scientific modelling, or using the results of models, and focuses largely on climate science.#LSE #philosophy #sciencecommunicationRecorded at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, Sweden, February 2025.
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