Arvid Lindh Researcher

Associate Professor of Sociology, Researcher, and Deputy Director at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI). My overarching research area is comparative welfare state research.

My ongoing research concerns social class, welfare policy and social assistance, living conditions, beliefs and attitudes, economic inequality, eco-social policies, social networks, and working life.

Much of my research is country-comparative, examining how and why living conditions, beliefs, and attitudes vary across countries and institutional contexts.

  I am involved in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP).   Also see profiles on Google Scholar, ResearchGate, BlueSky, and Twitter.  

Publications:

2025. Decarbonization Politics for All: Means-Tested Social Assistance, Eco-Social Values, and Public Support for Increased Fossil Fuel Taxes in Europe, Regulation & Governance, EarlyView, pp. 1–19. (with Kenneth Nelson). For a summary (in Swedish), see here.

2025. Social networks and distributive conflict: the class divide in social ties and attitudes to income inequality across 29 countries. European Sociological Review, 41(2), pp 163-178. (with Anton B. Andersson)

2025. Acceptance of Inequality in the Social Democratic Welfare State: Income Differences, Welfare Chauvinism, and Populism in Sweden, In Duina, F and Storti, L (Eds), The Social Acceptance of Inequality: On the Logics of a More Unequal World, pp. 283–308, Oxford University Press. For preprint version, see here.

2025. Social sustainability in the decarbonized welfare state: Social policy as a buffer against poverty related to environmental taxes. Global Social Policy, 25(1), pp. 36-63. (with Kenneth Nelson, Pär Dalén). For a summary (in Swedish), see here.

2025. Socioeconomic Status, Need Fulfillment, and Subjective Well-Being, Journal of Happiness Studies, 26(108), pp. 1–22. (with Filip Fors Connolly)

2025. Beliefs About Inequality Around the Globe. Routledge (with Markus Hadler, Benjamin Roberts, Jare Struwig, Jonas Edlund, Albin Neumayr)

2025. Public attitudes towards private education in global perspective, Zancajo, A. et al., (Eds) Research Handbook on Education Privatization and Marketization, pp. 307-322, Edward Elgar. (with Jonas Edlund) For preprint version, see here.

2023. Occupational skills and subjective social status, in Tåhlin M (Ed) A Research Agenda for Skills and Ineqaulity, pp. 103-120, Edward Elgar (with Anton B. Andersson).

2023. The ISSP 2019 Social Inequality Module: Country-Comparative Individual-Level Data on Public Beliefs about Inequality and Socioeconomic Conditions Over Three Decades, International Jourmnal of Sociology, pp 1-18. (with Ben Roberts, Jarè Struwig, and Jonas Edlund)

2021. The Missing Link: Network Influences on Class Divides in Political Attitudes. European Sociological Review, 37(5), pp. 695-712  (with Anton B Andersson and Beate Volker). See short summaries here och here.

2021. Popular Support for Public Education in Global Perspective. Paper commissioned for the 2021/2 Global Education Monitoring Report, Non-state actors in education. Document code: ED/GEMR/MRT/2021/P1/05. Paris, UNESCO. (with Jonas Edlund)

2020. Class Position and Political Opinion in Rich Democracies. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 46, pp. 419-441 (with Leslie McCall) . Working paper-version (open acess) here. Short summary (audio) here.

2019. The ISSP Role of Government Module. Content, Coverage and History. International Journal of Sociology. 49(2), pp. 99-109. (with Jonas Edlund)

2018. Political partisanship and welfare service privatization: Ideological attitudes among local politicians in Sweden. Scandinavian Political Studies, 41(1), pp. 75-97. (with Ingemar Johansson Sevä)

2018. Job preferences in comparative perspective 1989-2015. International Journal of Sociology. 48(2), pp. 142-69. (with Ingrid Esser)

2015. The democratic class struggle revisited: The welfare state, social cohesion and political conflict. Acta Sociologica, 58(4), pp. 311-328. (with Jonas Edlund)

2015. Public Opinion against Markets? Attitudes towards Market Distribution of Social Services - A comparison of 17 countries. Social Policy & Administration, 49(7), pp. 887-910.

2015. Public Support for Corporate Social Responsiblity in the Welfare State: Evidence from Sweden. Scandinavian Political Studies, 38 (1), pp. 75-94.

2014. Attitudes towards the Market and the Welfare State. Dissertation. Umeå: Umeå University.

2013. Institutional trust and welfare state support: on the role of trust in market institutions. Journal of Public Policy, 33(3), pp. 295-317. (with Jonas Edlund)