The notion that our societies are progressing towards a brighter future has long been taken for granted. However, recent studies suggest that people in many rich countries – including Sweden– are rather pessimistic about the future of their countries. This project aims to examine both the causes and consequences of lacking social optimism.

Based on analyses of large-scale Swedish register data this project sheds light on mechanisms of economic inequality; what the drivers are of economic inequality, what role class plays net of skills, how that change across cohorts, and how advantages and disadvantages accumulate across life for women and men.

This project aims to describe and understand the fundamentals of integration of youth, and its variation across five countries (Norway, Sweden, England, Germany and the Netherlands). We use the large-scale CILS4EU/CILS-NOR data on young people of immigrant and majority origins.

The starting point of this project is that research on intergenerational socioeconomic persistence needs to resolutely shift the perspective away from ‘normative’ careers of ‘typical’ men to the actual Swedish population. We aim to broaden the perspective and redevelop concepts and theories to fit the experience of the entire population.

This program emphasizes the multidimensional character of inequality. We integrate the analysis of several central welfare dimensions and study how they cross-cut each other and co-evolve. Our approach is dynamic, following the development of e.g., economic resources, education, health and well-being across individual lives and generations.

Laborocto is a network collaboration between eight Forte-funded programs on work-life research. The network is aimed at long-run promotion of work-life research. Around 100 researchers at all career stages from more than 10 disciplines take part in the network.

As societies are increasingly ethnically diverse, social integration is of increasing importance. Organised leisure activities (OAs) are framed as an additional arena of intergroup contact, with conditions especially conducive for promoting social integration. This project examines the extent to which OA-participants experience intergroup contact.

How are resources allocated to different vulnerable groups in need of social support? What are the principles and processes behind the allocation of municipal funds? This is a currently overlooked question, despite this being crucial for the allocation of resources to vulnerable groups with complex problems spanning different sectors.

National infrastructure for research about social relations, work and health across the life course.

Challenges and opportunities in female-dominated occupations. This program aims to enhance our understanding of why women still fall behind men in terms of wages, careers, health and social recognition. What extent inequalities can be attributed to the fact that women tend to work in female dominated occupations and in “people-oriented jobs”?

The development of wages during recent decades has in many countries encompassed increasing educational wage premia, the wage difference between college and non-college educated workers. This project focuses on the role of trade unions, and the wage bargaining system, for the development of the wage premium.