Research news

"Having goals for the future is important, but if they remain nothing more than targets and objectives, we'll never get there". In her presentation at the University of Oslo’s 207th Anniversary celebration September 3, 2018, Professor Karen O´Brien got people thinking about the relationship between time and sustainability. 

Rogers Brubaker has recently started his 4-year position as Eilert Sundt Professor II at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography. He will hold three public lectures during the two first weeks of September, as well as participating in several internal research seminars.

In this open access article Karen O´Brien argues that hitting the 1,5°C target is possible, but only if we stop treating climate change as a technical problem. 

Special Issue with 20 cutting-edge review articles providing insight on ways to bend emission curves, protect societies from climate impacts, and ensure well adapted and thriving societies. 

Gunn Birkelund will speak at the INAS 2018 Conference at Stanford this week. The topic for her talk will be the field experiments of hiring processes across the world.

The #Metoo campaign that swept across Norway and the world before Christmas is part of what is called the fourth wave of feminism. Sociology professor Cathrine Holst thinks the women in today's women's struggle seem to be more united than they were at the turn of the millennium.

The 5th Nordic Conference on Climate Change Adaptation will be held in Norrköping, Sweden 23-25 October 2018. 

- We can reduce our vulnerability to extreme weather, says Karen O'Brien. She was a key member of a group of researchers who contributed crucial knowledge to the climate panel, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

When professor Willy Pedersen started researching in the 1980s everyone thought that harsh penalties were the solution. Now, The Liberal Party of Norway, The Conservative Party of Norway, The Norwegian Labour Party and The Norwegian Socialist Left Party all agree that drug policy needs to be changed.

We congratulate Marianne Nordli Hansen on receiving FRIHUMSAM research funding for the project Paradoxes of wealth and class: historical conditions and contemporary configurations.

AdaptationCONNECTS in collaboration with the wider climate research group at the Department of Sociology and Human Geografi, UiO, participated at the Science Fair 2017 in Oslo with the stand:  “Climate. Cacao. Coffee. What is important to you?”

In this conversation with Evolve Karen O'Brien highlights the importance of linking personal and structural transformation. In particular she calls for increased focus on what role humans can have in system change.  

In her book “$2 a day: Living on almost nothing in America”, Kathryn Edin depicts the lives of families living in desperate poverty. On Tuesday 19^th September, she will explain how people manage to survive without cash in todays’ USA.

Professor Grete Brochmann has been recommended for the award of 'Doctor Honoris Causa' by the Academic Council of Roskilde University.

"Oslo is in many ways an ethnic city in which a large part of the city's non-western immigrant population has settled it’s eastern districts. It would not be unreasonable to think that children of non-western immigrants who have grown up in multicultural neighbourhoods feel strongly attached to these," says Pål Oskar Hundebo.

Action Research is inviting articles for the special issue: Climate Change and Action Research: Creating Transformative Knowledge With Stakeholders.

The AdaptationCONNECTS project is looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow. Want to work with us and explore the role of art in adaptation processes? Apply before 15 August. 

People who are unemployed often have difficulties getting back into the labor market, particularly if the unemployment spell is long-lasting. - But how is the situation for unemployed minorities? Are they doubly disadvanted in the job market? 

What matters to us? What kind of future do we want? How can we get there as a society? These questions formed the foundation of a writing assignment in the bachelor level course “Environment and Society” . Their thought-provoking texts are now presented in Taking a Stand: Students’ Perspectives on Environmental Issues (PDF)

Watch Karen O’Briens keynote speech at the Ecological Challenges 2017 conference at the University of Oslo.

Apollon research magazine asked three renowned researchers what it takes to make the world greener and the role of innovations within social sciences and law. 

Fast track Special Issue on 1.5°C climate change research and social transformation to support IPCC Special Report.

Karen O'Brien has written an article in Tvergastein Issue 8 under the theme "Something to Declare: Unpacking Travel". 

This PhD course explores the relationship between adaptation and transformation, two concepts that are key to understanding societal responses to climate change. 

- Many people believe that major social change must start from above. But historically we see that such changes have often started small, says Karen O'Brien, professor of Human Geography at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography.