News about Society

Size does matter: People with longer thumbs mistype on their phones more often

People with long thumbs have a tougher time hitting the right phone keys. According to a recent study from the University of Copenhagen, thumb length accounts for 12 percent of touch errors on smart phones.

New scientific paper on the spatial extension of the Accra agglomeration

Data on the size and extension of Accra is important for assessing the mobility and accessibility consequences of flooding. This CLIMACCESS paper compares different estimates from literature, discusses the differences i…

Mapping the digital impact of interest groups on politicians and the public

Professor of Political Science Anne Rasmussen is set to receive a DKK 15 million ERC Consolidator Grant to study how interest groups’ use of digital forms of communication (e.g. tweets, YouTube videos, Facebook posts an…

New research project will tell the entangled history of the Lesser Antilles

In history books, the islands of the eastern Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles, are described as small isolated societies controlled by European colonial powers. But the many small islands were in fact deeply dependent on…

Patient people are wealthier

We document a strong association between patience and wealth inequality by linking experimental data from a large preference-elicitation experiment with administrative wealth records.

How Do House Prices Drive Spending?

House prices and spending move together but little is known about the underlying mechanism linking them. We design a test to discriminate between the housing wealth effect hypothesis and the collateral effect hypothesis…

Sociologists to investigate experiences with climate-friendly food

Sociologists will look into experiences with climate-friendly food and social norms around the meal. The new research project is a collaboration between Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, and Denmark’s…

Joint fieldwork and project meetings in Accra

Manja teamed up with the South Partners for two weeks of extensive surveying, mapping and interviews in the four settlement areas. Jytte and Lasse joined and also participated in final design and planning of the main…

Claus Thustrup Kreiner is the new Area Director of Public Economics in the CESifo network.

He will be organizing the next Public Economics conference in Münich on 19-21 March 2020

Inequalities at birth persist into the next generation

Inequalities at birth of one generation persist into inequality among the offspring in the next generation: differences in birth weight of parents are associated with differences in school performance of their children.

CLIMACCESS presentation at Geomatic and Geospatial Technology

Preliminary results concerning the suitability of methods for urban spatial mapping and for analyzing how flooding of individual roads may impact daily commuting from the fringe areas of Accra areas was presented at the…

Chinese activists protest the use of traditional treatments - they want medical science

In China, traditional Chinese medicine has the same status in the health system as modern medical science. This has led thousands of science activists to protest that the state neglects its duty to treat its citizens…

Chinese activists protest the use of traditional treatments - they want medical science

In China, traditional Chinese medicine has the same status in the health system as modern medical science. This has led thousands of science activists to protest that the state neglects its duty to treat its citizens…

Claire Maxwell will be co-editing an international journal on education

'The International Studies in Sociology of Education' analyses connections across local, national, regional, and international contexts in the study of sociology of education.

Researchers to map the social mobility of siblings

The European Research Council has awarded the prestigious ERC Starting Grant worth DKK 11 million, to sociologist Kristian Karlson for an ambitious research project designed to identify areas in which there is the…

Third PhD student is formally enrolled

Stephen Yao has begun the 4 year PhD program at the University of Ghana. After his first year of mandatory courses Stephen will frame his work within the work package C (GIS). Welcome!

UAV/Drone-based Lidar data collection in Accra

UAV-based Lidar data collection has taken place as planned in three selected areas for a period of 10 days following extensive preparations involving equipment, training, location scouting and legal aspects. The joint…

A concussion can cost your job - especially for the young and well educated

According to a large new study a seemingly harmless concussion can cause the loss of a job - especially for patients who are in their thirties and for those with a higher education.

Partner meeting in Copenhagen

Project coordination and plans for the August and December field work was in focus for the meetings during a productive week. All project participants including the PhD students took part in the discussions. Additional…

The civics of urban greening: topics, tendencies and tensions from the frontlines of sustainable transition

As part of a new special issue, 12 articles on research from Department of Sociology have just been published in the online magazine ‘Discover Society.'

Comparing twins - cultural capital matters, but how it works could surprise you

As part of a new special issue, 12 articles on research from Department of Sociology have just been published in the online magazine ‘Discover Society.'

Do Lower Minimum Wages for Young Workers Raise their Employment?

A new study by Claus Thustrup Kreiner, together with Daniel Reck from LSE and Peer Ebbesen Skov from Auckland University of Technology, measures the impact of youth minimum wages on youth employment.

Risk and unnaturalness cannot justify EU’s strict policy on GMO

The EU’s policy on GMO is extremely strict and prevents new GMO crops from being authorized. The policy is based on arguments about the risk and unnaturalness of GMO plants – but these arguments cannot justify the…

Earmarked Paternity Leave and the Relative Income within Couples

Reducing gender inequality has become a central motivation for labour market and child-care policy reforms.