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Working groups

LIVES Centre's working groups are research think tanks open to LIVES members. The mission of the LIVES Centre's working groups is to develop, on the initiative of researchers, interdisciplinary collaborations in the field of life courses and/or vulnerability.

You are a member and would you like to propose a working group?

Any proposals for the creation of a working group can be submitted to Daniel Oesch (daniel.oesch@unil.ch) or Clémentine Rossier (clementine.rossier@unige.ch) by e-mail. Further information is available at the bottom of this page. 

Several working groups are currently active within the LIVES Centre on the following themes: 

The working group brings together LIVES members that conduct research on family structures, family relationships, family roles and their change across space and time. Typical focuses will be:

  • Family configurations, family trajectories and family arrangements, multiple and diverse families 
  • Normative (social and legal) regulation and recognition of multiple and diverse families (family law, family policy, social norms on family transitions)
  • Well-being within families (and inequalities in well-being)

The group aims at establishing scientific and public exchange within and outside LIVES.

Coordinators:

This working group is linked to the research conducted as part of Cause commune (a project associated with LIVES), which analyses the influence of local environments and social quality on health dynamics. It aims to explore the possibilities of launching a digital platform to study these links within municipalities in Vaud and Bern, and to develop collaborations with international colleagues interested in the same topics.

Coordinators:

In the difficult post-pandemic context, the generation Z cohort now straddles adolescence, entry into education and access to the labour market. Their journey to adulthood is beginning and a field of research for years to come. 

Coordinator:

The working group will continue the research activities of former IP3 (ageing) of the NCCR LIVES focusing on the life course pathways of resilience and vulnerability in and into old age. It will address the questions of how multi domain reserves develop across the lifespan, how stress affects health across the lifespan and how interventions can help to overcome vulnerability and foster resilience. The working group will apply a multidisciplinary approach in terms of conceptual models and methodology.

Coordinators:

"Loneliness and Social Connectedness Across the Lifespan" addresses one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time: the profound impact of loneliness and social isolation on physical and mental health. Research consistently links these experiences to increased risks of chronic illnesses, cognitive decline, and premature mortality, making them as significant to public health as obesity and smoking. This working group will examine the dynamics of loneliness and social connectedness across the lifespan and across different time scales (e.g., daily life, longitudinal). We aim to investigate how these factors evolve and affect well-being at different stages of life and in different constellations (e.g., individuals, couples). By integrating insights from psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and public health, and by partnering with international leaders in multinational projects investigating these issues, we aim to identify vulnerable populations, understand cultural and contextual influences, and design evidence-based interventions to foster meaningful connections. Furthermore, the group seeks to establish itself as a leading reference point in Switzerland for advancing research and solutions related to loneliness and social connectedness. Through interdisciplinary and global collaboration, we aspire to generate actionable solutions to enhance societal health, well-being, and resilience.

Coordinators:

Recent and current technological and societal developments have increased the importance of education and skills as resources that allows social integration. On the one hand, digitalization and the shift to a knowledge economy are leading a transformation of the labour market in which routine-based jobs are increasingly replaced my machines. On the other hand, the jobs that remain and those that are newly created tend to be increasingly demanding in terms of skill requirements.

As a result, societies that want to preserve acceptable levels of social cohesion must invest in skills in a very broad way. In particular, it is important that disadvantaged groups are included in upskilling efforts. By strengthening investment in everyone’s skills western European welfare states may be able to preserve the levels of social cohesion they have inherited from the postwar years but need to reorient their policies accordingly.

Investing in skills is important at all stages of the life course. The most effective investments may be those made during early childhood. Inclusive educational institutions are also key in moderating social inequalities among adults. The role of the vocational training system is paramount, and countries which have good quality and inclusive systems clearly have an advantage, visible for example in lower levels of youth unemployment. Subsequently, for people of working age, active labour market policies and continuing education are key instruments. As countries are increasing the age of retirement, these policies become relevant for increasingly older groups of workers.

Investment in skills will not replace redistribution as the main function of the welfare state. However, current and foreseeable trends, suggest that investments in skills will play an increasingly important role in shaping the distribution of life chances in western societies and the institutions of the welfare state.

Against this background, the working group on Skills and inclusiveness aims at promoting research, and debate on the broad issue of investments in skills as a means to promote social cohesion and fight inequality. We are interested in several questions, including:

  • What are the consequences of technological change in terms of skill demand?
  • How effective in promoting social cohesion are different skill formation policies? 
  • What are the politics of inclusive educational and skill formation policies?
  • How do access biases in skill development programmes come about? And how can they be reduced?
  • Does the current skill shortage context represent an opportunity of inclusive skill formation policies?
  • ...

Coordinator :

This Working Group aims to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of survey research on aging by bringing together key actors from three major longitudinal studies on aging based in Lausanne: the Swiss team of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the Lausanne Cohort Lc65+, and the Swiss Centenarian Study (Swiss100) as well as survey experts from the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS). These three studies are rooted in three different UNIL faculties—HEC (Faculty of Business and Economics), SSP (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences), and FBM/Unisanté (Faculty of Biology and Medicine)—and reflect complementary disciplinary perspectives on the life course, including health economics, social gerontology, public health, and clinical aging research. In addition, the Working Group will aim to reach out to other national and international experts in Survey Research on Aging to address key and newly emerging issues in the field.

The Working Group seeks to promote mutual learning, methodological exchange, and collaborative research across these diverse traditions, with a strong focus on life course approaches to aging and vulnerability. By pooling expertise, the group aims to improve survey design and implementation, enhance data quality, and stimulate cross-study analyses that advance our understanding of aging trajectories.

Coordinator:

  • Jürgen Maurer (jurgen.maurer@unil.ch)

The working group will continue key research activities of former CCI3 (cumulative (dis-)advantages) and CCI4 (methodological advances) of the NCCR LIVES to address the dynamic and multi-directional development of vulnerability and resilience across the lifespan in multiple domains of human functioning (including cognition, health, well-being, and activity engagement). Specifically, we will investigate the dynamic interplay across the lifespan of developmental spheres (including resources, reserves, risks, life events, transitions, surrounding contexts, etc.). Thereby, we will adopt multi-disciplinary approaches applying a variety of sophisticated methods.

Coordinator:

The working group “Elites and Inequalities” will study aspects of the rise and fall within elites and will work on how elites not only influence but also shape discourse surrounding issues of vulnerability and inequality within society. The working group will explore research perspectives on elites that emerge from various disciplines (sociology; political sciences; history; management, psychology) combined with central key issues raised in a sociology of the life course, inequality and vulnerability.

One fundamental pillar of our research group is on elites and their trajectories. One example could be to study emergent and established elites and their trajectories after critical events. To investigate adaptation patterns in professional careers and networks after events that significantly impact an individual's or a group's position of influence. Or we could examine the aftermath of electoral defeats for politicians, exploring the paths they take in the wake of such setbacks. We might scrutinize how top managers in the economy navigate their careers after scandals. Or we might study critical career events of aspirant elites and examine how these events shape their trajectories.

A second pillar of our working group centers on questions around elites and vulnerability. We could for instance study the consequences of decisions made by elites on less privileged social groups. For example, we might investigate how decisions such policies aiming at maximizing shareholder value affect the living conditions of average workers within firm. By scrutinizing the impact of elite decisions, our aim is to uncover the implications for social groups with fewer privileges. In a similar line, we aim to contribute to the understanding of how elites shape representations of precarity and merit ascribed to social groups. A concrete example would be to examine how philanthropic elites structure the public discourse on precarity, wealth inequality, and deservingness. A third research direction in this pillar is to explore divergences between the values and political opinions on precarity and merit among the elite compared to the larger group of citizens. Through this inquiry, connecting data on elites with large questionnaire surveys, we could uncover nuanced insights into the alignment or misalignment of values and opinions among different societal strata.

Coordinator:

This working group brings together researchers who study discrimination, racism and inequality across different groups, national contexts and academic disciplines. Our aim is to foster interdisciplinary research collaborations and debates focused on understanding and explaining discrimination, and developing policies to reduce the accumulation of disadvantage for different groups. We are interested in exploring research questions such as: 

  • What are the patterns of discrimination in modern societies?
  • How do patterns of discrimination differ between ethnic, national and other minority groups?
  • Do patterns of discrimination diverge or converge across countries?
  • What mechanisms and theories best explain different patterns of discrimination?
  • What are the consequences of discriminatory attitudes and behaviors in different policy areas (e.g., labor and housing markets, education)?
  • Which policies are most promising for reducing inequality from the perspective of different gatekeepers?
  • New methods and techniques for conceptualizing, measuring and explaining discrimination.

 

Coordinator : 

Organisation

The WGs comprise at least three senior researchers, members of the LIVES Centre, who wish to develop research on a given theme with an interdisciplinary focus. In order for a WG to be recognised by LIVES, it must be approved by the LIVES Centre management. Proposals can be made at any time. 

Full information about LIVES Working Groups