This weekly digest is a collection of news, upcoming events and other opportunities from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University and the wider area, compiled for Graduate School students.
In this week’s digest:
- Graduate School Wellness Fika
- Seminar: The (im)possibilities of circular consumption with Réka Tölg
- Lecture: China’s Global Influence: The Swedish Case
- AI Lund lunch seminar: Concern and Enthusiasm for AI Across the Globe – The Role of Trust
- Seminar: When Adaptation Meets Resistance: How to Shape Climate Policy from Below
- Book Launch: The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late
- EUGLOH Soft Skills Seminar – Job interview and negotiation skills
Wellness Fika at the Graduate School
Student support
Come join us for a cozy fika with Representatives from the Academic Support Centre, Student Chaplaincy and the Student Health Centre in mid-November.
As the days get shorter and the autumn weather sets in, it becomes increasingly important to check in with ourselves and to find ways to bolster our wellbeing. Come join us for a cozy autumn fika and learn more about the support services the university has to offer you. Guests from the Academic Support Centre, Student Health, the Student Chaplaincy will be in attendance, as well as your own Graduate School counselors.
Coffee/tea and refreshments will be served.
Date and time: 05 November 2025, 12:00 -13:00
Location: Graduate School Lounge, Gamla Kirurgen (Hus R), Sandgatan 13
Questions? Write to master@sam.lu.se
Seminar: The (im)possibilities of circular consumption with Réka Tölg
Seminar
The seminar is a joint event organised by the Consumption Node and the Higher Seminar in Fashion Studies.
Welcome to a seminar where Réka Tölg, PhD in Service Studies at Lund University, presents her doctoral dissertation, The (im)possibilities of circular consumption: Producing and performing circular clothing consumption in retail and household settings.
In her presentation, Réka will explore how circular clothing consumption is shaped and practised in both retail and household contexts. She will also reflect on the role of care in consumption—a theme that connects her dissertation work with her current research as a postdoctoral fellow in the Horizon Europe-funded project CARE: Circular Activities to transform households towards material efficiency.
Rékas dissertation can be found here.
Date and time: 21 October 2025, 15:15 -17:00
Location: LUX:C436, Helgonavägen 3, Lund
For more information, visit this page
China’s Global Influence: The Swedish Case
Lecture
Open lecture with Oscar Almén, Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI)
On the back of three decades of rapid economic growth, China has emerged as a global power. Its influence abroad is most visible through trade and investment—often viewed as a natural and, in many places, welcome presence. At the same time, Beijing is increasingly active as a geopolitical player, seeking to shape the international order in ways that serve the regime’s interests. In this talk, Oscar Almén examines how China’s rise affects Sweden, drawing on his research into transnational repression and Chinese investment in Sweden.
Oscar Almén is a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), where he heads the Asia Programme. Formerly an associate professor (docent) of political science at Uppsala University, he has studied Chinese politics since 1999. His current work focuses on security-related issues connected to China, including Chinese investments in Sweden, the Communist Party’s influence on the Chinese diaspora, China’s role as a security actor in East Asia, and Party control over enterprises in China.
Date and time: 21 October 2025, 15:15 -17:00
Location: Asia Library, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Sölvegatan 18 B, Lund
For more information, visit this page
AI Lund lunch seminar: Concern and Enthusiasm for AI Across the Globe – The Role of Trust
Seminar
The introduction of generative AI (GenAI) has given a powerful boost for information, while raising concerns over risks and negative effects for society and democracy, including the problem for citizens to assess which information to trust. Based on a comparative survey of citizens from Brazil, Denmark, the Netherlands, the US., Japan and South Africa (N=1000 per country), collected in the spring of 2025, this study examines how enthusiasm and concern for the implementation of AI is associated with institutional and social trust. Trust could here be seen as a coping mechanism confronted with the risks and uncertainties linked to rapidly evolving AI and the societal transformations that may entail, and we assume a positive association between trust and enthusiasm.
Across the globe we find more concern than excitement for the implementation of AI, especially when it comes to consequences for democracy, but with country-specific variations. We consider how these attitudes are related to political trust, trust in the information landscape, legal institutions and science, as well as social trust, finding that only the two first forms of trust show a positive association with enthusiasm for AI. The study offers important first insights concerning citizens’ reception of GenAI across the globe, and the roles that institutional actors may play in different contexts.
Kari Steen-Johnsen is interested in the conditions for democratic participation in a broad sense, with an emphasis on the consequences of digitalisation and the rise of social media. Her research includes topics such as political mobilization and organization, citizens’ news consumption and political knowledge, as well as public debate and freedom of expression. Prerequisites for and effects of trust, such as after terror and during the corona pandemic, have also been central to several of her projects. She is now involved in the KnowAI project studying how generative AI influences what citizens know, believe and trust.
Date and time: 22 October 2025, 12:00 -13:00
Location: Online – link by registration
For more information, visit this page
When Adaptation Meets Resistance: How to Shape Climate Policy from Below
Seminar
Climate adaptation is often framed as urgent and inevitable — yet in many communities, especially those living in poverty, it is met with quiet defiance, legal challenges, or outright sabotage. This seminar explores how resistance emerges in response to top-down adaptation measures, from rejecting drought-resistant crops to contesting relocation plans in informal settlements. We will examine the role of law, everyday acts of resistance, and grassroots organising in reshaping climate policy from the ground up.
Speaker: Ana Maria Vargas
Date and time: 23 October 2025 11:00 – 12:00
Location: Maathai, 3rd floor, Josephson building, Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
For more information, visit this page
Book Launch – The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late
Seminar
The world is crossing the 1.5°C global warming limit, perhaps exceeding 2°C soon after. What is to be done when these boundaries, set by the Paris Agreement, have been passed? In the overshoot era, schemes proliferate for muscular adaptation or for new technologies to turn the heat down at a later date by removing carbon dioxide from the air or blocking sunlight. Such technologies are by no means safe; they come with immense risks and provide an excuse for those who would prefer to avoid limiting emissions in the present. But do they also hold out some potential? Can the catastrophe be reversed, masked or simply adapted to once it is a fact? Or will any such roundabout measures simply make things worse?
The Long Heat – the new book by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm – maps the new front lines in the struggle for a liveable planet and insists on the climate revolution long overdue. In the end, no technology can absolve us of responsibility for our planet and each other.
At this launch event, the authors summarise the main theses of their work and engage in conversation with a panel of peers and the audience.
Panelists
Kim Nicholas, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies
Alexandra Nikoleris, Faculty of Engineering
Mads Barbesgaard, the Department of Human Geography
Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He’s the author of over 20 academic articles and book chapters on climate politics. His work has appeared in top journals including Nature Climate Change, WIREs Climate Change and Antipode.
Andreas Malm is Associate Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of several acclaimed books, such as White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism, written with the Zetkin Collective. His book How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an international bestseller and has been adapted into a feature film.
Date and time: 27 October 2025, 10:00 – 12:00
Location: Världen, Geocentrum I (Department of Human Geography), Sölvegatan 10, Lund
For more information, visit this page
EUGLOH Soft Skills Seminar – Job interview and negotiation skills
Seminar
The aim with this online seminar targeting Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students, is to prepare students for a successful transition into the workforce by equipping them with essential interpersonal skills for professional success.
The primary objective is to develop confidence and readiness to improve interview and negociation skills such as:
- Steps to prepare for a job interview.
- What to do during and ending the interview.
- Unlock earning potential: the Dos and Don’ts of salary negociation.
The soft skills seminar is designed to help students go beyond academic knowledge to develop and boost interpersonal and career readiness skills.
Through practical and engaging online sessions participants will engage with career development experts and peers on essential themes such as effective communication, emotional resilience, professional networking and job interview strategies – topics that are increasingly relevant for employability and meaningful career building.
No prerequisites and participation is free of charge. Zoom link will be provided closer to the seminar. Deadline to register is 28 October 2025.
Date and time: 29 October 2025, 17:00 – 18:00
Location: Online
For more information, visit this page