About OPENFLUX

Welcome to the OPENFLUX project website! OPENFLUX is a research project at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway.

The OPENFLUX project is concerned with societal openness, normative flux, and the social modification of heritability. It lies at the intersection of sociology, demography and behavior genetics. In short we will use genetic data and models to examine social stratification and demographic processes. An example study is where we estimate heritability coefficients of stratification outcomes across birth cohorts spanning more than 75 years to examine whether the historical trend bends towards meritocracy following higher compulsory schooling standards, improvements in access to higher eduation, and universal funding for education.

The project’s objectives are to study change in genetic and environmental influences on socioeconomic and demographic outcomes. We will study change across three dimensions: birth cohorts, life course stages, and generations. Outcomes of interest includes, but are not limited to, socioeconomic outcomes such as educational attainment, test scores, school grades, occupational status, income and wealth. Demographic outcomes include choice of union type, divorce, timing of fertility and marriage, number of children born and others.

To these ends, we will use register data combined with both twin/family data and molecular genetic data sources. The twin/family data is already in house and ready for analysis. We are in the process of obtaining the molecular genetic data combined with register information.

We are already working on several papers examining larger scale social change in social stratification in Norway as seen through the lens of behavior genetic models. Please inquire about job or collaboration opportunities!

The project is led by professor Torkild Hovde Lyngstad. In addition to the core team members, there are a number of collaborators and advisory board members. Read about them here.

Funding

OPENFLUX is funded by ERC, the European Research Council under its ERC Consolidator Grant programme (grant number 818420). The ERC part of the budget is approximately €2 million.

The project has also received internal funding from the University of Oslo through its SMÅFORSK programme.

This site

The OPENFLUX website is created using Jekyll, and it is served on GitHub Pages. The site has an RSS feed, if you are interested.

The illustrations are stock photos, with one notable exception: The main illustration (“the DNA man”) is copyright Robin Hammond. Use of this photo for this site is approved by the photographer.