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A study by the University of Barcelona analyses almost 100 municipalities and concludes that remunicipalisation is the only effective brake on the dominance of large private companies in urban water management.

The transition towards sustainability in the Dutch agrifood sector requires more than isolated chain initiatives. Current coordination and governance arrangements around sustainability agreements fall short, preventing structural solutions from emerging. Researchers Lan van Wassenaer and Elsje Oosterkamp discuss the logic, preconditions and choices involved in developing effective and future-proof forms of steering.

According to a study by UC3M and UNIZAR. A study by UC3M and UNIZAR published in PLOS Climate uncovers hidden patterns of climate change by analyzing the entire temperature distribution rather than just the mean, as is common in most analyses. The research reveals that the West Coast states are experiencing increases in their highest annual temperatures, whereas many northern states show warming in the lower temperature range.

Political opinion polls can do two things: they can reflect public opinion or they can shape public opinion. Florian Woschnagg and Matthias Karmasin recently conducted a study on the credibility of political opinion polls and how they are perceived - depending on the type of medium that commissions and publishes the opinion poll.

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a tool that measures when people engage in dialog across political divides. The results show that personal factors play a greater role in people's willingness to engage in dialog than the controversial nature of a topic. "Democracy thrives on political discourse," says Dr Melissa Jauch, a research associate in the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Basel.

Ingroup favoritism: A new study shows that helpfulness toward one's own group and disadvanting against outgroups are related. Behavioural tests: The research team developed a new method to measure both behaviors independently. Conflict experience: both tendencies, altruism and parochialism, affect our behavior in intergroup conflict.Whether we help others or not depends on our own experiences with conflict.

Researchers analyze the human toll of the ongoing conflict using a statistical model that takes data uncertainties into account Rising death tolls: A study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) examined the effects of the conflict in Gaza on mortality.

Sexist harassment on online platforms discourages young women from getting involved in politics, as shown by a new study by the University of Basel. The consequences are not only borne by those directly affected, with democracy also being harmed. Insults, threats and hate speech online affect many people in the public eye - including politicians.

Researchers have developed and tested Votegral a complete e-voting pipeline, demonstrating for the first time that there is a plausible and practical approach to coercion-resistant electronic voting in elections. Over the past decade, many studies have identified coercion and corruption as major challenges for electoral integrity around the world.

Discrimination How can we get the majority to recognise the discrimination experienced by minorities? A new study examines this question. The results show that both cold facts and warm stories can change perceptions - but in different ways. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University have investigated how to raise awareness of discrimination.

Politics With a few adjustments, the quality of online political debates can be significantly improved, according to new research. However, a better tone of debate does not necessarily change people's attitudes, the researchers behind the study point out. Online political debates are often characterised by sharp divisions, personal attacks and a low level of information.

Researchers from BOKU and other universities are developing a new model of a transformational state with starting points for effective climate policy. What role does the state play in the fight against the climate crisis? In the "Nature Perspectives" format, scientists led by Ulrich Brand from the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna, the Institute for International Development at the University of Vienna, BOKU Vienna and WU Vienna analyze the structural limits of the state's ability to act in the transition to climate neutrality.

A study of the Liverpool boycott of The Sun newspaper following the Hillsborough disaster has found that the boycott shaped people's perceptions of political parties and made people more left wing. The study focused on the famous and longstanding Liverpool boycott of The Sun newspaper after it blamed the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium crush on Liverpool F.C. supporters.

Politics New research shows that politicians speak less intelligibly when in government - losing voters can be the consequence. It's well known that governing parties often lose voters over time - the so-called cost of governing. But a new study from Frederik Hjorth, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, documents a lesser-known but potentially crucial side effect of being in government: politicians begin to speak less simply and understandably.

If economic inequality increases within a country, the risk of civil war breaking out grows. This is the finding from a study by the Chair of Economic History at the University of following analysis of data stretching over two centuries and covering a total of 193 countries. The study has been published in the Review of Income and Wealth .

Populism is a political reality in many European countries - both on the right and on the left. A study now shows that coalition governments that include populist parties are often unstable.

To the point Research findings: A study analyzing over thirty years of data found that the risk of separation is 38 percent higher among couples with differing party preferences. Political differences: In the UK, couples with differing political party preferences separate more frequently than those who share the same political views.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, countries that are friendly with Russia have been exporting more military equipment to Russia - despite Western sanctions. This is shown by a recently published study. The European Union has just imposed a new package of sanctions against Russia - now the seventeenth.

Luxembourg is no stranger to challenges and tensions in the rental market. Now, a new report published by political scientists at the University of Luxembourg and the association for tenants' protection ( Mieterschutz ) exposes which experiences cause strain for tenants. During the study, tenants expressed a number of negative feelings about the rental market, with unfairness (47%) and insecurity (24%) the most frequent.