Over recent decades, the world has witnessed a notable rise in singlehood, with an increasing number of individuals opting to live without a long-term romantic partner. Despite the growing prevalence of singlehood, current policies are still largely designed around traditional family structures, often neglecting the needs of single individuals. This lack of policy consideration exacerbates social inequalities and highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to address the challenges faced by single individuals. 

The Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) Project on ‘Singlehood: Trends, Needs, and Social Policy’ is dedicated to filling this critical gap by exercising the Singlehood Policy Index (SPI) developed by Kislev.

With support from Aarhus Institute for Advanced Studies (AIAS), Denmark, IASH Edinburgh, Scotland, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Israel, Paris Institute for Advanced Study, France and Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Norway, the Singlehood CAT Project will run for a three year period, from 2025-2028, and meet at the respective IAS to develop their project.

From 11 to 18 September the Singlehood CAT Project will convene at AIAS, and researchers interested in the research topic of singlehood are welcome to reach out to the CAT group while they are in Aarhus, Denmark. On 12 September 2025 at 9:00, the group will present their project in a short 5-10-minute AIAS Breakfast Talk which is open to all interested.

The Singlehood CAT research team members are:

• Alexandra Fischer, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK
• Donna Ward, Policy stakeholder & CEO at the Singlehood organisation, Australia & Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Elke Claessens, Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Elyakim Kislev, School of Public Policy and Governance, Hebrew University, Israel
• Keren Eisen, School of Public Policy and Governance, Hebrew University, Israel
• Zhe Zhang, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, USA

More about the CAT Programme

Via the Constructive Advanced Thinking (CAT) programme, the European Network for Institutes of Advanced Study (NetIAS), that AIAS is a member of, supports excellent early career research groups committed to developing new ideas to understand and tackle current or emerging societal challenges.

The CAT Programme is currently open for applications – deadline is 14 October 2025: see the call here: https://aias.au.dk/opportunities-at-aias/constructiveadvancedthinking

Contact at AIAS

Helle Villekold, AIAS Programme Manager
E-mail: helle@aias.au.dk
Phone: +45 30 58 81 29
Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, AIAS
Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark