Aki Koivula
akjeko@utu.fi +358 29 450 2093 +358 40 769 7798 Assistentinkatu 7 Turku Office: 488 ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8453-0863 |
Political trust, Political attitudes, Political Participation, Political Parties, Digital interaction and participation; Social networks; Social Trust; Media consumption; Longitudinal and Experimental Survey methodology
I am a Docent in Economic Sociology at the University of Turku and a Docent in Political Science at Tampere University.
I currently work at the INVEST Research Flagship in several research and leadership roles. I am a Senior Research Fellow in the project Stratification and Equality of Opportunity in the Era of Novel Technologies (PI: Jani Erola) and head the research group responsible for the development and implementation of the INVEST Longitudinal Study on Well-Being (ILSW).
I am also the Principal Investigator of two research projects: Segregated Trust and Sleeping Suburbs: Intra-Urban Inequalities in Political Efficacy and Electoral Participation (SEGREGTRUST) and The Impact of Increasing Socioeconomic Residential Segregation on the Accumulation of Educational Disadvantages and People’s Life Courses (SOSE). These projects examine how socioeconomic segregation shape political engagement, attitudes, educational opportunities, well-being, and life-course outcomes.
In addition, I lead a work package in the Finnish Infrastructure for Register-Based Research consortium, where my work focuses particularly on improving permit and data-access processes for register-based research.
From 2020 to 2024, I led the KRIME research group, which examined the social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on trust, crisis communication, and public responses to the pandemic. Before joining INVEST, I held several teaching and research positions and served for two years as Head of the Economic Sociology Unit at the University of Turku.
My research focuses on citizens' well-being and their engagement with state institutions within the context of societal change. In particular, I have studied the drivers and consequences of political trust, as well as the impact of digital technology on human behaviour and interaction. I have published extensively in leading academic journals, such as European Political Science Review, Sociology, Social Science & Medicine, and New Media & Society.
My current teaching profile centers on PhD supervision and the development of research proposals. I am responsible for INWS0018 Research Proposal Workshop. I supervise nine PhD researchers whose topics range from political attitudes to subjective well-being.
- Research Report on Finland in the Digital Age Round 2 Panel -survey (2019) Jukka Sivonen, Anna Kuusela, Aki Koivula, Arttu Saarinen, Teo Keipi
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - Risk perceptions across the current political spectrum in Finland: A study of party members (2019)
- Journal of Risk Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Shared contexts, shared background, shared values – Homophily in the Finnish parliament
members’ social networks on Twitter (2019)- Telematics and Informatics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Social and ideological representativeness: A comparison of political party members and supporters in Finland after the realignment of major parties (2019)
- Party Politics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Suomi 2019 – kulutus ja elämäntapa. Tutkimusseloste ja koodikirja (2019) Hanna Saari, Aki Koivula, Jukka Sivonen, Pekka Räsänen
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - The choice is yours but it is politically tinged. The social correlates of political party preferences in Finland (2019) Koivula Aki
(G5 Article dissertation ) - The Role of Political Activity in the Formation of Online Identity Bubbles (2019)
- Policy and Internet
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Who are the party members, and are they representative of the party voters? (2019) Nordic Party Members: Linkages in Troubled Times Knut Heidar, Gunnar Helgi Kristinnsson, Arttu Saarinen, Aki Koivula, Teo Keipi
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Working papers in Economic sociology : Research Report on Finland in the Digital Age Round 2 Panel -survey (2019) Sivonen Jukka, Kuusela Anna, Koivula Aki, Saarinen Arttu, Keipi Teo
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - Working papers in Economic Sociology : Suomi 2019 – kulutus ja elämäntapa. Tutkimusseloste ja koodikirja (2019) Saari Hanna, Koivula Aki, Sivonen Jukka, Räsänen Pekka
(D4 Published development or research report or study )



