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.
- How is political trust associated with economic and environmental policy prioritization? A longitudinal analysis between 2017 and 2022 (2025)
- AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - INVEST Pitkittäistutkimus hyvinvoinnista 2024 -kyselyn tutkimusseloste (2025) Davies, Essi; Hägglund, Anna Erika; Koivula, Aki; Laaninen, Markus; Heiskala, Laura; Karhula, Aleksi
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - Kriisien keskellä turvallisuuden perusta löytyy ihmisten hyvinvoinnista (2025)
- INVEST blog
(E1 Popularised blog post) - Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset (2025)
- Scientific Data
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Public Communication about Science in 68 Countries: Global Evidence on How People Encounter and Engage with Information about Science (2025)
- Science Communication
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Research Report on the first round of INVEST Longitudinal Study on Well-being (2025) Davies, Essi; Hägglund, Anna Erika; Koivula, Aki; Laaninen, Markus; Heiskala, Laura; Karhula, Aleksi
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - Taking back publishing ownership for academia through diamond Open Access (2025)
- Finnish journal of social research
(B1 Other refereed article (e.g., editorial, letter, comment) in a scientific journal) - Technological identity and basic psychological needs in the use of new technologies: A two-wave cross-national survey study (2025)
- International Journal of Information Management
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries (2025)
- Nature Human Behaviour
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED) (2025)
- British Journal of Sociology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



