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.
- Perceived robot attitudes of other people and perceived robot use self-efficacy as determinants of attitudes toward robots (2021)
- International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Silver Spoon and Green Lifestyle: A National Study of the Association between Childhood Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Adulthood Pro-Environmental Behavior in China (2021)
- Sustainability
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Social Ecological Model of Problem Gambling: A Cross-National Survey Study of Young People in the United States, South Korea, Spain, and Finland (2021)
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - The Ouroboros of Seeking Validation? Exploring the Interconnection of Appearance (Dis)satisfaction and Content Creation on Social Media (2021) Appearance as Capital Åberg Erica, Koivula Aki
(A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book) - Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tutkimus ja metodologia Suomessa. Katsaus kotimaisten aikakauslehtien artikkeleihin 1990-2018 (2021)
- Tiedepolitiikka
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - A feminine burden of perfection? Appearance-related pressures on social networking sites (2020)
- Telematics and Informatics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Compliment Rules or Compliments Rule? A Population-Level Study of Appearance Commenting Norms on Social Media (2020)
- International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Double standards in the accumulation and utilisation of ‘aesthetic capital’ (2020)
- Poetics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - How do Digital Divides Determine Social Media Users’ Aspirations to Influence Others? (2020) SMSociety'20: International Conference on Social Media and Society Malinen Sanna, Koivula Aki, Koiranen Ilkka
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Ideological Motives, Digital Divides, and Political Polarization: How Do Political Party Preference and Values Correspond with the Political Use of Social Media? (2020)
- Telematics and Informatics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



