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 the Finland in the Digital Age Round 3 Panel -survey. (2020) Aki Koivula, Emmi Vainio, Jukka Sivonen, Joonas Uotinen
(D4 Published development or research report or study ) - Risk response over time: political compartmentalization of terrorism risk perception (2020)
- Journal of Risk Research
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - The Confidence in Social Media Platforms and Private Messaging (2020)
- International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Trust Toward Robots and Artificial Intelligence: An Experimental Approach to Human–Technology Interactions Online (2020)
- Frontiers in Psychology
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Changing patterns of social media use? A population-level study of Finland (2019)
- Universal Access in the Information Society
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Examining Social Desirability Bias in Online and Offline Surveys (2019)
- International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Is There Room for Ethical Consumers on the Finnish Political Spectrum? (2019)
- Journal of Consumer Policy
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Kenen joukoissa seisot ja kenen puolesta toimit?
SDP:n ja vihreiden puoluekokoukset edustavuuden näkökulmasta (2019)- Politiikka
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Political trust, political party preference and trust in knowledge-based institutions (2019)
- International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Puolueet taloussosiologisessa tutkimuksessa (2019)
- Poliittiset kuplat
(E1 Popularised article)



