Aki Koivula
akjeko@utu.fi +358 29 450 3073 +358 50 436 7381 Assistentinkatu 7 Turku : 456 |
Political trust, Political attitudes, Digital interaction and participation; Social networks; Social Trust; Media consumption; Political parties; Longitudinal and Experimental Survey methodology
INVESTHub
I am a docent in Economic Sociology and currently work as a Senior Researcher at the INVEST Flagship, where I lead a research group focused on implementing the INVEST Longitudinal Survey on Well-Being. My research focuses on citizens' well-being and engagement with state institutions, and I have published extensively in leading academic journals, including European Political Science Review, Sociology, Social Science & Medicine, and New Media & Society.
From 2020 to 2023, I led the KRIME research group, which examined the social impacts of the pandemic. I am also actively involved in several domestic and international research networks, such as the Emerging Technologies Lab at Tampere University. In addition to my research activities, I currently serve as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Finnish Journal of Social Research.
Before joining INVEST, I served several years in different teaching positions, being also as head of the Economic Sociology Unit for two years.
My research bridges sociology, political science, and social psychology to explore the interplay between citizen political engagement and societal change. My research extensively examines the development and consequences of political trust, as well as other forms of trust, while also exploring the transformative impact of technology on human interaction and participation.
My dissertation (2014–2019) examined how political preferences shape citizens' behaviors and attitudes, laying the foundation for my first PI project (2021–2023), which investigated the complex role of political trust in crisis situations. This work challenged individualistic perspectives and refined social theory. More recently, my focus has shifted to welfare state reform, where I develop methodologies to assess both the impact and public acceptability of social investments.
- INWS0014 Social Inequality
- Changes in Subjective Well-Being and its Mechanisms during Times of Crises in Finland (2025)
- Social Indicators Research
- 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
- Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset (2025)
- Scientific Data
- Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries (2025)
- Nature Human Behaviour
- Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED) (2025)
- British Journal of Sociology
- Appearance and Social Inequalities: Physical Attractiveness as a Part of Occupation-Congruent Appearance (2024)
- Sociology
- Cognitive authorities of COVID-19 information: educational differences and outcomes of trust in health experts and social media influencers in Finland (2024)
- Information Research
- Construction of the Economic Elite Population for Finland (2024) Kuusela, Hanna; Koiranen, Ilkka; Koivula, Aki
- Did the Pandemic Increase Social Media–Induced Appearance Pressures? (2024)
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science
- Digital Democracy, Digital Dangers: Tracing Cybercrime Victimization in Finnish Online Political Discourse (2024)
- Communications in Computer and Information Science
- Digital relatedness: A longitudinal study on social resources and the use of smart technology (2024)
- New Media and Society
- Examining extra-parliamentary engagement: the impact of online and offline activities on in-party commitment amongst political party members in Finland (2024)
- International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
- Framing, emotions, and morality: Understanding media influence on moral attitudes towards the unvaccinated during COVID-19 (2024)
- Social Science Journal
- How do social class position and party preference influence support for fossil fuel taxation in Nordic countries? (2024)
- Social Science Journal
- Media framing and trust: A randomized survey experiment on attitudes towards the unvaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic (2024)
- Social sciences & humanities open
- Trust in Experts According to Media Consumption and Government Satisfaction in the United States and Finland (2024) Perceptions of a Pandemic: A Cross-Continental Comparison of Citizen Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behaviors During Covid-19 Koivula Aki; Marttila Eetu; Räsänen Pekka
- Uutisten kehystäminen vaikuttaa hallituksen politiikkatoimien hyväksyttävyyteen (2024)
- Turun Sanomat
- Which Factors Contributed to the COVID-19 Outbreak to Become a Global Pandemic? (2024) Perceptions of a Pandemic: A Cross-Continental Comparison of Citizen Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behaviors During Covid-19 Räsänen Pekka; Koivula Aki
- Change and continuation (2023)
- Finnish journal of social research
- Combating loneliness: The role of neighbourhood ICT, environmental attractiveness, and a sense of belonging to a local community (2023)
- Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology