Aki Koivula
akjeko@utu.fi +358 29 450 2093 +358 40 769 7798 Assistentinkatu 7 Turku : 488 |
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.
- 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
- COVID-19 Compliance and Media Consumption: A Longitudinal Study of Finland and the US During the First Year of COVID-19 (2023)
- Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
- From digital divide to digital capital: the role of education and digital skills in social media participation (2023)
- Universal Access in the Information Society
- Greed doesn’t grow on trees: the indirect association between proenvironmental behaviour and materialism through adolescents’ psychological entitlement (2023)
- Young Consumers
- Moralized Attitudes Toward the Unvaccinated During the Pandemic: The Impact of News Framing and Mediating Role of Emotions (2023) Marttila Eetu, Koivula Aki
- News Media Framing, Institutional Trust, and Attitudes Toward the Unvaccinated. An Experimental Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Finland (2023) Koivula Aki, Marttila Eetu, Koiranen Ilkka



