OBAMA

Timetable: 01.12.2024- 30.11.2027

Project status: Active

Funders: Suomen Akatemia / STN

Project budget: 300 000€ - 350 000€

Project external partners: Helsingin Yliopisto, Åbo Akademi, Diakonissalaitos, Itä-Suomen yliopisto

Project website: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/obama-stn/

Strategic research and education profiles: Kulttuurinen muisti ja yhteiskunnan muutos

Sustainable development goals: Rauha, oikeudenmukaisuus ja hyvä hallinto; Yhteisö ja kumppanuus

Summary: OBAMA co-investigates and co-develops solutions to inequalities in democratic participation together with different marginalized and minoritized groups and partner NGOs representing and working with them. Despite its pivotal role for democracy, participation has become exclusive. Citizens in marginalized and minoritized positions face multi-layered barriers to democratic participation. Lower levels of participation interlink with a decreased sense of belonging and sense of devaluation. We approach participation as everyday citizenship, connected to a sense of belonging and social inclusion experienced by individuals in their everyday contexts. We work together with selected marginalized or minoritized groups – disabled persons, LGBTIQ+ and ethnoracial minorities, persons with lower socio-economic statuses, and active substance users – whose participation and representation remains low. Founded on the principle of creating participation through participation, OBAMA’s mixed-methods multi-level inquiry 1) co-produces evidence about participation inequalities at different levels of the democratic system together with those who experience them; 2) develops an inclusive research methodology to conduct research with disadvantaged groups, which as such strives for empowerment through the participation of these people in research; and 3) works together with partners and stakeholders to co-create research-based tools for strengthening democracy in Finland. Our inclusive research strategy builds on 3Rs – Recognition, Representation, and Responses – which is tuned to co-produce solutions to the studied inequalities through the recognition of participation inequalities and barriers together in a way that those who are affected by them are represented in knowledge production. In collaboration with co-researchers, partners and key stakeholders, OBAMA translates the co-produced evidence into a model for supporting marginalized and minoritized people’s democratic participation at various levels of society. OBAMA brings together expertise from different interdisciplinary research traditions and various disciplinary and methodological specializations. The transdisciplinary consortium consists of the Universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland and Turku, Åbo Akademi, the Deaconess Foundation and partnering NGOs. To maximize its societal impact OBAMA collaborates with several stakeholders, including politicians, public officials and media.