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FutuDem Guest Lecture Dr. Olga Onuch: 30.5 15:00-16:00 EEST
An important and highly topical FutuDem Guest Lecture takes place on Monday May 30th (Zoom webinar). Lecturer: Dr. Olga Onuch (DPhil Oxford), Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester
Title: Support for Democracy and Civic Duty among Ukrainians: Understanding the Basis for Civilian Resistance
Dr Onuch is a leading expert in mass mobilization, social movements and public opinion research in new democracies.
Zoom link to webinar: https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/69859972410. If you have any questions about the seminar, please contact Albert Weckman (albert.weckman@abo.fi)
New article
- Can politicians and citizens deliberate together? Evidence from a local deliberative mini-public. Authors: Kimmo Grönlund, Kaisa Herne, Maija Jäske, Mikko Värttö. Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9477.12231
Handbook for deliberative mini-publics in municipalities
- The handbook can be found in Swedish at: https://www.kommunforbundet.fi/publikationer/2022/2170-handbok-om-medborgarpaneler-i-kommunerna

Marina Lindell receives Academy of Finland research funding
Project title: Is Re-thinking opinion change: the role of framing, communication dynamics and personality. Project decription below.
- Public opinion is currently driven by increased political polarization. Which aspects of a topic are made salient can affect opinions and limit citizens´ openness to arguments they encounter later on. At the same time, we tend to talk mostly to likeminded others, which can amplify our existing views. How citizens form political opinions and whether this is done in a rational manner are topical issues in democracy research. Deliberative theorists have increasingly acknowledged the centrality of listening to others´ opinions; this project is the first to analyse this empirically. The objective is to develop an integrated model of framing, communicative dynamics and personality to explain opinion change. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will put this model to comprehensive empirical test. It brings together hitherto largely unconnected research traditions for the first time, combining social psychology, political behaviour models and deliberative approaches.
Newsletters
Newsletter autumn-21
Newsletter spring-21
Newsletter autumn-20
Citizens’ Panel on the Freedom of Expression
- The conclusions and recommendations of the Citizens’ Panel on the Freedom of Expression in Finland can be read here
Samforsk’s Annual report 2021

Implementing a democratic innovation: Online deliberation on a future transport system
