Research team

Mikko Mattila (director)
Professor of Political Science, University of Helsinki (personal home page)

Mikko Mattila has studied voting and other forms of political participation as well as political institutions in national and comparative settings. His current research interests include the effects of health on various forms of political participation, the representativeness of political parties in the European context, decision making in the European Union and attitudes related to democratic processes. He has published articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, such as British Journal of Political Research, Electoral Studies, European Journal of Political Research and West European Politics. He has participated in international European Parliament election study projects in 2004 and 2009.

Pekka Martikainen 
Professor of Demography, University of Helsinki (personal home page)

Pekka Martikainen has written on sociodemographic differences in mortality among men and women, and on the effects of unemployment and death of spouse on mortality. Current research interests include changes and causes of socioeconomic differences in cause-specific mortality, and various issues relating to ageing populations and long-term care. He is also working on the health effects of marital status and living arrangements, as well as the competing effects of characteristics of areas and characteristics of individuals on health, and has been involved in cross-national comparisons of health inequalities.

Achillefs Papageorigou
University researcher, University of Helsinki (personal home page)

Achillefs Papageorgiou is a researcher in the department of political science at University of Helsinki. His research interests include political analysis, voting behavior, quantitative methods and political psychology. His research has appeared in journals such as Acta Politica, Electoral Studies, International Political Science Review and Scandinavian Political Studies.

Lauri Rapeli
PhD, Senior Researcher,  Aronia Research and Development Institute, Raseborg (personal home page)

Lauri Rapeli has been widely published on the topics of political knowledge and political interest. He has experience from conducting several major surveys and large-scale deliberation experiments. Dr. Rapeli has held academic positions both at the University of Turku and at the Social Science Research Institute at Åbo Akademi University. He is a board member of the Finnish political science association.

Peter Söderlund
Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Åbo Akademi University (personal home page)

Peter Söderlund has experience in research concerning political institutions and voting behavior (turnout, party and candidate voting and electoral volatility). He is currently a board member of the Nordic political science association.

Hanna Wass 
Dr.Pol.Sc., Academy Research Fellow, University of Helsinki (personal home page)

Hanna Wass has published several articles in the field of electoral participation and political representation in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Electoral Studies, European Journal of Political Research and Scandinavian Political Studies. In addition to her article-based dissertation, she has co-authored two research reports and contributed in several domestic edited volumes including the main reports of the Finnish national election studies 2003–2011. She has been a secretary of the Finnish political science association during 2003–2010 and a chair from 2010 onwards.

Hannu Lahtinen
Doctoral student, University of Helsinki

Along with participating in the project, Hannu Lahtinen is currently writing his doctoral dissertation which focuses on the mechanisms that cause social class bias in the electoral participation.

Project publications>>>