Call for Papers (Deadline: 15 February 2012)

Deliberative Democracy in Action:
Theory, Practice and Evidence

The conference brings together scholars working on different aspects of deliberative democracy. It will be held in the oldest city of Finland, Turku/Åbo June 5 – 7, 2012.

The conference tackles two broad themes (deliberative capacity and 'scaling up' democratic deliberation) in the study of deliberative democracy, and it includes two keynote speeches and two parallel workshops.

Please click this link for more detailed information

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Samforsk, the Social Science Research Institute was founded in 2010 through a merger of two previous research institutes at Åbo Akademi. The institute is an independent research unit within the Department of Politics and Administration. Samforsk is located in both Åbo and Vasa.

The research institute specializes in survey-based research. We have, in particular, focused on Internet-based research tools in recent years. Experimental research methods, both face-to-face and online are also used in our research.

Research on democracy in general and research on elections in particular main research interests. Since we are an academic institute, we primarily carry out studies which have a clear scientific purpose.

The institute is located in the Åbo Akademi campuses, the ASA-building in Åbo (Fänriksgatan 3) and the Academill-building in Vasa (Strandgatan 2).

Kimmo Grönlund is the Director of the institute. The remaining ten members of the staff are externally funded. Most of the funding comes from the Åbo Akademi foundation, the Academy of Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland and the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.