Tackling
Biases and Bubbles
in Participation

What is BIBU?

BIBU – Tackling Biases and Bubbles in Participation – is a research project that explores how the global flux of economic restructuring, urbanisation, and migration, changes citizens’ political capacities, interests, and emotions, and how the political system responds to these changes. The interdisciplinary consortium is composed of researchers from the fields of politics, psychology, social policy, sociology, economics, and communications.

1.

We identify which citizen groups encounter participatory biases that prevent their voices from being heard in decision-making, and which groups operate in bubbles that polarise politics.

2.

We generate understanding, together with citizens, NGO’s, political parties, and interest groups, and search for solutions to participatory biases and bubbles.

3.

We build a democracy incubator, where innovations for bursting political bubbles and overcoming biases are developed through experimentation. The incubator also spreads Finnish best-practices in political inclusion and participation internationally.

More about BIBU

Project sections

Behind biases and bubbles: structural changes in global flux

Economic restructuring: How has it changed voting behaviour and political attitudes over the last 25 years?

Mapping biases and bubbles in citizen participation

Citizens’ capacities, political interests, and feelings: Who is invisible behind participatory biases and who hides in bubbles?

Feeling biases and bubbles: deep stories

Deep stories from citizen groups: The emotions of a society and the feelings of belonging.

Power in the bubble: political elites in flux

Decision makers’ capacities and deep stories in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.

Biases in outcomes? Responsiveness of Nordic welfare policies

How are the aims and interests of different citizen groups represented in political decision-making?

Beyond biases and bubbles: future policies for a resilient Nordic model

How to reform the Nordic model? Future scenarios.

Democracy Accelerator

Democratic innovations and experiments with which to tackle participatory biases and bubbles.

People

BIBU’s interdisciplinary consortium is composed of researchers from the fields of politics, psychology, social policy, sociology, economics, and communications. The consortium includes researchers and coordinators from seven different organisations.

Democracy Accelerator

We develop and test different solutions for reducing participatory gaps and planting the best of these into Finnish society. Democratic experiments to tackle participatory biases and bubbles.

Bibu Talks

Demokratiakorjaamo tulossa 17.2.2021

Jälleen järjestettävä Demokratiakorjaamo pidetään seuraavan kerran keskiviikkona 17.2.2021 – kutsu, ohjelma ja ilmottautumislinkki tulossa tammikuussa.

Lue lisää

Osallistuvan budjetoinnin loppuarvioinnin julkaisutilaisuus 1.12.2020

Katso tallenne OmaStadin loppuarvioinnista!

Lue lisää

Can elites be progressive? -Workshop 13.11.2020

Given the rise in inequality in recent years, elites’ relationship with the rest of society has become a matter of interest for social research asking whether elite identities are becoming more exclusive and elites are pulling away from the rest of society. In this workshop, we take a new angle by asking the following question: Can elites can be progressive?

Lue lisää

Osallistu ilmastolain uudistamiseen

BIBU on mukana toteuttamassa verkkokuulemista ilmastolain uudistamisesta yhdessä Ympäristöministeriön kanssa. Osallistu 12.11.2020 mennessä!

Lue lisää

Publications

Hyvä naapuri, hyvä suomalainen – erontekojen ja kuulumisen käytännöt Helsingin monietnisillä asuinalueilla

Tämä artikkeli tarkastelee kysymystä siitä, millainen rooli asuinalueilla on kansallisen kuulumisen konteksteina. Analyysimme perustuu kolmelta helsinkiläiseltä monietniseltä, mutta sosioekonomiselta taustaltaan erilaiselta asuinalueelta kerättyyn haastatteluaineistoon. Tutkimuksemme tarkoitus on selvittää millaisten rajojen keinoin valtaväestö rakentaa eron ”suomalaisten” ja ”maahanmuuttajien” välille, miten he rakentamiaan rajoja perustelevat ja millaisten arkisten käytäntöjen keinoin he niitä toisinaan kumoavat.

Lue lisää

As time goes by, the same sentiments apply? Stability of voter satisfaction with democracy during the electoral cycle in 31 countries

Popular consent is an essential element for success and stability of democracies. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that “electoral winners” (i.e. voters casting a ballot for government parties) are more satisfied with democracy than supporters of the opposition parties. However, little is known about the dynamics of satisfaction during the electoral cycle: Do winners become happier and losers even more discontent over time?

Lue lisää

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