The research project 'Spaces of Democracy: Representation, Citizenship and the Public Sphere' investigates the transformations of Finnish democracy in the age of globalization from the point of view of associations of civil society. Associations, having traditionally played a strong role in the Finnish political culture, are seeing a change in their political role as the established national forms of political representation are, due to political globalization as well as internal heterogenization, yielding to new forms of political re-presentations in the public sphere.

The research group consists of three doctoral candidates. Suvi Ervamaa's dissertation, 'Transnational Social Movements in Finland' examines the development of transnational social movement sector in 1968-2008 in relation to the changes of the political opportunity structure in Finland, as well as the framing and diffusion processes within the movements.

Eeva Luhtakallio's dissertation, 'Public Citizens: Local Representations of Citizenship and Civic Activity in Finland and France' focuses on the formation of citizenship identities in associational activities and representations of citizenship in the public sphere in two local contexts, Helsinki and Lyon.

Tuomas Ylä-Anttila's dissertation 'Globalizing Democracy: Associations, Social Movements and the Global Public Sphere' looks at the Global Justice Movement and the World Social Forum as attempts to create public debates at the global level, and the reception of these debates in different national contexts through the mass media on the one hand and through policy networks on the other.

The project is led by Academy Professor Risto Alapuro at the Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki, and funded by the Finnish Academy for the period 2005-2008.