Maria Sjögren
About Maria Sjögren
I am employed as a researcher at JMG as part of a three-year long FLEXIT project entitled Backstage democracy: studying the conditions for implementing participatory democratic methods. The project is co-funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Digidem Lab and JMG. By following the advisors at Digidem Lab and their work with digital and participatory democratic methods, the project aims to investigate the organisational conditions for developing methods for democratic and political innovation, such as citizens’ assemblies and participatory budgeting.
I received my PhD from JMG in 2024 with the dissertation A Talking Matter: Discursive Enactments of Norms and Tensions in a Public Participation Process. In my dissertation, I used ethnographic methods and discourse analysis to examine talk and conversations that were part of a public participation process in Biskopsgården in Gothenburg. Before and after completing my PhD, I have also worked for the City of Gothenburg with planning and implementing various types of public participation processes. I have a bachelor’s degree in Swedish and Literary Studies and a master’s degree in Strategic Communication from Lund University.
Research Areas
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Political communication and participation, with a specific interest in public participation and deliberative democracy practices.
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Discourse analysis and analysis of naturally occurring talk. Also strategic communication and organizational communication.
Current Research Project
2026–2029: Backstage democracy: studying the conditions for implementing participatory democratic methods. (RJ FLEXIT)
Pictures
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