Guest Post-doc at CERGU!

CERGU will host a new guest post-doc, Thomas Karv, who is visiting the University of Gothenburg from Åbo Akademi University (Finland). Thomas has written a bit about his research, below:

In my recently published PhD thesis, titled “Public Attitudes Towards the European Union”, I set out to analyse how different types of EU attitudes are connected to different kinds of national level factors within and across the 28 member states over time. By connecting country levels of EU attitudes to a wide set of national level circumstances, I managed to find empirical evidence that supported the argument that EU attitudes are to a large extent determined by national level circumstances. Therefore, what the European public thinks about the EU does not appear to be directly related to what the EU is actually doing.

Shortly after I defended my PhD thesis I became part of a research team at Åbo Akademi University (The Future of Democracy–Center of Excellence in Public Opinion Research) which focuses on studying "the current condition of democracy". Therefore, as a fresh post-doc, I intend to continue focusing on Europe but from a different perspective. Hence, my current research focus revolves around the concept of democratic backsliding generally, and more specifically within post-communist EU member states.

Welcome to Gothenburg and CERGU, Thomas!