Current Research Projects
Defenders of Democracy: The Police, Democracy and Higher Education
The police play a crucial role in democratic societies by upholding law and order, and by addressing crime and insecurity. As a state institution, the police are unique because they hold the exclusive legitimate monopoly over the use of force within the domestic sphere. Police training across the globe is currently being professionalized through partnerships with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In Sweden, the police training has since the early 2000s partly been integrated into the academic system, and the police program is currently offered at five universities. This project will study how police training addresses issues of democracy and the role of the police in society. What are the students taught about the values underpinning democracy, its central definitional features, and main threats to democracy? And does the prioritization in terms of scope and content vary between the different police programs in Sweden? Through analysis of course content and interviews, this project will advance an understanding of how democracy and its threats are conceptualized within Swedish police education as well as the role of HEIs in the academization of a profession central for a functioning democratic state.
Project members: Kristine Höglund (project leader), Department of Peace and Conflict Research and Emma Elfversson, Department of Government.
Project period: 2025-2027
Seminariet som demokratisk arena i högre utbildning: I spänningsfältet mellan ideal och verklighet
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project members: Johan Wickström (project leader), Department of Education and Ulrike Schnaas, Division for Quality Enhancement.
Project period: 2025-2027
Higher Education on the Democracy – Autocracy Continuum – What roles do bureaucrats in higher education play for democratisation and safeguarding democracy?
This pilot study examines how higher education bureaucrats influence democratic processes under different political regimes. While higher education is often seen as a driver of democratisation, the role of its bureaucrats remains understudied. Using Sweden and Ethiopia as contrasting cases, the research explores how bureaucrats shape policy implementation, institutional norms, and governance in higher education. Through key informant interviews and document analysis, it investigates their interactions with policymakers, responses to political pressures, and potential roles in democratic safeguarding or autocratization. By moving beyond binary classifications of governance, the study bridges Global North-South divides in public administration research and offers a more nuanced understanding of bureaucratic roles on the democracy-autocracy continuum. The findings will refine theoretical frameworks on bureaucratic influence in higher education and contribute to interdisciplinary debates on governance, democratisation, and state capacity. The study is policy relevant, revealing how bureaucratic actions influence both the strengthening and erosion of democracy across different political contexts.
Project members: Camille Louise Pellerin (project leader) and Karin Leijon, Department of Government.
Project period: 2025-2027
Academic actors as guardians of democracy?
The ongoing trend of autocratization in many established democracies involves a growing tendency to limit and circumvent the autonomy of academic actors. Universities and scholars are currently facing a classic dilemma: to be an active part of civil society and intervene in public debates on the one hand, and to retain their credibility and status as non-partisan actors on the other. In autocratising environments, this dilemma intensifies as governments challenge the value of democracy and attack those who defend democratic norms as being biased. The aim of this project is to examine whether and why universities have a special role to play in defending democracy and how scholars should navigate possible tensions with their educational and scientific vocation. It looks at the normative link between higher education and democracy, as well as at specific ways in which universities and scholars can and should defend democracy and their own autonomy when performing in the public arena.
Project members: Anthoula Malkopoulou (main applicant), Sofia Näsström and Siri Sylvan, Department of Government.
Project period: 2025-2026
Higher Education and Citizens’ Commitment to Democratic Norms
information will be available soon
Project members: Hanne Fjelde (project leader) and Annekatrin Deglow, Department of Peace and Conflict Research.
Project period: 2025-2027
City-universitetet och den högre utbildningens marknadisering
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project period: 2025-2027
Democratic Trailblazers or Rebellious Thugs? Understanding Organized Student Violence at Universities in Sub-Saharan Africa
University students are often seen as champions of democratisation. Yet in many African countries, student activism frequently turns violent. Between 2000 and 2022, Sub-Saharan Africa experienced over 880 incidents of organised violence at universities, ranging from clashes with security forces to inter-student fighting. This research project investigates why student organisations at some universities engage in collective violence while others do not. I theorize that violence is most likely where (a) political elites compete for influence on campus, (b) students have suffered past abuses, and (c) economic shocks intensify grievances. Drawing on original data from the Universities at Risk project—the first cross-national dataset on student violence—this study uses statistical analysis to identify key drivers of violent activism across African state universities. By explaining when and why student movements take up arms, the project offers new insights for promoting peaceful student engagement and aligns with DaHE’s theme of universities and global democratisation.
Project period: 2025-2027
För att rätt lära känna sig själv: Demokrati och kvinnors inkludering i historieskrivning
information will be available soon.
Project period: 2025-2027
Does higher education make people better democratic citizens?
In this project, we propose to study how a particular democratic skill - the willingness and ability to consider others' interests in political life – develops during higher education. Democracy's promise to be a form of government that shows equal concern for the interests of all citizens and respects all citizens as equal political actors is undermined by patterns of unequal participation. This can be compensated for by those who participate, if they consider interests other than their own. The purpose of this pilot-project is to test whether higher education contributes to or undermines the development of this democratic skill. We will conduct survey studies among students in a selection of educational programs at Uppsala University. The purpose of the survey is to capture differences in democratic skills as consequences of undergoing higher education.
Project members: Johan Wejryd (project leader), Oskar Hultin Bäckersten and Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, Institute for Housing and Urban Research
Project period: 2024-2026
Academic Transition in a War-torn Democracy: Understanding the Limited Lack of Implementation of Higher Education Reforms in Ukraine and Developing Mitigating Strategies
Academic transition is of crucial importance in new democracies, since academia fosters new generations of politicians, officials and public who in various roles become responsible for politics. Ukraine made a democratic transition in the 1990s, but are still struggling with its transition in academia, which is the focus of this study. Of particular interest are reforms that strive to ensure the autonomy from politics and church of higher education institutions, assure the quality of universities through independent assessment and bodies, and who enforce participation in the international republic of scholars of researchers and teachers. We investigate policy processes behind academic reforms carried out in the now war-torn Ukraine since 1999 that entertained such ambitions, to identify the reasons for both resistance and support when they have been, and still are, implemented. As in democratic transitions, there are predominant power struggles that embed academic transitions, but also resistance that originates from lack of resources or lack of understanding. Legacies of academic governance from the old, Soviet, regime also play a decisive role.
Project members: Li Bennich-Björkman (project leader), Dmytro Yefremov, Department of Government and Yuliya Krylova-Grek, Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES)
Project period: 2024-2026
Akademiska – och andra – friheter: den akademiska friheten i ljuset av diskussionerna om ”cancelkultur” och ”aktivism”
See the Swedish version for more information on the research project.
Project members: Otto Fischer (project leader), Mirey Gorgis, Department of Literature and Rhetoric and Johan Sehlberg, Culture and Education, Södertörn University
Project period: 2024-2026
