Nils Gustafsson

Nils Gustafsson is a political scientist and senior lecturer in strategic communication. Research interests include politics in relation to social media and elite networks. He teaches political communication and quantitative methods. Currently, he serves as the Head of Department.

Background

I am a political scientist with a broad interest in communication and power. I defended my doctoral dissertation in political science "Leetocracy: political participation, social network sites and inequality" in 2013. Since 2013, I have been doing teaching and research at the Department of Strategic Communication. 

Area of research

My research interests include political aspects of social media. For the past decade, I have been doing research on the implications of social media on political participation, political communication, political parties, political activism, and civil society.  I am involved in a major research project studying career effects of networking among students at Nordic business schools. I have also published writings on research methods, research ethics, and constitutional politics.

Current projects

• Political Polarization on the Internet: Towards an Integrated Perspective on Its Causes and Effects. This is a "theme" at the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University (2020-2021) and purports to study political polarization in a cross-disciplinary research program. The research team consists of Anamaria Dutceac Segesten and Erik J Olsson (coordinators), Michael Bossetta, Tommy Bruhn, Hanna Bäck, Nils Holmberg, Mikael Klintman, Jonas Ledendal, and Elin A. Topp Learn more about the project. 

• Social Information and Hybrid Power -  A Strategic Platform for Political Communication at Lund University. This project is funded by the Vice-Chancellor of Lund University (2019-2024) and aims at developing a cross-disciplinary platform for education and research into political communication and journalism. The team consists of Tommy Bruhn, Asta Cepaite, Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, Elsa Hedling, Ola Isaksson, Andreas Mattsson, Howard Nothhaft, Sara Santesson, Anders Sigrell, Mikael Sundström, Marja Åkerström, and Nils Gustafsson (coordinator), all from Lund University. Learn more about the project.

• Audit Society 2.0 - Taking a new turn? Organizational use and consequences of external reporting on social media. This project is funded by Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser (2020-2022) and studies the way that reporting about your organization on social media affect the organization internally. The research group consists of Cecilia Gullberg (PI) (Södertörn University), Noomi Weinryb (Södertörn University) and Nils Gustafsson. Learn more about the project.

• Network and net worth. This project is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation) and Vetenskapsrådet (2018-2022) is a longitudinal study of women's and men's social networks in Nordic business education and their effect on career outcomes. The research group consists of Gergei Farkas of Linnaeus University, Anna Tyllström of the Institute for Future Studies, and Nils Gustafsson (PI). Learn more about the project.

Teaching

I am involved in teaching within the following subject areas: political communication, theory of science, and quantitative methods. I am also a supervisor for Master’s theses. I am also the research methods coordinator at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University.

Miscellaneous

Blog: nilsgustafsson.blogspot.se
Twitter: @nilsgustafsson