Dr. Ville Aula

Biography

Ville works as a Digital Policy Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, focusing on the 'Resilient Media for Democracy in the Digital Age' project led by Nicole Stremlau. He specializes in digital governance and the use of digital technologies in policymaking. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in AI Public Policy at the University of Helsinki. Alongside his research, Ville is writing a Finnish-language non-fiction book titled 'What Digital Policy.' He has an interdisciplinary background in politics and communication, having completed his PhD in Data, Networks, and Society at the London School of Economics, as well as an MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the University of Oxford and an MSc in Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Helsinki. Ville's research has been awarded the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD Studentship at LSE, and he received a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to spend a year as a visitor at the University of California, San Diego. He also won the Bleddyn Davies Prize for an early career paper in the journal Policy & Politics. Ville's teaching focuses on political science and digital policy. At LSE, he worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Government for four years, teaching undergraduate classes on 'Public Policy Analysis' and 'Politics and Policy Data Science.' At the University of Helsinki, he led a postgraduate module titled 'Digital Politics and Policy.' Ville has worked extensively with governments and policymakers, including leading a report commissioned by the Parliament of Finland to assess the needs for reform in parliamentary practice, exploring how digital tools can promote transparency in the legislative process and contribute to evidence-based policymaking. In 2020, he supported the UK Digital Regulation Team as a seconded PhD researcher at the UK Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports (DCMS). Prior to his research career, he worked as a public sector strategy consultant in Finland.

Research Interests