Berta Barbet, Ph.D.

bertabarbet@gmail.com

Universitat Autonoma Barcelona

Country: Spain

Research Interests

Political Participation

Political Parties and Interest Groups

Public Opinion

Representation and Electoral Systems

Political Communication

My Research:

My name is Berta Barbet. I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and Public Law ​of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. I received my PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Leicester in June 2016, and I hold a MA in Political Behaviour and Public Opinion from University of Essex

​My doctoral thesis, Issues, Party Strategies and Voter Behaviour: A Dynamic Approach, explores changes in the issues discussed by parties in electoral contexts and their effects on voters' behaviours. The main contribution of the thesis, that parties' behaviours do not always alter the coalitions created among voters, has been published at the Comparative European Politics Journal. In my most recent research projects I have kept exploring how context affects the way in which citizens make sense of the political world and how that shapes their decisions to participate on it. I am mainly interested in how these contextual influences can improve or hinder the functioning of the political systems and citizens' satisfaction with democracy (see publications section).

I have also done research for several research organisations and think tanks on diverse issues such as younger's attitudes and democratic developments (see. non-academic research section). I collaborate with different media and organisations doing articles or conferences on issues of my field (see dissemination section). Since 2016 I am also an editor of Politikon, an analysis group focused on political issues, policymaking and social sciences in general. Its goal is to look at reality from an analytical perspective and to debate proposals for the progress of society. Politikon is independent from any party, and therefore is not linked to any political organisation, company, think tank or trade union.