Presentation of New Infrastructure Initiative: Coordinated Online Panels for Research on Democracy and Governance in Norway

Elisabeth Ivarsflaten and Anne Lise Fimreite, professors at the Department of Comparative Politics, presented the KODEM-initiative: Coordinated Online Panels for Research on Democracy and Governance in Norway.

Abstract:High quality scientific data is a core feature of the democratic governance structure in Norway. Our survey and registry data are among the best in the world. However, digitalization currently challenges us to imagine and build new infrastructures equipped to serve the needs for such high-quality scientific data also in the digital age. There are unique opportunities in Norway now because of excellent general population internet access—second only to Iceland in the whole world. By establishing the proposed new national infrastructure of Coordinated Online Panels for social science and multidisciplinary research on Democracy and Governance (KODEM) in Norway, we take advantage of these unique opportunities. KODEM will make possible for the first time coordinated data-collection in panels that cover the entire core of democratic governance—citizens, elected representatives, public administrators, judges, and journalists. KODEM will be set up so as to enable new scientific discoveries, more collaboration across institutions and disciplines, high quality international cooperation, more policy-relevant research, higher research pace, larger research scale, and better resource efficiency. Organizationally, KODEM will make use of a time-sharing model successfully piloted on a regional level at the Digital Social Science Core Facility (DIGSSCORE) at the University of Bergen. This time-sharing model makes it possible to serve the needs of the broad-based national consortium. In short, by establishing KODEM, we will change what we can know about democracy and governance and how we come to know it.