Katrin Uba

Katrin Uba is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University, where she serves as Deputy Director of Studies for the doctoral program in political science and Deputy Editor of the journal Social Movement Studies. Her institutional affiliation is with the Department of Political Science within Uppsala University's Faculty of Social Sciences.

Her research focuses on comparative politics with particular emphasis on social movements, including environmental and climate protests, labor movements, and their political impacts. Key areas include protest outcomes, collective action dynamics, political sociology of movements, and climate policy development. Uba examines how social movements influence policy formation, particularly through citizen participation mechanisms and deliberative processes in democratic systems.

Uba's recent publications reveal strong trends in climate activism (especially Fridays For Future), labor movement strategies, and protest methodology. Her work spans multiple European contexts with special attention to Sweden, Estonia, and transnational comparisons. She investigates how economic conditions affect climate concern, the role of leadership icons like Greta Thunberg, and innovative methods for studying movement outcomes.

As Principal Investigator for the DEMETRA project (Democratic Governance, Environmental and Climate Challenges, and Societal Transformation), Uba explores citizen participation methods for sustainable food systems within the EU's Farm to Fork strategy. The project conducts comparative analysis across seven European cities to evaluate citizen forums' effectiveness in strengthening democratic inclusion while advancing sustainability goals.