Much of my research examines and theorizes the politics of public spheres. 

This research stems from my long-term ethnographic fiedwork in Skopje, North Macedonia and it analyzes moments when the social organization of the Macedonian public sphere was called into question, that is, when political actors advanced new standards on what counts as (un)acceptable participation.

My research demonstrated that such efforts to regulate publicity constitute a consequential form of communicative governance, one that contrasts with now dominant models of governmentality and biopolitics (see Graan 2016a). 

This distinctive approach to the politics of public spheres resulted in original analyses of North Macedonia’s European integration (see Graan 2010, 2015, 2016a) and a controversial state-led nation branding project (see Graan 2013, 2016b, 2017). I also expanded this approach to analyze fake news (Graan 2018, 2020) and political polarization (Graan 2021) in North Macedonia. I've also written a couple of broader theoretical works on the politics of public spheres (Graan 2022a, 2022b).