Doctoral Researcher on Active citizenship in culturally and religiously diverse societies (ACT)
Deadline: 30 May 2014
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) invites applications for a three-year, full-time position as Doctoral Researcher. The position provides the opportunity to work in a leading international research institution with high academic standards and an interdisciplinary environment.
This position is financed as part of a grant from the Research Council of Norway to PRIO for the project “Active Citizenship in culturally and religiously diverse societies (ACT)”, led by Research Professor Cindy Horst.
Working within the fields of social sciences, the Doctoral Researcher to be employed in this project will conduct fieldwork-based doctoral research which focuses on the participatory citizenship agenda in Europe, in light of the lived experiences of citizens in diverse neighborhoods in Oslo and Copenhagen. This will result in a monograph-based PhD dissertation in English.
About the project
In debates on citizenship in Europe, the need for active participation among citizens is increasingly stressed. But do normative ideas of what active citizenship is, reflect people’s lived experiences in present-day Europe? While the low electoral participation of young people is often highlighted as an indication of reduced civic participation, various studies show increased social media use leads to increased political and social debates and mobilization. And while politicians often lament the lack of civil-political engagement among immigrants particularly, many new citizens volunteer, work as activists, take up political causes, or set up associations in both their countries of residence and origin. In Europe’s culturally and religiously diverse societies, citizens have different frameworks for how they act and interact with their close and distant surroundings.
The ACT project studies the subsequent diversified citizen participation through three overarching research questions:
1) What are the implications of diverse virtues and values on the motivations of citizens to give voice to societal concerns and take an active role in public affairs?
2) How do shifting understandings of ‘society’ and ‘community’ and shifting experiences of belonging impact the locations in which active citizenship practices take place?
3) Which tensions and contestations arise in debates on what it means to participate as an active citizen in society?
The project collects empirical data on (local, national and transnational) active citizenship in neighbourhoods in Oslo and Copenhagen. ACT will integrate this empirical data with theoretical models of (active) citizenship in philosophy, political science, anthropology, geography and feminist studies.
A complete description of the project will be made available to interested candidates upon request.
The role of the Doctoral Researcher
The Doctoral Researcher will be responsible for a significant component of the overall project. Some of the parameters of data collection and analyses are therefore given by the project design:
- The Doctoral Researcher will be responsible for the collection and analysis of a total of 45 semi-structured interviews in three neighbourhoods in Oslo, and 30 in two neighbourhoods in Copenhagen; combined with participant observation in the selected neighbourhoods.
- The Doctoral Researcher will be co-responsible for organizing and facilitating 9 focus groups in Oslo and 6 in Copenhagen.
- The Doctoral Researcher will be responsible for developing data collection tools based on social media.
The research design includes two three-month ‘visiting researcher’ stays at Aarhus University, Copenhagen campus, which facilitates collaboration with one of the research partners and enables data collection in Copenhagen.
A successful application is one that makes clear how it will contribute innovatively to the project as a whole, and candidates are encouraged to read the background material closely before writing their proposal.
The Doctoral Researcher will work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers at PRIO, as well as partners at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Tromsø (UiT) and the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University (AU).
The Doctoral Researcher will have a supervisor at PRIO, and a second supervisor at the PhD-granting institution. The Doctoral Researcher will be encouraged to apply for a place in the Research School in Peace and Conflict hosted by PRIO. Progress on the doctorate will be supported through regular presentations at internal seminars and involvement in appropriate research groups at PRIO, and opportunities to present work at international academic conferences and workshops. The PhD progress plan will be closely tied to the overall project plan.
Required and desired qualifications
Applicants must have the following qualifications
- Hold an M.A. or equivalent
- Be able to use both Norwegian and English as working languages (both written and oral)
In addition, as many as possible of the following qualifications are desirable
- Experience with semi-structured interviews
- Background in social sciences
- Skills in relevant research methods and analysis
- Experience with teamwork
- General computing skills
- Experience with interdisciplinary work
Experience with organizing meetings and seminars
The candidate will be expected to live in Oslo and will have a workplace at PRIO. The PhD degree, however, must be awarded by a degree-granting institution. Hence, the Doctoral Researcher will be responsible for applying to, and enrolling in a compatible PhD program in Norway. Different institutions may have different requirements, and candidates are encouraged to make enquiries about their eligibility for enrolling in a given program in advance. Tuition fees are not covered by the project.
Application procedure
The application is to be submitted by way of an online form, which must include the following attachments (as PDF files):
1. A cover letter in English that addresses the requirements for the position as described above;
2. A curriculum vitae in English, including a list of any publications you might have;
3. One or more academic writing examples (e.g. MA thesis)
4. Scanned copies of original transcripts from higher education;
5. A PhD project description of 4-6 pages (including references) in English, outlining the following:
- Which aspects from the ACT proposal do you find most interesting or relevant and why?
How will you address the ACT research questions? What would you like to add or change within your specific project?
- How will you organize and manage the data collection and analysis?
- What are your reflections on your positionality as a researcher (e.g. your age, gender, appearance)?
- A progress plan for your three-year doctoral research
The starting salary for a Doctoral Researcher at PRIO is NOK 434 800 (equivalent to step 52 in the Norwegian State salary system).
The interviews with selected candidates will take place between 20 and 25 June.
The starting date for the position is 1 September 2014 or as early as possible thereafter.
Applications should be submitted using the Online Application Form no later than 30 May 2014:
Online Application Form for Doctoral Researcher
Questions, as well as requests for the ACT project description, can be addressed to Cindy Horst by e-mail: ci...@prio.org
The candidate should have an interest in PRIO’s broader mission of conducting high-quality academic research on questions relevant to the promotion of a more peaceful world. For more information about PRIO’s on-going research, see www.prio.org. The latest Strategy document is available on request.