2021DILEUA75 Postdoc position: Estimating the cohesiveness of European societies with a network...

The ERC-funded research project "A network science approach to social cohesion in European societies" (PATCHWORK) announces the recruitment of a post-doctoral researcher for a period of four years.

The project is located at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is affiliated with the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

The successful applicant will design a model for the statistical estimation of social cohesion based on the Network Scale-Up

Method and personal network data, resulting in international publications, and will contribute to the research project within the interdisciplinary project team.

The appointment will initially be for 1 year. After satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, it will be extended to another 3 years. The candidate will preferably start in November 2021.

The job location is in Bellaterra (Barcelona), but a remote start may be discussed if the COVID-19 situation requires this.

The Project

As European societies are becoming increasingly unequal, diverse, and polarised, concerns about their cohesion are growing. In this light, it is surprising that social cohesion research has almost entirely ignored one of its core dimensions: relationships. Broad acquaintanceship networks, which connect each individual to hundreds of others through both intimate and superficial relationships, have long been assumed to bind societies together and provide a sense of community and solidarity. Nonetheless, they have hardly been studied empirically due to the technical complexity of the comprehensive study of society-wide networks. This project will develop a ground-breaking, network-scientific approach to social cohesion. After designing a theoretical framework for the structural cohesion of societies, it develops a new methodology to study structural cohesion empirically, hybridising two strands of network research in an unprecedented way. The methodology will be implemented in a large-scale, cross-national European survey administered to representative samples of the populations. The survey estimates are used to simulate society-wide networks, to explore resulting macro-level structures. These macro-level structures are then used to specify agent-based models to study in more depth how broad acquaintanceship networks influence subjective manifestations of cohesion. For the first time, we will know how cohesive broad acquaintanceship networks are across categorical fault lines of citizenship, social class, religion, and political orientation for five societies, how real-life inter- and intragroup relationships cluster to form network constellations that expose individuals in unique ways to other social groups, and how these constellations shape subjective manifestations of cohesion such as tolerance, trust, and acceptance of diversity.

The Postdoctoral Researcher will have the following responsibilities:

• conducting research (literature review, design and implementation of statistical procedure for estimating social cohesion based on Network Scale-Up Method and personal network data, statistical estimation and data analysis, reporting results);

• contribution to the project’s data collection (contribution to questionnaire design; construction of additional aggregate database with national-level statistics; preparation of files and meta-data for open access data curation)

• presenting results at national and international scientific conferences and in high-quality, international scientific journals

• contribution to the daily supervision of a PhD student;

• work in collaboration with Dr. Miranda Lubbers; active participation in the research group of the PATCHWORK project in collaboration with the other project members, including PhD students and Postdocs to be appointed; participation in regular group meetings;

• all team members contribute to intermediate and final reports and the academic part of the organization of meetings and conferences.

Job position requirements (skills/languages/required experience)

The successful candidate is expected to have:

• A Doctorate in (quantitative) sociology, social science statistics, computational social sciences, network science, or a closely related field. If you are nearly finished, please state the defense date.

• Excellent academic credentials

• Solid training in quantitative research methods and statistical modelling

• Advanced knowledge and skills about Social Network Analysis; in addition, knowledge of the Network-Scale Up Method is valued

• Experience with modelling / writing code for statistical estimation in software for quantitative analysis (R)

• Strong motivation to publish international top-quality articles

• Demonstrable interest in the topics associated with the project

• Excellent academic writing skills

• Excellent command of English (spoken and written) Fluency must be demonstrated in the submitted documents as well as, for the candidates selected for the third stage, in the interview. Optionally, language certificates can be sent along with the application

• Eagerness to work in an interdisciplinary, international environment

• Excellent teamwork skills

• Professional attitude and conduct that includes organizational sensitivity, integrity, pragmatism, and good communication skills

• Independent thinking and a hands-on mentality

Candidates can be of any nationality.

Benefits Financial conditions:

• a salary of 38.200 € gross annual, based on a full-time position (1.0 FTE)

• a position for four (4) years (full time). The successful candidate will first be offered a temporary position of one year with the option of renewal for another three years. Prolongation of the contract is contingent on sufficient progress in the first year.

• Social security (i.e., health and pension benefits), good secondary conditions, e.g., parental leave and flexible hours for work-family reconciliation. The Autonomous University of Barcelona is based on the Bellaterra Campus on the periphery of the city of Barcelona. Barcelona is a bustling metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, with a rich cultural life and a pleasant climate.

Evaluation criteria:

50% excellence of academic record based on curriculum and motivation letter, 20% quality of the writing sample, 30% interview and references

We are committed to building a diverse team. Therefore, we particularly invite candidates from traditionally underrepresented groups to apply, including but not limited to racial and ethnic minorities, nationalities, and women.

Our selection procedure follows the European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers, https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code

Selection process

The selection will be carried out in three stages:

1. Evaluation of motivation letter and CV (50)

2. Evaluation of writing sample (20)

3. Online interview and evaluation of references (30)

In the first stage, candidates will be assessed on the basis of the curriculum and motivation letter following the evaluation criteria. For shortlisted candidates, the writing sample will be assessed. Shortlisted candidates for stage 3 will be invited to an individual online interview in English, which further establishes the fit between the candidate and the position. Only candidates who have a PhD in relevant disciplines, at the time of application or shortly after, will be considered.

Our selection procedure follows the European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers, https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code