The Department of Communication and Arts (DCA), Roskilde University, invites applications for a position as postdoc from February 1. 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter. The position as postdoc is full-time and limited until October 15, 2025. The purpose of the postdoc is to study citizens’ trust in relation to digitalization of governmental services within the auspices of the research project Digital Society and Trust (DIS-TRUST) funded by the Velux Foundation.
The Department of Communication and Arts
Your daily workplace will be Department of Communication and Arts at Roskilde University. DCA covers RUC’s Communication programs (Communication, Journalism, and Performance Design) and Art programs (Danish, Philosophy, History, and Cultural Encounters).
We conduct excellent, interdisciplinary research in the intersection between Communication, Cultural Studies, Social Science, and Humanities, and offer an innovative and interdisciplinary university environment, characterized by diversity with respect to theory, method, and area of study in research and education. Our research is characterized by double impact, i.e. by the highest academic quality, and by a direct interaction with public, private and civil actors in the society.
We have strong research networks and partnerships with local, regional, national, and international partners with the goal of ensuring the highest quality in all our research-based activities.
The Project
The DIS-TRUST project investigates how conditions for interpersonal trust and trust in institutions change in the digital society, how new forms of trust are formed, and what challenges digitalization poses to trust. The project originates in philosophy’s conceptual work with trust and digitalization. The constant digital transformations of social life worlds are studied conceptually and by confronting the conceptual analyses with concrete context embedded case studies. Consequently, DIS-TRUST advances and matures its analyses of trust oscillating within the poles of philosophical conceptual theories and qualitative empirical research. A short description of the project can be found here: https://veluxfoundations.dk/da/kernegruppebevillinger-2023.
The specific research project of the postdoc concerns alterations in trust relations of citizens to governmental institutions due to increased use of digital solutions. The focus will be on digitalization within Danish municipalities. The postdoc is expected to analyze how increased use of digital tools affects citizens’ experience of trust in individual municipality employees, the municipality as an organization and governmental institutions at large. The research to be conducted can include a mixture of philosophical conceptual evaluation, qualitative content analysis of official Danish policy papers from 2019 and onwards, a shorter period of fieldwork at one or two municipalities, and in-depth interviews with citizens and employees from the selected municipality.
Qualifications
Applicants must hold a PhD or the equivalent thereof within philosophy, the history of ideas, science and technology studies, digital communication studies or an adjacent field in the humanities, social sciences or data sciences.
The ideal candidate is an excellent scholar with expertise in modern philosophies of trust, the international research field of epistemic justice and trust, information technology, or digital media studies. The ideal candidate has familiarized her/himself with the intersection between philosophy’s conceptual approach and qualitative empirical research and is enthusiastic about doing research in the methodological meeting of theoretical and empirical qualitative analysis. While prior experience with empirical studies such as fieldwork or qualitative interviews is an asset, it is not required. Candidates without prior experience with qualitative empirical work must describe how the candidate would conceive and carry out the empirical studies. Knowledge of contemporary philosophical research in trust and digitalization, philosophy of law with emphasis on digitalization, and/or epistemic injustice is an asset.
Candidates without such knowledge are expected to describe how they will acquaint themselves with these philosophical perspectives.
Applicants must master spoken and written English at an advanced academic level. Applicants must furthermore be sufficiently fluent in Danish to conduct fieldwork and/or interviews in Danish and read Danish policy papers. Experience of publishing in English will be an asset.
The applicant is furthermore expected to demonstrate:
- Experience with/willingness to organize and conduct research seminars including follow-up evaluations.
- An international research-profile including experience of international publication and research dissemination.
- Plans for public dissemination of the conducted research.
Terms of employment
The employment is full time, 37 hours per week, and refers to Dean Ida Willig.
Please submit your application no later than 24 th of October 2023.