Postdoc Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the EU project Rebalance

On By Dilan ErenIn Announcements, Job Postings, postdocsLeave a comment

Stockholm

Ref. No. SU FV-2100-23

at Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research. Closing date: 16 June 2023.

The Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score) is a leading center for multi-disciplinary research in organizational studies, with a particular focus on four overarching themes – Organizing Knowledge; Organizing Markets; Democracy, Legitimacy, and Power; and Rule Setting and Rule Following.  The Centre includes more than 25 researchers and several visiting fellows each year. The disciplines currently represented among Score researchers are Management, Political Science, Social Anthropology, Sociology, and Economic History.

Project description
The postdoctoral fellow will be associated with the EU Horizon project REBALANCE (Rebalancing Disruptive Business of Multinational Corporations and Global Value Chains with Democracy and Inclusive Citizenship Processes), which seeks to provide new insights, resources, events, and learning materials to help foster a rebalancing of capitalism and democracy.

The postdoctoral fellow will be actively involved in the part of the REBALANCE project based at Stockholm University, which focuses on multinational corporations and EU policies to regulate global industries with regard to human rights, labor rights, environmental impacts, and carbon emissions. This project is led by Tim Bartley, Maria-Therese Gustafsson, and John Murray.

Main responsibilities
The successful candidate will join a multi-method project on organizations, markets, and public policy. The specific responsibilities of the position are linked to deliverables for the REBALANCE project. The main responsibilities will involve compiling a database of business positions on proposed EU regulations/directives, firms’ use of voluntary standards, and other relevant organizational characteristics, based on various forms of publicly available information.

The successful candidate will also be expected to take a leading role in conducting basic quantitative analyses of this data (using Stata or similar software) and qualitative coding and analysis of the textual evidence (using Nvivo or similar software). Other responsibilities include collaborating on working papers, articles, and research briefs; drafting research summaries and policy briefs for non-academic audiences; compiling information on individuals to potentially be interviewed for this project; assisting with the scheduling of interviews and transcription services; and interfacing with other groups in the REBALANCE project.

Qualification requirements
Postdoctoral positions are appointed primarily for purposes of research. Applicants are expected to hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent degree from another country.

Assessment criteria
The degree must have been completed at latest before the employment decision is made, but no more than three years before the closing date. An older degree may be acceptable under special circumstances. Special reasons refer to sick leave, parental leave, elected positions in trade unions, service in the total defense, or other similar circumstances as well as clinical attachment or service/assignments relevant to the subject area.

The successful candidate should have a PhD in Sociology, Political Science, Management/Organizational Studies, Public Policy, Environmental Studies, Labor Relations, or a related field.

In the appointment, special attention will be given to skills and experience demonstrated in the candidate’s research and studies, including experience in compiling databases (in Excel), conducting quantitative analyses, conducting qualitative coding/analyses, and analyzing social, political, or organizational processes surrounding the regulation of markets and industries.

Prior knowledge of social scientific research in at least one of the following areas is required: organizational or institutional change, political processes, social policy or regulatory policy, advocacy organizations/social movements, global production networks, business lobbying, environmental policy, labor standards, private governance, or corporate responsibility. Prior knowledge of either or both of our focal policy domains (climate change/carbon policy; human rights and environmental impacts of multinational business) is attractive but definitely not required. We seek a careful and dedicated researcher with relevant skills and knowledge, but expertise in these specific policy domains is not required. Excellent oral and written English proficiency is a requirement. Knowledge of another language (especially Swedish, French, Spanish, or German) is considered attractive but not required.

Terms of employment
The position involves full-time employment for two years, with the possibility of extentension under special circumstances. Start date 2023-09-01 or as per agreement.

Stockholm University strives to be a workplace free from discrimination and with equal opportunities for all.

Contact
Further information about the position can be obtained from Professor Tim Bartley, tim.bartley@score.su.se.

Union representatives
Ingrid Lander (Saco-S), telephone: +46 708 16 26 64, saco@saco.su.se, Alejandra Pizarro Carrasco (Fackförbundet ST/OFR), telephone: +46 8 16 34 89, alejandra@st.su.se, and seko@seko.su.se (SEKO).

Application
Apply for the position at Stockholm University’s recruitment system. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the job advertisement, and that it is submitted before the deadline.

Please include the following information with your application

  • Your contact details and personal data
  • Your highest degree
  • Your language skills
  • Contact details for 2–3 references

and, in addition, please include the following documents

  • Cover letter (1-2 pages) – including a description of how your prior experience and skills would fit the position
  • CV – with degrees and/or other completed courses, work experience and a list of publications
  • Publications or unpublished manuscripts in support of your application (no more than 3 files)

The instructions for applicants are available at: How to apply for a position.

You are welcome to apply!

Stockholm University contributes to the development of sustainable democratic society through knowledge, enlightenment and the pursuit of truth.

Closing date: 16/06/2023

https://www.su.se/english/about-the-university/work-at-su/available-jobs?rmpage=job&rmjob=21114&rmlang=UK

Job Posting: Research Assistant / Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

On By Julia DessauerIn Job PostingsLeave a comment

The Department of Management at Kingston Business School invites applications from highly-qualified individuals for the position of Research Assistant to collaborate with Dr. Sarah Otner on a portfolio of research activity about the fragrance industry.

The project involves the design and delivery of multi-national, archival (i.e., secondary) data collection that will allow PI to build a structured database with information about fragrance industry awards (specifically) and creative industry careers (generally).

The role will appeal to applicants with ambitions to pursue research-intensive careers; it is similar in content and structure to a “pre-doctoral fellowship”. If interested and appropriate, the successful candidate will be supported to apply both for admission to doctoral studies (i.e., Business Ph.D. degree programme) and for any relevant funding opportunities (including Kingston University’s Ph.D. Studentships, deadline annually each March for study starting the following October).

This is a part-time position (0.6 FTE), available immediately for a fixed-term duration until 31 July 2024 subject to funding availability.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, until the closing date of 18th June and interviews are expected to be held on 13 July 2023.

More information available here: https://jobs.kingston.ac.uk/internal/vacancy/research-assistant-527674.html

New Publications

On By Julia DessauerIn PublicationsLeave a comment

The Economic Sociology of Development by Andrew Schrank

Bringing the study of international inequality back into the core of sociological theory, this book offers a user-friendly introduction to development and underdevelopment. In doing so, it places various approaches to the definition, measurement, and understanding of “development” against the backdrop of broader sociological debates.

Schrank draws concrete examples from different regions and epochs to explore sociological thinking about development and underdevelopment informed by the latest currents in economic sociology. Across a series of chapters, he identifies relationships between mainstream and Marxist approaches to the study of international inequality; uses classical and contemporary social theory to develop a parsimonious typology of national development outcomes; addresses cross-border learning and diffusion in light of the latest developments in organization theory; considers the roles of religious, racial, and gender identities in the development process in different places and times; and portrays contemporary global challenges ‒ such as populism, pandemics, and climate change ‒ as distinctly sociological problems in need of multifaceted solutions. Enriched with expository figures, tables, and diagrams, this accessible book simultaneously distills and develops the sociological approach to the study of development and underdevelopment for both undergraduate and graduate students across the social sciences.

“A Theory of Despair Among U.S. College Students” by Joseph C. Hermanowicz in Current Perspectives in Social Theory

The author argues that contemporary college culture is predicated on hedonism indicated by a use of predominantly social time in which parties, alcohol, casual sex, and lax academics pervade students’ experiences. Coincident with this culture, however, is a deleterious pattern among students that has developed dramatically: their compromised mental health. The situation presents an apparent paradox: why are many students suffering when enveloped by fun? This chapter draws a connection between fun and suffering by treating each as conditions that spring from the sociohistorical context that situates institutions of higher education. In so doing, a theory is set forth to explain why despair is rendered applicable and how it is institutionally installed in the minds of modern-day college students.

Work and Occupations Symposium on the “New Labor Activism”

On By Julia DessauerIn Announcements, EssaysLeave a comment

The Work and Occupations symposium issue on “The New Labor Activism” has just been released.  The fifteen symposium essays present a new generation of labor sociology research for comprehending and sustaining the contemporary labor mobilization in the U.S., the largest labor mobilization since the 1930s.  The mobilization is occurring throughout the U.S. economy, including in the logistics, tech, retail, hospitality, automotive, healthcare, civil society, arts, and education sectors.  The essays, written by a diverse group of social scientists, focus on the themes of “history,” “intersectionality,” “worker agency,” and “hierarchy” and continue the post-World War II transition of the field from a union-centered toward a worker-centered labor sociology.  The symposium essays are written in dialogue with the June, 2022 report on U.S. labor organizing issued by the Worker Empowerment Research Network, a new network of labor market researchers associated with the MIT Sloan School of Management, Cornell, Rutgers, and Columbia Universities, and other universities and colleges.  The symposium issue can be accessed from the “OnlineFirst” section of the Work and Occupations website.

Small Grant Opportunity: CDFI Research Consortium

On By Dilan ErenIn Announcements, grantsLeave a comment

RFP for scholars interested in organizations, financial institutions, race, poverty and community development

I am excited to share with you a small grant funding opportunity and RFP from the CDFI Research Consortium to support research on Community Development Financial Institutions and their efforts to channel credit and capital to low-income and historically marginalized communities – link to RFP.  The Consortium was recently launched by the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire (link to webpage), and its research priorities align well with many of our own. It is keen to include research on the organizational and institutional structures of CDFIs, CDFIs’ relationships with other financial institutions, community based organizations, and local communities, and how those shape CDFIs’ capacities to deliver on their core missions. 

Please a look and pass this announcement along to interested colleagues. Proposals are due June 30, 2023. 

Summer 2023 Gender, Professions, and Organizations Writing Workshop at ASA Annual Meeting

On By Dilan ErenIn Announcements, Calls for ParticipantsLeave a comment

Register now for the 22nd semi-annual Gender, Professions, and Organizations writing workshop at the ASA annual meeting (Thurs, August 17th) by signing up here: https://forms.gle/CZhuJJ3znWAYdew77. 

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The 22nd semi-annual Gender, Professions, and Organizations Writing Workshop is back to its in-person format this summer from 9 am to 5 pm on Thursday, August 17, 2023 – the day of pre-conference activities for the ASA annual meeting in Philadelphia. Originally a workgroup of sociologists studying gender and academic careers, scientific organizations, and organizational transformations to promote gender equality, the workshop has grown to now include scholars of gender, professions, and organizations more broadly. Our aims are to learn about the range of work of attendees, facilitate collaboration, build community across career stages, and MOST IMPORTANTLY to dedicate time for writing. This is an opportunity to write, network, and collaborate. We encourage new and returning participants. If you’ve never come, welcome, and if you have, welcome back! 

As a group, we will discuss our current research projects. This exercise provides useful information to explore potential collaborations throughout the day. There will be designated blocks of independent, quiet writing time. You may use this time any way you wish: brainstorm a new paper, put finishing touches on a manuscript, work with collaborators, or analyze data. There will be separate, designated spaces for conversations around research and collaboration.

 The full-day workshop is organized as two standalone sessions, each with time for introductions and time for writing. We will take a lunch break in between the two sessions at a nearby restaurant. At the end of the day, we come together for a discussion of what we have accomplished and our future plans. Participants are welcome to join for the morning, afternoon, or both. We will make a reservation for lunch (self-paid) for all who wish to join. 

Anyone attending ASA is welcome to join the workshop; however space is limited. We will start a waitlist based on registration order if necessary. The workshop begins early on the 17th, so we recommend arriving in Philadelphia on the 16th.

 Your ASA meeting fee will cover the room cost for the workshop. Participants should bring their own laptop computers (and maybe an extension cord) and snacks to share, as we do not have extra funding. 

 Please contact one of the current co-organizers with any questions. Register by August 1st, using this form https://forms.gle/CZhuJJ3znWAYdew77. 


Best,

Summer 2023 GPO organizing team

Sharla Alegria (sharla.alegria@utoronto.ca, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto)
Melissa Abad (mabad2@stanford.edu, Senior Research Scholar, Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Lab)
Ethel Mickey (ethel.mickey@gmail.com, Assistant Professor, California State University, San Bernardino)
Elizabeta Shifrin (shifrin4@illinois.edu, PhD Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Former organizers: Rodica Lisnic, Kathrin Zippel, Laura Kramer, Christina Falci, Laura Hirshfield, Julia McQuillan, and Enobong Hannah (Anna) Branch, Shauna Morimoto, Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

ASA Annual Meeting Travel Fund Awards

On By Julia DessauerIn Announcements, Awards, ConferencesLeave a comment

The American Sociological Association offers an Annual Meeting Travel Fund and the Student Forum Travel Award to help offset some of the costs associated with attending the Annual Meeting for those who would otherwise find it difficult to attend. The deadline to submit applications for both is April 24.

Application links:

Student Forum Travel Awards

Annual Meeting Travel Fund

Job Posting: Professorship in Sociology of Organization, Work and the Economy

On By Julia DessauerIn Job Postings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Department of Sociology at TU Berlin (Germany), there is a job vacancy for a  Professorship in “Sociology of Organization, Work and the Economy”.

The application deadline is 30.04.2023. Reference VI-916/22.

Details available: https://www.jobs.tu-berlin.de/en/job-postings/159210

The advertised professorship represents the subject of sociology with a focus on the sociology of organization, work and the economy. In teaching, the future position holder represents the full range of the subject of sociology. The theoretical profile of the professorship lies within the field of sociological research on organizations; empirically it focuses on selected fields of sociology of organization, work and the economy. Ideally, the future position holder’s empirical research will also take into account if and how new forms of organizing, working and doing business are entwined with social transformation and innovation processes. His or her empirical research also relates to the department of sociology’s two main research foci (especially “Innovation and Society” but also “Space and Society”). The future position holder will contribute significantly to further the development of the department’s research focus “Innovation and Society”, but also the research focus “Space and Society”.

In teaching, the focus is on (elective) compulsory modules in the field of sociology of organization, work and the economy in the bachelor’s and master’s programs “Sociology and Technology Studies”, as well as in the minor subject teaching. Courses are taught in German and in English. Participation in the other teaching tasks of the faculty and in the tasks of academic self-administration is required.

Further responsibilities include leading and managing the department and its staff; supporting the advancement of junior scholars, women, and social diversity; knowledge and technology transfer; initiatives to promote internationalization; gender and diversity competence, and sustainability-oriented action as well as committee and commission work.

Applicants must fulfill the appointment criteria according to Section 100 BerlHG. These include a university degree in sociology or a related field; a special aptitude for scientific work (usually proven by the quality of a doctorate in sociology); additional scientific achievements (usually a positively evaluated junior professorship, a habilitation or habilitation-equivalent achievements); as well as pedagogical aptitude, documented by a teaching portfolio (for further details, please refer to the website of Technische Universität Berlin, https://www.tu.berlin/go209650/).

Theoretical and empirical research in the field of sociological organizational research, particularly with a research focus in selected fields of the sociology of organizations, work and the economy (demonstrated by relevant publications and empirical research projects) is required. Independent theory development and experience with the acquisition of third-party funding are desirable. The ability to teach courses in the sociology of organizations, work and the economy is also expected. The ability to teach courses in other bachelor’s compulsory modules at the institute (e.g. social theory, social inequality or methods of social research) is desirable. As a university with an international profile, we require our professors to have good English-language skills and expressly welcome applications from international candidates who are committed to quickly learning German. Applicants are expected to teach courses in German and English (see the Academic Senate’s current statement on language policy on the website of Technische Universität Berlin, https://www.tu.berlin/go209656/).

Technische Universität Berlin expects its professors to be willing and competent to responsibly manage and strategically develop the department and its staff. This includes in particular the awareness of the special responsibility for the creation of gender- and diversity-sensitive working and study conditions. The willingness and ability to promote young academics, women and social diversity, as well as to participate in academic self-administration, are required. The future position holder has to be willing and able to set impulses for internationalization and sustainability-oriented action in research and teaching. It is desirable that he or she is experienced with initiatives in science communication as well as in knowledge or technology transfer. Accordingly, the future position holder has to be willing to engage in interdisciplinary cooperation with other disciplines (e.g. engineering, computer sciences or spatial sciences) of Technische Universität Berlin. He or she has to establish research links with the research foci of Technische Universität Berlin (especially to engineering, computer sciences and the spatial sciences) and to be willing to engage in international committees and research contexts.

It is not possible to offer the position as two part-time professorships.

Technische Universität Berlin is seeking to increase the proportion of women in research and teaching and actively encourages applications from suitably qualified female candidates. Preference will be given to applicants with severe disabilities who equally fulfill the requirements of the position. Technische Universität Berlin values the diversity of its members and is committed to equality of opportunity. We are a certified family-friendly university and our Dual Career Service can assist you and your family with your move to Berlin.

TU Berlin aims to improve the fairness of its appointment procedures and has developed a template to take account of academic age in appointment procedures as part of a pilot project. The template is to be used regularly in the procedures from the beginning of 2023. The form (Excel file) is available for download here, https://www.tu.berlin/go209647/.

Please submit your application by 30.04.2023 quoting the above job reference number and including appropriate documents (CV, certificates, concept for research and teaching, teaching portfolio, details of acquired external funding and a list of publications highlighting which five publications you regard as the most significant). Your application should be sent only by email as a single PDF-file to bewerbungen@fak6.tu-berlin.de. Electronic documents submitted using cloud services such as WeTransfer or Dropbox cannot be accepted. Please address your application to Technische Universität Berlin – Die Präsidentin – Dekanin der Fakultät VI, Sekr. A1, Straße des 17. Juni 152, 10623 Berlin.