Are you interested in complex systems with focus on societal applications? Are you keen on making large physical/mathematical/computational models of social dynamics? Would you like to understand better the interrelations between polarisation, segregation and inequality using large data sets and methods from physics, mathematics, computational sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, or law? Do you find it fun to think about potential interventions that could result in a more equal and fair society? Do you enjoy working in an interdisciplinary setting?
The Research Priority Area,
Emergent Phenomena in Society: Polarisation, Segregation and Inequality (RPA PSI) at the University of Amsterdam has three 3-year open postdoc positions. Besides the annual salary detailed below, the position includes € 4k of travel funding per year as well as access to funding for workshops, meetings, and visitors.
RPA PSI is an interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Amsterdam with the goal of uncovering the interplay between the various mechanisms underlying the social phenomena of polarization, segregation and inequality using a large data set curated by CBS (Statistics Netherlands).
The collaboration involves various faculties at the University of Amsterdam, including the Faculty of Science (FNWI), the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences (FMG) and the Faculty of Law (FdR) as well as the the knowledge institute CBS.
What are you going to do? As a postdoc you are expected to join a broad group of researchers with the scientific goal of understanding how to model the interrelations between polarisation, segretation and inequality. The team includes J. Armas (physics), C. Mulatier (physics, computer science), J. de Boer (physics), M. Lees (computer science), M. Mandjes (mathematics), H. van der Maas (psychology), J. Uitermark (social science), C. Diks (economics), J. Tuinstra (economics), C. Mak (law), and F. Pijpers (mathematics, data science) as well as Tommaso Giommoni (economics).
This team spans various methodological approaches including statistical physics, socio-econo physics, agent-based modeling, stochastic systems, formalization of psychological theories, contextual/historical analyses, behavioral economics and data science, legal dogmatic/theoretical analyses and critical approaches to law, and constraining complex models with data.
We expect that your postdoc project should be placed at the intersection of at least two types of social phenomena: (1) polarization/segregation; (2) segregation/inequality; (3) polarization/inequality. The goal of the project is to model (using different methodologies described above) the interplay between any of the two types of emergent phenomena (1), (2), or (3), and calibrate the models using data from CBS and other sources.
We advise you to carefully read the scientific goals of this research programme (including ideas for potential projects) at
https://www.d-iep.org/emergentphenomenainsociety. With this in mind you should elaborate a maximum two-page project proposal detailing a research project within this area and potential supervisors within the team. You are welcome to contact the researchers involved in elaborating your proposal.
More specifically we expect you to have the following tasks and responsibilities:
- Be the main driving force behind your projects in collaboration with the supervising members and conduct novel research in the area of polarization, segregation and inequality.
- Be able to work together with researchers of different backgrounds.
- Join the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Amsterdam every Thursday to interact with the researchers within RPA PSI and more broadly with researchers from the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP).
- Assist in organizing workshops, meetings, seminars, visitors programme, outreach activities and contribute to a lively research culture.
- Your research project should involve supervisors from at least 2 different faculties.