Political Microtargeting (PMT) and the conditions under which the use of AI and data analytics can contribute to or threaten digital democracy are questions of central academic, societal and political importance. Central challenges to digital democracy are (1) the lack of a theoretical assessment framework, (2) the need for new methods to generate empirical insights into existing practices and their effects on users and society and (3) the lack of concrete suggestions of how to move the discussion from the current, very abstract level to discussing concrete regulatory and policy solutions.

To tackle these three challenges (in the context of a NWO-funded project 'Safeguarding Democratic Values in Political Practices' we are looking for 1 postdoctoral researcher in the field of Information Law, 1 postdoctoral researcher in Political Philosophy, 1 postdoc in Computer Science and 1 PhD student in Political Communication. These four researchers will be part of an interdisciplinary research team that is embedded in the larger UvA initiative Information, Communication and the Data Society as well as in the Amsterdam School of Communication, the Institute for Information Law and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. The research will be carried out in close cooperation with societal stakeholders (including the Ministries for Justice and BZK) and non-academic partners, such as AlgorithmWatch and the UK NGO ‘Who Targets Me'.

What are you going to do?

We are looking for 3 postdoctoral researchers and 1 PhD student, participating in different work packages:

• WP1 (political philosophy): the postdoctoral researcher will study the conditions of legitimacy of PMT from a political philosophy approach;
• WP2 (computer science): this postdoc will enable measuring and making PMT practices visible, from a computer science perspective;
• WP3 (political communication): the PhD student (communication science) will study the impact of PMT on citizens and society from an empirical social science communication science perspective and
• WP4 (law): this researcher will devise rules and policy guidelines for PMT, from a legal science perspective.

The ideal candidate has:

• an interest in political microtargeting, AI and democracy;
• proven experience or at least affinity with team science and working as part of an interdisciplinary team;
• proven expertise, or at least affinity of working with social stakeholders;
• strong communication skills.

For the Postdoctoral researchers :

• a completed PhD and publication record in relevant field (see below).

 For the PhD student:

• a completed MSc in Communication Science or adjecent field.

WP1: PhD and publication record in Political Philosophy, with a special interest in democratic theory and digital citizenship.

WP2: PhD (or equivalent qualifications) and publication record in Computer Science, masters statistical analyses and machine learning to explore campaign data, natural language processing NLP, sentiment analysis, and emotion analysis, experience with visualisation tools (e.g. D3).

WP3: MSc in Communication Science or related field, with a special focus on political communication and computational methods.

WP4: PhD and publication record in Information Law, with a special focus on data protection law, media and campagning law as well as fundamental rights analysis.

Fixed-term contract: one and two years.

For the postdoctoral researchers: a contract for 2 years. The salary will be in accordance with the salary scale for Researcher at Dutch universities, i.e. ranging from €2,709 to €4,978 gross per month, based on 38 hours per week.

For the PhD student: an initial full-time contract for 1 year. Upon positive evaluation of the PhD students’ performance the contract will be renewed for 2 years.

The gross full-time monthly salary will be in accordance with the salary scales for PhD candidates at Dutch universities, scale P, ranging from €2,325 to €2,972 gross per month (full-time equivalent). The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities applies. Secondary benefits at Dutch universities are attractive and include 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year allowance.

What else do we offer?

The project will be embedded in the UvA Research Priority Area initiative 'Information & Communication in the DataSociety (ICDS)' - an interdisciplinary research initiative into the way AI and algorithms affect the role, impact and regulation of information and communication in the Data Society. In addition, the researchers will benefit from integration into the Amsterdam School of Communication, the Institute for Information Law and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis. As such, the researchers will be part of a vibrant research community of researchers in information law, communication science, philosophy, computer science and economy at the three cooperating faculties.

University of Amsterdam

With over 5,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

The Faculty of Law, Humanities and Social and Behavioural Sciences

The Amsterdam Law School prides itself on its international orientation and strong social commitment. This is reflected by both its research and educational activities. The Amsterdam Law School offers three Bachelor’s programmes, including the interdisciplinary English-language Bachelor Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics (PPLE) in cooperation with two other Faculties, as well as a variety of Master's programmes, several of which are taught exclusively in English (i.e. International and European Law, European Private Law, International Criminal Law, and Law & Finance). The Amsterdam Law School prepares students for a wide variety of legal careers including law firms, government, business and industry, the national and international judiciary, public service, human rights advocacy, and academia. With 4000 students and over 450 staff members, it is one of the largest law faculties in the Netherlands.

The Institute for Information Law (IViR), created in 1987 as a centre of excellence for research, is the largest research facility in the field of information law in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. The Institute employs over 30 researchers who are active in a broad spectrum of information society related legal areas: intellectual property law, telecommunications and broadcasting regulation, media law, freedom of information, privacy, Internet governance, etc. The institute’s mission is to further the development of information law into a balanced framework that accommodates the needs and interests of the information society. Information law is a normative concept that integrates the law relating to the production, marketing, distribution and use of information. IViR has a strong presence in European and international academic networks through a broad array of activities, regularly engages in national and international research collaborations, and collaborates with non-legal disciplines such as economics, communications science, computer science, philosophy, digital humanities and the arts.

The Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) is the research institute in Communication Science at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. It is the largest research institute of its kind in Europe and is among the largest worldwide. More than 80 senior researchers are permanently associated with ASCoR, and its English-language PhD programme hosts 25 students. ASCoR is consistently listed as a top communication program in the world (nr 1 in 2019 QS and Shanghai rankings).

The Department of Philosophy is part of the The Faculty of Humanities. The Faculty of Humanities provides education and conducts research with a strongly international profile in a large number of disciplines in the field of language and culture. Staff are offered the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers at research institutes that - partly as a result of their multidisciplinary approach - are world-renowned. The philosophy researcher will be a member of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), which is a research institute and doctoral school dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of culture from a broad humanities perspective.