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Do you want to be at the forefront of important climate negotiations through your research? And would you like to understand the politics behind negotiations around climate policies, and the role of actors in shaping these policies? As a postdoc, you will investigate the African Union's negotiations on climate policies with international partners.
Cooperation policies are negotiated at the multilateral level and are therefore subject to many power relations before they are translated into national policies. National policies in African countries then also follow a top-down approach in their development and implementation, often regardless of local concerns and interests, and including strategies to address environmental vulnerability. There are significant and under-researched frictions that manifest themselves between these policies and policy making practices on the one hand and the lived experiences and local, traditional, and cultural governance systems of communities on the other. This results in conflicting practices, misdirected resources, mistrust in governance, and ever-increasing environmental vulnerabilities and related livelihood insecurity. There is therefore an urgent need to analyse the whole chain of policy-making of climate policies. It is essential to understand top-down processes, including how and why they emerge, in order to both critically reflect on and re-imagine them. The agency of different actors at different levels of governance can only be redesigned in relation to the overall structure of the governance architecture. Within this project, you will focus on the following questions:
● Who is involved in such negotiations, why and how?
● How do the different discourses supported by stakeholders give meaning to the final outcomes?
● How can we understand the impact of de jure and de facto inclusive or exclusive processes?
● How do alternative governance practices relate to a healthy/unhealthy multilevel democratic system?
● What are the trade-offs made with other policy fields and objectives in climate policy negotiations?
With the AU as the central focus of this project, we offer you the opportunity to select other key partners with whom the AU engages, focusing on the significance of their relationships, their agenda-oriented positioning in negotiations, the role of narratives through various modes (including in social media such as Twitter), in the endeavour of shaping a collective agenda. It is also important to understand the AU itself as an 'actor', considering its role in representing its member states and lower levels of governance in Africa, and how it can shape and influence negotiations with international partners.
The research position is for two years and does not carry any teaching load. You will be expected to write at least two academic papers on the topic of negotiations between the AU and the international partner of your choice. This research will also be translated into policy advice. Ultimately, you will, with the support of the team, also organise a workshop on the politics of negotiating with different actors, with key actors at the AU and representatives of member states of the AU.
Fixed-term contract: It concerns a temporary employment for 2 years.
We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!
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