Job description
Innovative technologies like artificial intelligence, new energy resources, and digital transitions in healthcare and safety, provide examples of developments that are often presented as solutions to current and future societal challenges. These developments raise questions such as: How do people react to and make sense of innovative technologies? How do new technologies shape the way people and organizations behave and interact? How do they reshape the public domain and policy directions? Technological developments ask for insights into the diverse changes and transitions across many levels, from individual behaviors to organizational processes and social policies. As new technologies also have unforeseen, unintended, or uncontrollable outcomes, we need insight into when they contribute to inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities and when they are counterproductive. A comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach is needed to better understand how innovative technologies facilitate or work against societal transitions and behavior change across time. As part of the Sector Plans in Social Sciences and Humanities, we offer 4 new talented colleagues an exciting opportunity for co-developing such an approach.
Each colleague will be appointed in one of the four sections of the Department of Human and Institutional Behavior. These are Communication Science; Psychology, Health & Technology; Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety; and Public Administration. Across the sections, you will work closely together as a team to create impact in research, education, and society in this exciting field. You can bring in your own interests and expertise but as a group you will develop a multidisciplinary research line on technological developments in relation to societal transitions and behavior change. As a teacher you will contribute to modules in bachelor and master programs of Psychology, Communication science, and Public administration. You will outline research topics for Bachelor and Master theses that you will supervise. To create societal impact, you will develop strong collaborations with stakeholders in the field.
The Department of Human and Institutional Behavior at the University of Twente provides many opportunities to develop your talents as researcher and teacher. Clearly rooted in disciplinary expertise in psychology, communication science, and public administration, the department aims to integrate individual, (inter)organizational, institutional, and societal perspectives on technologies of societal transitions and behavior change. We invest in professionals and academics of the future through our bachelor and master programs of psychology, communication science, and public administration as well as in post-master life-long learning activities. To create scientific impact, there is strong collaboration across the faculty and the university in interdisciplinary research domains.
To create societal impact we closely work together with citizens, professionals, managers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers in designing, evaluating, and implementing comprehensive technology-based solutions that support behavior change and societal transitions towards inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities. Last but not least, the facilities of the BMS Lab and the Design Lab provide innovative technological support for our research, teaching, and societal collaboration.
Department
The HIB-department is one of four departments at the faculty. The department is committed to design, evaluation and implementation of and teaching about comprehensive technology-based solutions supporting people in behaviour that promotes their health, safety, resilience, connectedness and joy. The HIB-department comprises research groups of Communication Science; Psychology, Health & Technology; Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety; and Public Administration – in one of which you will be appointed. For more information on these groups, see: https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/organization/departments-institutes/#department-clusters