Post doctoral researcher Sociology/SCOOP (1.0 FTE)

We are seeking a highly motivated and qualified postdoctoral researcher for the SCOOP project “Sustainable Cooperation for Resilient Societies: synthesis of Social Mechanisms” (for the project proposal, see: https://www.scoop-program.org/about-scoop/program/all-projects/914-13-06-sustainable-cooperation-for-resilient-societies-synthesis-of-social-mechanisms?highlight=WyJwb3N0ZG9jIl0=).

SCOOP (https://www.scoop-program.org/) is a ten year transdisciplinary Gravitation program focusing on the puzzle of sustainable cooperation and resilient societies in the domains of care, work, and inclusion. The program is a collaboration of five universities and combines insights from Sociology, Social Psychology, Philosophy, and Social and Economic History. Currently, almost 80 PhD and postdoc projects (https://www.scoop-program.org/about-scoop/program/program-projects) have been started or finished that address this puzzle. Now the first projects have ended, the challenge of theoretical synthesis arises. The aim of the post doctoral project is to contribute to this synthesis challenge by extracting from the finished and ongoing research shared social mechanisms that explain sustainable cooperation and its relation to resilient societies.

The position entails a contract of 36 months and is predominantly located in the Department of Sociology at Groningen University and more specifically in the SCIO research cluster (https://www.rug.nl/research/department-of-sociology/research/research-themes/sustainable-cooperation) on Sustainable Cooperation, Institutions and Organizations.

The tasks of the postdoctoral researcher will be to

• build, per dissertation, an inventory of proposed explanations of sustainable cooperation and value creation
• systematically reconstruct each explanation by explicating the situational, action-generating, and transformation mechanisms and the related assumptions
• compare the social mechanism explanations of the selected studies in order to detect regularities and differences across institutional domains, meso-level entities, and sustainability threats
• publish on the results of the above-mentioned synthesis results
• actively contribute to SCOOP’s intellectual community and participate in SCOOP-related activities
• teach in the Sociology Bachelors program.

Organisation
The University of Groningen is a research university with a global outlook, deeply rooted in Groningen, the City of Talent. Quality has had top priority for four hundred years, and with success: the University is currently in or around the top 100 on several influential ranking lists.

The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences excels in teaching and research in the fields of human behavior, thinking, learning, and how people live together. We work on societal issues and problems that people experience in daily life. Central to this is individual and societal resilience and how to increase this. To this end, we focus on the topics of migration, the environment and climate, health, upbringing and education, the protection of vulnerable minorities, and sustainable partnerships. The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences employs over 650 staff members. For more information about the Faculty please check the link https://www.rug.nl/gmw/

The Department of Sociology in Groningen is known for its research on determinants of social well-being by means of advanced theory formulation and method development as well as systematic integration of theory and empirical research. See also:
https://www.rug.nl/research/department-of-sociology/research/research-themes/

We are looking for candidates who meet the following requirements

• a PhD degree in the social sciences or humanities
• strong theoretical and analytical skills
• experience with (synthesizing) interdisciplinary research (experience with some form of synthesis or meta-analysis is a pre)
• strong motivation to contribute to SCOOP’s overall aims and community
• a relevant publication record demonstrating your ability to publish international academic publications
• a clear interest in collaborative interdisciplinary research
• excellent command of the English language, and preferably also in Dutch
• ability to work independently and manage joint research activities
• a team player with strong communication skills
• demonstrable competences such as conceptual capacity, environment orientation, presenting, and result orientation.

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

• depending on qualifications and work experience, a salary of € 3,226 to a maximum of € 5,090 (salary scale 10) gross per month for a full-time position. the position is classified in accordance with the University Job Classification (UFO) system; the UFO profile is Researcher 4
• a holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income an 8.3% end-of-the-year allowance
• attractive secondary terms of employment
• a temporary contract of 1.0 FTE for a period of 3 years.

Intended starting date: 1 September 2024