PhD Position Local Democracy and Underrepresented Communities in Amsterdam

Descrizione

PhD Position Local Democracy and Underrepresented Communities in Amsterdam Sintesi in italiano (traduzione automatica): L'organizzazione internazionale offre una posizione di dottorato ad Amsterdam focalizzata sulla democrazia locale e le comunità sottorappresentate. Il candidato selezionato condurrà ricerche su come i gruppi emarginati partecipano alla vita politica e costruiscono pubblici democratici. Le mansioni principali includono la conduzione di interviste qualitative, l'etnografia e lo sviluppo di metodi di ricerca innovativi. È richiesta una laurea magistrale nelle scienze sociali o nelle scienze umane, con esperienza in metodi di ricerca qualitativa e familiarità con le comunità da studiare. Il progetto mira a generare intuizioni per migliorare la rappresentanza e l'inclusione nella democrazia urbana, contribuendo anche a dibattiti accademici e pubblicazioni. La posizione prevede anche un insegnamento nelle programmazioni educative dell'ente. Are you passionate about researching democracy and political inequality? Do you want to make a real impact in urban communities? Join this PhD project exploring how underrepresented groups in Amsterdam shape political participation, build publics, and redefine local democracy. Work closely with communities, develop innovate methods, and contribute to cutting-edge debates on political inequality. Political underrepresentation and emerging publics This PhD project examines how local democracy is experienced and shaped within diverse communities in Amsterdam, against a backdrop of growing urban political inequality in which some groups remain structurally underrepresented and less connected to political participation and representation. The central question is how people within underrepresented communities develop: (1) strategies for political participation (both formal and informal), (2) democratic publics, and (3) reflexivity: the capacity to reflect on their own political position, their communities, and their relationship to broader democratic processes such as voting and (experienced) political representation. The project examines how underrepresented communities develop political participation, democratic publics, and reflexivity, with particular attention to migration-rooted communities in multicultural Amsterdam and questions of representation and belonging. It investigates how publics emerge around shared concerns, experiences, and initiatives in both offline and online settings, and how digital environments shape new forms of engagement, interaction, and collective reflection. By focusing on these dynamics, the project aims to generate insights that contribute to broader debates on urban democracy, inclusion, and political participation beyond Amsterdam. In addition to using conventional qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, the PhD candidate will contribute to the development of new research methods that align with the lived realities of communities. This may involve experimenting with participatory methods, digital ethnography, or new ways of capturing interaction and meaning-making within both physical and online publics. The project may also include a comparative dimension to extend the research beyond Amsterdam, either by adding another city as a case study or studying how publics form across cities. The PhD project will be supervised by Dr. Floris Vermeulen, Dr. Marcel Maussen, and Dr. Jessica Soedirgo. Applicants are invited to develop a research proposal based on this project outline. The proposal allows you to specify and elaborate how you intend to address the questions posed in this advertisement. The template for the proposal can be found at *. The proposal needs to be included in the application package. What are you going to do Study how underrepresented groups engage in political participation, form democratic publics, and relate to local political institutions, with the broader aim of understanding how urban democracy can become more representative and inclusive. Conduct qualitative fieldwork (interviews, ethnography) within diverse communities in Amsterdam Develop and apply innovative, participatory and digital research methods Analyse how local democracy is experienced in contexts of political inequality Contribute to academic debates and produce a PhD dissertation and publications Teach in our educational programmes (10% of appointment) What do you have to offer Candidates must have: Dutch proficiency A master’s degree in the social sciences or humanities (with experience with social scientific research methods), with a specialization in qualitative methods Experience working with diverse immigrant-origin communities Crucially, candidates are expected to have familiarity with the community or communities they aim to study, enabling them to conduct research from within rather than from a distance. We particularly encourage applicants who can bridge academic and com Annuncio in inglese. Fonte: Eura