Research Associate (Post-doc, f/m) in Social Sciences - Ref: 25-04

The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

is recruiting a

Research Associate (Post-doc, f/m/d) in Social Sciences

• Ref: 25-04
• 3-year fixed-term working contract at LISER
• Full-time, 40 hours/week
• Department: Urban Development and Mobility (UDM)
• Work location: Belval (Luxembourg)
• Deadline: March 1st, 2025 at midnight CET

Project description

The successful candidate will be mainly working on the AntifragiCity project. This Horizon Europe project tries to increase the resilience of cities to unexpected crises. Responding to crises can have unintended and unexpected political and social repercussions. For example, the French carbon tax, responding to the climate crisis, led to the rise of the Gilets Jaunes movement, and COVID-19 strengthened the anti-vax movement. How can cities (and states) design crisis policies, in preparation for future crises, which strengthen societal well-being rather than encourage the growth of populism? LISER’s role within the project is to provide project partners with policy recommendations to extreme events for wider modelling purposes. Urban mobility is a key aspect of the project but its interrelation with other domains broadens the focus of the policy, acceptability, and public participation study. The project has three case studies in Greece, Slovakia, and Ukraine (Odessa). Some travel to case studies is likely necessary. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to develop their own research proposals to finance the extension of the position beyond the three-year project.

Your role

The successful candidate will work closely with the Principle Investigator (PI) to:

• Develop citizen assembly workshops (see project description) on the social acceptability of crisis scenarios and policies ;
• Evaluate the public acceptability of policy alternatives, with some emphasis on mobility ;
• Carry out a small number of interviews (6-8) for each case study with residents and stakeholders ;
• Develop and manage urban living lab experiments on the topics of mobility triage and resilience to crises, such as flooding, earthquakes, and energy disruptions ;
• Evaluating the equity and justice of outcomes or policies ;
• Evaluate the effectiveness of decision-making tools within administrations to manage daily mobility, planning for future scenarios and crises, integrating public engagement, and responding to crises (emergency management) ;
• Advance critical discourses around smart cities, digital twins, public engagement and justice ;
• Evaluate how the decision making tool created by project partners is utilised by case studies, for what decisions, with which outcomes, and affecting whom ;
• Analyse the distributive justice of model recommendations - who benefits from model-use outcomes ;
• Complete a European survey on the social acceptability of crisis scenarios and mobility triage policies.

Your profile

• PhD in Human/Urban Geography, Political Science, Sociology, or similar field ;
• Experience with citizen assemblies and/or workshops, or other forms of deliberative democracy ;
• Some experience with living labs or urban experimentation ;
• Extensive experience with interviews, transcript coding, and analysis ;
• Knowledge of visual and reflexive participative methods (e.g., Photovoice, visual diaries, walking with video) ;
• Some experience with the topics of mobility, crisis or emergency management, and/or justice (e.g., social, procedural, or deliberative) ;
• Experience in designing or completing large surveys is considered as an asset ;
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills ;
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of one or more of Luxembourg's official languages (Luxembourgish, French, and German) is an asset.

LISER particularly encourages female researchers to apply

What we offer

• A dynamic and international research environment with attractive working conditions and a stimulating work environment ;
• Flexibility in the organisation of the working hours and the possibility of teleworking ;
• Competitive remuneration according to the Collective Labour Agreement in force (half of a 13th month salary, meal vouchers, etc.) ;
• Investment in career support and development (trainings, seminars, participation to international meetings and conferences) ;
• 32.5 days of annual leave for a full-time contract.

How to apply

Please submit your complete application in English via https://jobs.liser.lu/jobs by including the following documents before March 1st, 2025 :

• Curriculum vitae ;
• Motivation letter ;
• Recent piece of research ;
• Copy of your PhD diploma ;
• Two reference letters (uploaded with the application or sent separately to recruitment@liser.lu).

Deadline to submit applications: March 1st, 2025 at midnight CET

If you have question regarding the position, please contact Dr. Cyrille Médard de Chardon at cyrille.medarddechardon@liser.lu.

For administrative matters, please contact Mrs. Vanya KIROVA at recruitment@liser.lu.

Why LISER?

LISER is a publicly funded research institute located in Luxembourg and dedicated to applied empirical research in economic, social and spatial sciences. The Institute attracts top researchers from all over the world and high-level student training is a vibrant part of the Institute’s activities. LISER staff consists of approx. 200 employees, about 60% of the staff being researchers; mainly from the fields of economics, geography and sociology. The vision of the institute is to be a socio-economic research institute internationally recognised, focused on scientific excellence and societal impact, able to contribute through multi-disciplinary and intersectoral research, in an active and inclusive way to a sustainable and inclusive society at national and international level.

The institute is located on the new Belval campus in the south of Luxembourg (Cité des Sciences, Luxembourg), which hosts the University of Luxembourg and a substantial part of the country’s publicly funded research facilities, i.e. LISER,  the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) cross-national data centre, the Luxembourg institutes of Health (LIH) and of Science and Technology (LIST). Information on research in Luxembourg is accessible via the national EURAXESS platform.

LISER is an Equal Opportunity Employer