School of Business and Governance: Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance
The emergence of big data era has led to serious discussions about social datafication – i.e. the socio-cultural consequences of big data on societies, individual lives, and governmental organizations. Positive consequences like control of spatial mobilities through algorithms and negative consequences like discrimination through datafied decisions are central in these discussions. Estonian society with its contradictions – a highly digitalized environment, moderate use of open data, low awareness of algorithmic control and privacy concerns – offers a highly attractive environment for studying the societal consequences of big data, algorithms, and AI.
Key tasks:
• The main tasks of the post-doctoral researcher is to carry out independent novel research in data studies in the field of spatial mobilities (e.g. refugees, highly skilled immigrants, e-residents, ‘data rich’ and ‘data poor’ mobile groups).
• Participation in the research activities in the domains of (1) data justice - how to avoid discrimination through data, automatized inequalities, racial bias, and movement towards more just data practices, (2) awareness of algorithmic control (the perspectives of data subjects from the Global South, data rich and data poor ethnic / mobile groups), (3) data governance (use of social scoring, AI, machine learning methods in governmental institutions for controlling mobility).
• Participation in the teaching activities of the research group, including supervision of graduate students.
• Participation in the administrative functions (drafting applications for research grants etc.) of the research group.
• Active participation in debates on big data and social datafication at both the Estonian and EU level.
Qualification requirements:
• PhD or equivalent (from a non-Estonian university) defended five years ago (legally required extensions are taken into consideration, as military service, jury service, maternity/paternity leave, etc.) in social sciences (in the fields of sociology, media and communication, human geography, or a related discipline).
• Excellent knowledge of research methods, including quantitative (survey, mobility tracking, basic and advanced statistics, social networks analysis) or qualitative methods (interviewing, textual analysis, visual analysis methods). Knowledge of digital or computational research methods are advantageous.
Conditions:
• We offer: the chance to do high-level research in an internationally recognized research team; opportunities for conference visits; networking with leading universities in the field of data studies; publishing in high-level journals in the field.
• Start date: 1 March 2019 (or as soon as possible).
• The position is financed from the national R&D institutions development program (ASTRA), which provides annual income up to 32000 EUR (including 20% national income tax, Estonian national health, social security and pension payments).
• The position is fixed-term (2 years) but can be renewed (in the case of further successful project applications).
Application requirements
• Cover letter;
• Curriculum vitae;
• List of publications;
• Research proposal/plan for the next 2 years (maximum 3 pages);
• When applying for the 1st time for a position in TalTech, duplicate of the required diploma (PhD) or other document providing evidence of the necessary qualification.
For more details on the position, please contact:
Dr. Erkki Karo, Director of Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance,
erkki dot karo at taltech dot ee or Dr. Anu Masso, Associate Professor in Big Data in Social Sciences, Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance,
anu dot masso at taltech dot ee Instructions for Applicants: Interviewing starts February 20 2019. Priority will be given to applications received on or before February 15 2019.
Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance (RND) is one of the largest, most internationalized and leading social science research centres in Estonia. As part of Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and its School of Business and Governance, RND functions at the intersection of technological and social science research.
For more information on TalTech, see www.taltech.ee
For more information on RND, see www.taltech.ee/nurkse
