Postdoc in Digital Society and Trust-Project with Emphasis on Trust Relations

Postdoc in Digital Society and Trust-Project with Emphasis on Trust Relations on Travel Platforms such as Airbnb and Couchsurfer

The Department of Communication and Arts (DCA), Roskilde University, invites applications for a position as postdoc from February 1. 2024 or as soon as possible thereafter. The position as postdoc is full-time and limited until October 15, 2025. The purpose of the postdoc is to study citizens’ trust in relation to digitalization of governmental services within the auspices of the research project Digital Society and Trust (DIS-TRUST) funded by the Velux Foundation.

The Project

The DIS-TRUST project investigates how conditions for interpersonal trust and trust in institutions change in the digital society, how new forms of trust are formed, and what challenges digitalization poses to trust. The project originates in philosophy’s conceptual work with trust and digitalization. The constant digital transformations of social life worlds are studied conceptually and by confronting the conceptual analyses with concrete context embedded case studies. Consequently, DIS-TRUST advances and matures its analyses of trust oscillating within the poles of qualitative empirical research and philosophical conceptual theories. A short description of the project can be found here: https://veluxfoundations.dk/da/kernegruppebevillinger-2023.

The specific research project of the postdoc concerns building of trust relations on travel platforms such as Airbnb and Couchsurfer. Online marketplaces for accommodation are dependent on trust being established to secure a commercially viable platform. The successful exchange between homeowners and visitors rests on trust emerging in this human-technology exchange shaping encounters and interactions in a manner that users and the media technologies themselves become mutually constitutive. The postdoc is expected to analyze how the affordances of the platforms facilitate some trust relations and complicate others. How are features such as personal profile and ratings, pictures and digital as well as analogue communication building trust? What role do the platforms play in mediating trust between homeowners and visitors?

Qualifications

Applicants must hold a PhD or the equivalent thereof within social media studies, science and technology studies, information technology, philosophy or an adjacent field in the humanities, social sciences or data sciences.

The ideal candidate is an excellent scholar with expertise in digital platforms, information technology, modern philosophies of trust or digital media studies. The ideal candidate has familiarized her/himself with the intersection between philosophy’s conceptual approach and qualitative empirical research and is enthusiastic about doing research in the methodological meeting of theoretical and empirical qualitative analysis. While prior experience with empirical studies such as digital multimedia studies, fieldwork or qualitative interviews is an asset, it is not required. Candidates without prior experience with qualitative empirical work must describe how the candidate would conceive and carry out the empirical studies. Knowledge of contemporary philosophical research in trust and digitalization, platform economies and digital mediation is an asset. Candidates without such knowledge are expected to describe how they will acquaint themselves with these perspectives.

Applicants must master spoken and written English at an advanced academic level. Experience of publishing in English will be an asset. For this position fluency in Danish is an asset but not a requirement.

The applicant is furthermore expected to demonstrate:

• Experience with/willingness to organize and conduct research seminars including follow-up evaluations.
• An international research-profile including experience of international publication and research dissemination.
• Plans for public dissemination of the conducted research.

Responsibilities and tasks

The ideal candidate shall be enterprising and possess good communication skills, be visible and involved in the department’s daily activities, in addition to being willing to engage in disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers from the DIS-TRUST-project and across the department.

The candidate is expected to:

• Be an active collaborative partner in the research project.
• Conduct and complete an independent research project in collaboration with the group.
• Plan and undertake a shorter international research stay.
• Publish independently and in collaboration with the research PI and core group in relevant peer reviewed journals and contribute to the planned co-authored monography Trust in the Digital Age.
• Plan and contribute to panels at relevant international conferences.
• Plan and participate in research seminars and network meetings.
• Contribute to popular dissemination of research findings.
• Be an active and present colleague in the Department of Communication and Arts.

Application

To apply for the position go to www.ruc.dk/en/job/

Only applications in English are accepted.

Applications must include:

1. Cover letter
2. CV
3. Documentation of education
4. Teaching portfolio (read more about teaching portfolio at Roskilde University here)
5. A complete list of publications
6. A maximum of 5 relevant scientific works that you want included in the assessment

Please submit your application no later than October 24, 2023.

Material received after this date will not be taken into consideration.

Read the full posting and apply at our website.