Research context

The PhD student will contribute to the research project TransforChange. TransforChange points towards socially just alternatives to current high carbon mobilities that can be a realistic part of everyday life; and it challenges taken-for-granted, and ineffective, behaviour change approaches by promoting theoretical and methodological resources that both frame the problem, and provide a means of analysing it, in ways that hold greater promise for achieving a just and low carbon transition. It combines ethnomethodology with insights from practice theory to study an under-investigated, but fundamental aspect of public transport, namely the rationalities of public transport practices. Here, rationalities refer to ethnomethodology’s observation that people, in the way that they manage their everyday affairs, continuously attend to the accountability and meaningfulness of these affairs. TransforChange investigates how people rationalise public transport practices and the connections between public transport practices and other practices, and it is motivated by the following research question: How are public transport practices constituted as rational and, thereby, passengers as ordinary, and how does this support or hinder increased use of public transport?

TransforChange PhD research

TransforChange will be carried out in close collaboration between the project PI(who will also supervise the PhD student), the PhD student and a small team of top international researchers with complementary skills, and the project will be made in collaboration with Odense Municipality(DK), the regional transport company on Funen, FynBus, and the city tram service, Odense Letbane. The PhD-project constitutes the main part of the overall project, and it concerns a video study of people’s everyday public transport practices to uncover the accomplishment of passengers-identities when people are‘doing being’ passengers in situ– which is to say, it uncovers how rationalities of public transport practices are constituted when passengers are busy being passengers in their everyday public transport practices. The PhD student is expected to engage with and independently contribute to the conceptual and methodological frameworks developed as part of TransforChange, to assist with sampling of participants, to collect video data in public transport run by FynBus and Odense Letbane, to transcribe data(in accordance with or by elaboration of established conventions in multimodal interaction studies) and to analyse data. Within this framework, the PhD candidate is expected to develop their own theoretically grounded and methodologically feasible approach to the study of rationalities of public transport practices, drawing on tools from, for instance, ethnomethodology or related discourse approaches, such as tools for conversation analysis, categorisation analysis, argumentation analysis, multimodal interaction analysis or similar approaches.

The position

PhD stipends are for a period of 3 years. The PhD Fellow will be affiliated with the new, interdisciplinary research group RECAST(Research in sociocultural aspects of sustainability and green transitions), headed by PI, at the Department of Culture and Learning in the Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty of Aalborg University. RECAST is gaining international recognition for its contributions to inclusive green transition in the transport sector and has strong connections both to transport companies and NGOs, and to top international researchers who conduct cutting-edge sociocultural research in public transport travelling. According to the Ministerial PhD Order, the PhD study requires participation in active international research environments, including stays at other, mainly foreign, research institutions, and the PhD candidate is thus expected to spend three months at Edinburgh University where Prof. Eric Laurier(Edinburgh University), who is an expert in interaction and mobility, will function as a co-supervisor. TransforChange is based at the Aalborg Campus of the university. We offer a good working environment, aiming to make room for individual professional development while at the same time valuing the commitment of individual researchers to the larger community.

Qualification requirements

PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a relevant master’s degree. For this PhD-position, applicants must demonstrate scientific and communicative skills, and command of(written and spoken) Danish(for data collection and analysis) and English(for collaboration and dissemination) is required. The ideal candidate has knowledge of and experience with both 1) ethnomethodology or related discourse- and/or interaction-studies, and 2) mobilities studies. However, candidates with experience within only one of these fields are still welcome to apply.

General information
It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at The Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Humanities, in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 1039 of 27 August 2013(PhD Order).

Application
Please visit thewebsite of the doctoral school for further information on the PhD programme, application procedure, and admission requirements.

The application must include the following and be written in English Application form(downloadhere)

• A cover letter, inclusive motivation to apply for the position(max. 2 pages)
• A project proposal, inclusive research question, approach, possible relevant literature and timeline(max. 2 pages)
• Copy of diplomas/transcripts
• Curriculum vitae(CV)
• List of written work(optional)
• Sample of written work, e.g. Master's thesis(optional)
• For applicants planning to complete their thesis in English and who do not have English as a first language or have completed an English language-based Master's programme(or an equivalent educational achievement in English), please see the following language requirements:https://www.phd.aau.dk/ssh/become-a-phd-student#admission-requirements

Shortlisting will be applied. This means that after the deadline for application, the head of the department supported by the chair of the assessment committee will select candidates for assessment. All applicants will be informed whether they will be assessed or not.

The application can only be submitted by using the link on AAU’s job-portalhttps://www.stillinger.aau.dk/(not other online job portals that may have reposted the position). Please note that zipped files are not supported by the recruitment system, please upload only Word or PDF files.

Contact

For further information about the department’s research profile, please refer to the websitehttps://www.kultur.aau.dk/

For inquiries concerning the position and the TransforChange-project, please contact PI, Associate Professor Laura Bang Lindegaard,laura@ikl.aau.dk.

For general information about the application process etc., please contact Lene Møllerlml@adm.aau.dk, phone:+45 9940 9658.

Wages and employment

Ref number

2024-224-06022

Deadline

15.10.2024