23/04/2019
FYI: 1 PhD position on Alice Mattoni’s ERC research project BIT-ACT Bottom-up initiatives and anti-corruption technologies: how citizens use ICTs to fight corruption.
Deadline: May the 15th 2019 at 1pm.
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ENGLISH
We invite applications for one PhD position within the ERC Starting Grant Research Project BIT-ACT Bottom-up initiatives and anti-corruption technologies: how citizens use ICTs to fight corruption. The start date for this position is 1 November 2019 and the duration is 4 years. The deadline for application is May the 15th 2019 at 1pm
BIT-ACT research project description
Corruption is a global challenge that affects the lives of millions of citizens. In the past decade, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become indispensable tools in the fight to reduce corruption, especially when employed from the bottom-up by civil society organizations. While pioneering initiatives in this direction have flourished, to date we only have unsystematic and descriptive evidence regarding how they work and the associated consequences.
With the objective of significantly advancing knowledge on this topic, BIT-ACT will open a new line of inquiry by investigating what I call anti-corruption technologies (ACTs) to: (1) assess how civil society organizations engage with ACTs to counter corruption, (2) appraise how ACTs enable intersections between bottom-up and top-down efforts against corruption, and (3) evaluate how ACTs blend with the transnational dimension in the struggle against corruption. Based on an interdisciplinary framework that combines corruption studies, science and technology studies and social movement studies, BIT-ACT will use the constructivist grounded theory method to analyze a combination of textual and visual data in a comparative and transnational research design including nine countries – Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Estonia, India, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay.
The BIT-ACT research project is funded by the European Research Council and based at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna in Italy. The BIT-ACT research team will include the Principal Investigator (Alice Mattoni), 1 PhD student, 4 Post-Docs and 7 Country Experts
Main Tasks of the PhD
The PhD student will focus her/his research on civil society actors’ creation and/or usage of digital media to counter corruption and increase transparency in Italy and Spain. The main tasks will be:
• Develop own PhD project under the supervision of the Principal Investigator within the scope of the BIT-ACT research project and complete a full PhD dissertation in 4 years;
• Collect and analyze qualitative data on civil society actors’ digital media projects to fight corruption and increase transparency in Italy and Spain:
• Fully participate in the BIT-ACT research project dissemination activities in collaboration with the other members of the research team, including workshops with civil society actors, the making of web-documentaries and the update of the BIT-ACT research project communication channels;
• Collaborate with the Principal Investigator and the other team members for writing research reports, book chapters and journal articles in English and Italian;
• Participate in national and international conferences, workshops and seminars in collaboration with the other members of the research team.
Candidates should have the following credentials
• A good record in qualitative methods, including in-depth interviewing and participant observation
• A good knowledge of English
• Willingness to conduct fieldwork in Italy and Spain
• Willingness to work with the software MAXQDA
• Willingness to participate in national and international conferences
• Willingness to work in an inter-disciplinary research team
• Willingness to engage in participatory and multi-media dissemination activities
How to apply
Please find here all the detailed information to apply for this position and related to the selection process: https://www.unibo.it/en/teaching/phd/2019-2020/political-and-social-sciences
Timeline of the selection process
- 15/05/2019 at 1pm Application deadline
- 31/05/2019 Shortlisting is complete
- 12/06/2019 Interviews will take place
- 28/06/2019 Announcement of the selected candidate
Shortlisting and interview results will be available here: https://studenti.unibo.it/sol/welcome.htm
