Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD positions "Political Concepts in the World - The Nation Resurgent"

The University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, is delighted to offer six Early Stage Researcher (PhD) positions, lasting 3 years starting in September 2018, for ground-breaking research on how political concepts, such as nation, citizenship, civil society and rule of law, are used in the world.

ESRs will complete a PhD with an inter-disciplinary supervisory team and benefit from a world-class training programme, including placements with one or more of our 23 international partners. They will also actively participate in the activities of the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and the Rule of Law (CISRUL). We welcome applicants from across the social sciences and humanities, including anthropology, cultural and literary studies, education, history, legal theory and socio-legal studies, philosophy, politics, religious studies, sociology, and theology.

ESRs will be employed by the University on a salary of £26,075 per annum, and will be eligible for a range of additional benefits including ample travel and research funding.

One of the topics that we invite applicants to consider is The Nation Resurgent. Political movements in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, to give just some examples, are tending to exalt an imagined, often nationally or religiously defined vision of community as absolute common good above the rights and interests of citizens. This eclipses the notions of citizenship and nation inherited from the Enlightenment and 19th-century liberalism. Other examples are Turkey under Erdogan and India under Modi, who similarly emphasise the duties of the individual towards the common good over individual liberties. These movements call, moreover, for new responsible elites to replace old ‘corrupted’ ones. In a reversal of the rhetoric of progressive modernisation, they oppose Western concepts such as liberal democracy, the individual rights discourse of citizenship, and globalisation. They offer a counter- history of national glorification, which - when these movements gain power - becomes the backbone of national education. The PhD may choose to develop one or more case studies. An alternative is to compare contemporary nationalism with its historical varieties: what if anything is new in the nationalisms of today?

Other topics listed in the Further Particulars are
- “We the people” beyond the nation-state
- Traditions of “citizenship” within and beyond Europe
- Understanding “constitutionalism” in past and present
- “Democracy” as a demand of global social movements – Arab Spring, Indignados and beyond
- Digitalizing “democracy” – transforming the concept
- The “democratic Phoenix” – are young people changing the meaning of democracy?
- “Civility” as a political concept
- “Radicalization”, “extremism” and the role of “civil society”
- “Secularism” and the category of “religion”
- Inter-faith partnership and the politics of “religious pluralism”
- The “social” beyond the “political”
Candidates are required to meet the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher eligibility criteria. In particular, at the time of the appointment candidates must have had less than 4 years full-time equivalent research experience and must not have already obtained a PhD. Additionally, they must not have resided in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the appointment.
These posts do not meet the minimum requirements as stipulated by UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) to qualify for an employer-sponsored visa. We are therefore unable to consider applications from candidates who would require an employer-sponsored visa to work in the UK.

Deadline has been extended to 24th April 2018.