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 is 20th March 2018.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD positions "Political Concepts in the World – “We the People” Beyond the Nation-State"

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 “We the People” Beyond the Nation-State. The ‘nation’ is but one form of ‘people’ in the world today. When Scotland voted on Independence, the debates were followed not only by the world’s nationalists, but by movements as different as the Spanish indignados (now Podemos Party) with their critique of conventional politics, and the Kurdish rojava cities in Syria which claim to offer plural and hospitable democracy. Meanwhile, although hopes for a ‘European people’ have faded, a string of events such as the introduction of the new Hungarian Constitution in 2012, the Greek elections of 2015, and Brexit in 2016, have reignited debate on the standing of Europe’s ‘peoples’ vis-à-vis the EU government. Scholars have considered the interface between political community and other forms of community, such as among aboriginal ‘First Nations’ Canadians, who are members of both their ancestral tribe (which have certain sovereign treaty rights in Canada) and of the Canadian nation state. Scholars and political actors may also look to history for alternatives to nation, desirable or otherwise, for example in medieval city-states, in early modern proto-democratic movements, or in the totalitarian ideologies of ‘people’s republics’. The PhD may choose one or more of the myriad notions of the people across these and other contexts, developing a multi-faceted account of what claims are (and should be) made to act in the name of a people.
Other topics listed in the Further Particulars are
- The “nation” resurgent
- 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 is 20th March 2018.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD positions "Political Concepts in the World – Traditions of Citizenship within and beyond Europe"

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 Traditions of Citizenship within and beyond Europe. Citizenship has become a major topic of scholarship, not least because it has become a concern of political constituencies around the world. At least, the term ‘citizenship’ has been used widely, if not always in quite the same way as scholars use it. For example, the anthropologist Catherine Neveu criticises scholars for assuming there could be a universal definition of citizenship, noting that citoyenneté can be translated only loosely as citizenship and that even within Europe “there are as many conceptions of citizenship... as there are political histories and cultures” (2005). There is variation in the formal eligibility criteria for citizenship, for example between jus solis and jus sanguinis, and in the sets of legal rights that are reserved for citizens. Yet scholars have come to recognise that citizenship has other dimensions, which also vary from one tradition to another. Citizenship, originating in the Roman republican tradition of ‘civis activus’ linked to the notion of the ‘common good’, also bears obligations, including some that are formal—in some countries jury service and in others voting. Other obligations are informal. Civic education encourages pupils to go beyond what is legally required – for example, pupils are to be ‘global citizens’ in showing concern for issues such as climate change and poverty - and such informal obligations vary considerably. PhDs will select an aspect of citizenship and develop their understanding through one or more case studies in past or present, or alternatively through a pedagogical, philosophical or theological approach.
Other topics listed in the Further Particulars are
- The “nation” resurgent
- “We the people” beyond the nation-state
- 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 is 20th March 2018.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD positions "Political Concepts in the World – Understanding “Constitutionalism” in Past and Present"

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 Understanding “Constitutionalism” in Past and Present. The classical tradition of mixed government remained a widespread practice throughout the Renaissance, and the revival of the Roman law corpus went on to inspire the formation and constitution of the early modern ‘state’. However, modern constitutionalism is roughly coeval with the first codified constitutions which originated with the US Constitution and the first written European liberal constitution in Poland in 1791. These referred to a cluster of ideas - like the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, the protection of fundamental rights, and the rule of law – which impose limits on the power of ruler and government. Since the late 18th century many countries have enacted codified constitutions and the strong relationship between constitutionalism and codified constitutions has become tenuous. The PhD will choose to focus on one or more aspects of the complex relationship between the idea and reality of constitutionalism. Numerous countries that adopt a codified constitution openly reject the ideas associated with constitutionalism. Others claim to remain faithful to constitutionalism, but reinterpret constitutionalism in the light of their own values (e.g. in light of Asian values). Still others pay lip service to the idea but operate ‘sham constitutions’ (Law and Versteeg 2013) that fall far short of what they promise. In addition, in the mainstream constitutional discourse since the Second World War, constitutionalism has become more and more synonymous with the idea of judicially-enforced constitutions. Political constitutionalism, which was the dominant form of constitutionalism in the 19th century, has lost its attractiveness in most parts of the world, and PhDs might alternatively choose to focus on the causes and consequences of this process.
Other topics listed in the Further Particulars are
- The “nation” resurgent
- “We the people” beyond the nation-state
- “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 is 20th March 2018.