News

Six positions (3 postdoc, 3 PhD) in MCTS on mobility & society at TU Munich (3 years)

Deadline: Aug 1, 2021
Start: Nov 1, 2021

The professorship of Innovation, Society & Public Policy (Prof. Sebastian Pfotenhauer), based at the Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), Technical University of Munich, announces a new research group that will investigate future mobility at the intersection of societal needs, urban technopolitics, and spatial (re)configurations. The group will consist of up to three postdocs and three PhD candidates, led by a senior researcher. The group is affiliated with the Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (MCube), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Three postdoc positions (m/f/d) in Science & Technology Studies (MCTS) on mobility & society at TU Munich (TV-L E13 100%, 3 years fixed-term)

Link to the full announcement and details on the application process (PDF)

Three PhD/doctoral positions (m/f/d) in Science & Technology Studies (MCTS) on mobility & society at TU Munich (TV-L E13 65%, 3 years fixed-term)

Link to the full announcement and details on the application process (PDF)

All positions are university positions within structured projects, which means a strong focus on research and responsibilities in managing the projects, with optional teaching responsibilities. The advertised positions in the group correspond to three larger MCube cluster projects in which the group participates. For more information, see the official project pages (links below). Keep in mind that the available positions are tied to work packages within the projects that focus on qualitative social science research, particularly in these three focus areas:

(1) Responsible experimentation (projects TrEx and ReMGo)
(2) Post-pandemic cities (project TrEx)
(3) Mobility justice (project MGeM)

About the new mobility & society research group

Mobility has become a prominent topic in academic inquiry as well as political discourse. Issues related to mobility touch upon basic questions of social life and social order: How do we envision a sustainable and just future facing challenges from global warming to economic transformations? How do experts, planners, and economic actors articulate and stabilize competing visions of future mobility – given fossil and industrial legacies as well as global crises and disruptions? How will technological trends such as digitization, autonomous driving, electrification, and mobility-as-a-service shape the way we live, work, and plan our cities? How, in turn, will changing mobility cultures, values, and politics guide technological developments? What are the epistemic foundations (models, metrics, experiments) that underpin and govern our current system of (auto)mobility, how are these knowledge infrastructures changing, and what can engaged social science scholars contribute?

A new research group at TU Munich will investigate these questions for at least three years with the possibility of extension. The group will consist of up to three postdocs and three PhD candidates, led by senior researcher Dr. Alexander Wentland. We will be based at TU Munich’s new Department of Science, Technology & Society (currently MCTS) and affiliated with the regional mobility research cluster MCube (see below). This positions us in a unique way. The group is committed to interpretive, critical social science, grounded particularly in the academic fields of Science & Technology Studies (MCTS), Sociology, and Mobilities Studies. Across a range of projects, we approach technoscientific and societal changes as essentially interrelated and co-evolving, which foregrounds the normative aspects of innovation, knowledge, and practice. At the same time, through MCube, the group will be embedded within a collaborative and transdisciplinary cluster that brings together researchers, policy makers, industry leaders, and civil society. We will engage with other disciplines, such as Urban Design and Management as well as partners ranging from the business sector to trade unions and environmental NGOs.

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