Department of Sociology
1 PhD candidate studying social / occupational mobility using social networkmethods 100 %
The Department of Sociology at the University of Zurich looks back on more than 50 years of active research and teaching. It is one of the leading empirically oriented institutes in Switzerland and Europe. The basic understanding is based on theory-driven empirical social research with a strong focus on quantitative methods.
The PhD position is part of a 5-year project funded by the Swiss national science foundation. The project is led by Prof. Per Block and focusses on understanding how individuals move between jobs and occupations over the life- course and between generations. The project uses statistical methods developed for the analysis of social networks to gain new insights into the social component of mobility. The conceptual and methodological approach is briefly outlined in this paper: tinyurl.com/5c7mbmaw. The approach will be applied to diverse areas during the project. One example is tinyurl.com/2jbw2c6f.
Your responsibilitiesThe prospective position holder will conduct research to write a PhD thesis with a high degree of flexibility. During the initial months of the position, the type of mobility (inter-generational, occupational change over the life course, or job mobility), the context (country and/or industry), and the aim (understanding individual mobility, understanding contextual variation on mobility, or segregation dynamics etc.) will be developed jointly by the PhD student and the supervisor. Students interested in working on methodological developments in this area are equally encouraged to apply. The main responsibilities of the position holder are:
For further information, please contact Prof. Per Block. He will provide contact details of current PhD students so that applicants can get an outside perspective on working in the group, if this is desired.
Place of workUniversity of Zurich, Department of Sociology, Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland
Start of employmentEmployment start date in Fall 2023 or earlier, if desired.
Please submit your application in only one pdf file until 15.03.2023.
Your application should contain all of the following five documents: (i) A motivation letter including your strengths and skills (max 2 pages), (ii) your CV (including name and contact details of two referees), (iii) an outline of your research interests (max 2 pages), (iv) one writing sample (e.g. Masters thesis, Bachelor thesis, past course-work), (v) your most relevant degree certificate and grade transcript (usually the most recent degree).