PRR Project

Summary

????????????????? Rationale for the ICS-ULisboa Strategic Planning :The field of electoral studies has experienced a marked growth in recent years, keeping pace with important political and social transformations that have been occurring across consolidated and emerging democracies. Fluidity in voting behavior and sudden changes in party system dynamics indicate that citizens’ ties to parties are weakening. Research in the field of Electoral Studies, to be carried out within interdisciplinary RGs (SPARC and RIGoP) , will contribute to advance the future agenda of the TLs Citizenship and Inclusion, by consolidating 20-years of polls on electoral behavior and by expanding research into new areas and embracing new methodologies.  New themes include the determinants of citizen support towards populist and extreme right parties, the factors explaining the decline of vote on social democracy, the increasing levels of affective polarization, the influence of socio-demographic (age) and geographic (rural/urban) factors on voting behavior; and the growing importance of new cleavages (globalization and Europeanisation) as drivers of electoral divide. There have been also been recent methodological advances. While electoral surveys continue to be key to measure patterns of behavior, the field has increasingly moved towards experimental studies, as well as integrating machine-learning techniques to gauge attitudes and behavior.The recruited PhD researcher will be a major contributor to the consolidation and expansion of this key area, bolstering ICS-ULisboa’s profile as a Portuguese and European pioneering center in fundamental research on this major topic of social science research. ??????? Required Scientific Profile : In addition to a demonstrated interest in the topic, the PhD Researcher to be recruited should have: a) a PhD in Political Science; b) a relevant CV in the field of Electoral Studies, with particular emphasis on internationalization (e.g. international collaborations, a repertoire of publications in top quality journals and or book publications, participation in research networks, experience in project-based research and outreach activities); c) solid methodological training, in both survey techniques, quantitative methods as well as experimental methods; d) proven experience in initiating innovative, cutting-edge, research strands and topics; e) proven experience in teaching post-graduate courses; f) a track record in highly competitive funding, both at an international and national levels; g) experience in coordinating teams, and research units; and h) preferable experience in the outline and co-development of recommendations to decision-makers in both private and public sectors. Tasks to be assigned : The Assistant Researcher to be recruited will carry out activities in the field of election studies. These activities include a) designing research projects for national and international calls; b) coordinating research teams and leading the implementation of projects in research and scientific and technological development; c) conducting training activities in scientific research methods and development in this field; d) supervising master’s and PhD students; e) proposing outreach interventions based on results obtained in a research project conducted in this scientific domain; f) contributing to academic management at the ICS-ULisboa.This researcher would be fundamental to contribute to several ongoing projects at ICS-ULisboa, especially to contribute to two data collection projects at ICS which deal with political attitudes and voting behaviour: firstly, the Portuguese Election Studies ( Comportamento Eleitoral dos Portugueses -CEP), a project which began in 2002 and has fielded 8 post-election studies. Future surveys should incorporate experimental and panel studies; secondly, the European Social Survey (ESS) an ERIC EU project, which analyses social and political attitudes of Europeans. Both CEP and ESS have been at the centre of internationalization of social and political sciences in Portugal, through the systematic collection of individual data, and its integration in international datasets.