Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science

The University of Gothenburg tackles society's challenges with diverse knowledge. 58 000 students and 6800 employees make the university a large and inspiring place to work and study. Strong research and attractive study programmes attract researchers and students from around the world. With new knowledge and new perspectives, the University contributes to a better future.

The Department of Political Science is an international academic environment that welcomes students, researchers and staff from all over the world. Our research covers topics such as political institutions, elections, public opinion and democracy, international and European politics, environmental politics, corruption and political ideas. The Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg is ranked as the best in Sweden and one of the top departments in Europe. We organize many seminars and workshops each year in the various research areas of the department. We offer education at all levels in both Swedish and English. In total, around 1,400 people study with us, and we have around 170 employees.

For more information about the Department, please visit https://www.gu.se/en/political-science.

The Department of Political Science now invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship within Dying Occupations and Political Change (OCCPOL), a five-year research project funded by an ERC Advanced Grant and led by Professor Johannes Lindvall.

OCCPOL investigates how the decline and disappearance of occupations shape political participation, political opinions, and party choices in democracies. The project examines the political consequences of occupational decline and disappearance in four countries, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, from the late nineteenth century to the present. A central goal is to create a new comparative data resource tracing long-term occupational changes in these countries and use it to conduct analyses of political trends and events. This part of the project will combine historical censuses, labor-force surveys, official registers, and other sources, using transparent coding protocols, computational methods, and careful validation. The resulting data will support research within OCCPOL and will be documented for wider scholarly use. The postdoctoral fellow will be an intellectual partner in developing this key part of the project. The position offers substantial opportunities to shape the project conceptually and methodologically, pursue original research using the new data, and develop a distinctive scholarly profile within the broad themes of OCCPOL.

Subject area

Political science

Subject area description

Political science is the study of politics.

Duties

Employment as a postdoctoral fellow aims to give the employee an early opportunity, after completing their doctoral degree, to develop their independence as a researcher and to create the conditions for further qualifications. A postdoctoral fellow must mainly conduct research. Teaching may be included in the duties but may account for no more than one-fifth of working time.

The postdoctoral fellow will pursue original research on occupational decline and political change within the broader framework of OCCPOL. They will have substantial intellectual autonomy to develop and pursue their own research agenda within this framework, conducting research independently and in collaboration with other members of the project. They will have opportunities to lead their own studies, publish independently and collaboratively, and present their research at seminars, workshops, and international conferences. The position is designed to combine intellectual autonomy with close collaboration and regular intellectual exchange within the project, with the aim of supporting the postdoctoral fellow in developing their own scholarly profile and research agenda.

As part of this research, the postdoctoral fellow will play a central coordinating role, together with the Principal Investigator and other members of the team, in developing OCCPOL's comparative data infrastructure. This will be a shared empirical resource, developed collaboratively and used by members of the project in their individual and joint research. The postdoctoral fellow will participate actively in the substantive and methodological choices involved in its development, including the collection, processing, harmonization, validation, and documentation of occupational data across the four project countries. This work may include developing coding protocols and reproducible data workflows; identifying and evaluating relevant historical and contemporary data sources; developing and applying appropriate computational methods for classifying occupational information; assessing changes in occupational classifications over time; and developing approaches to quality assurance. The specific methods and approaches used will be shaped by the research questions, the characteristics of the available data, and the postdoctoral fellow's interests and expertise.

The postdoctoral fellow will be an active participant in shaping the intellectual development of OCCPOL. The project is intended to provide an environment in which independently initiated and collaborative research reinforce one another, and in which new research questions and approaches can emerge as the work develops. The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with the Principal Investigator and other members of the team while retaining substantial scope to develop their own research within the project. The precise balance between independently initiated research, collaborative research, and shared data development will be agreed jointly as the project develops, considering both the postdoctoral fellow's evolving research interests and expertise and the goals of the wider project.

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria for employing teaching staff are set out in Chapter 4 of the Higher Education Ordinance and in the Appointment Procedure for Teaching Posts at the University of Gothenburg.

To be eligible for appointment as a postdoc, the applicant is required to have a doctoral degree, a doctoral degree in art or a foreign degree that is deemed to be equivalent to a doctoral degree. This eligibility requirement must be met before the employment decision is made.

Relevant "related subjects" may include sociology, economics, economic history, social and economic geography, computational social science, or another discipline in which the applicant has acquired research expertise directly relevant to the position.

In the first instance, those who have completed their degree no more than three years prior to the end of the application period shall be considered. Those who have completed their degree more than three years prior to the end of the application period may also be considered in the first instance if special grounds exist. Special grounds relate to leave of absence due to illness, parental leave, commissions of trust within union organisations, service within the defence services or other similar circumstances, as well as clinical service or service/assignment relevant to the subject area.

For more information regarding eligibility, please see The Appointment Procedure at GU

Assessment criteria

Applicants must have a doctoral degree in political science or a related subject no later than the date on which the appointment decision is made. We seek applicants with research experience relevant to the research area described above.

Applicants will be assessed primarily on their scientific qualifications and their potential to contribute to and develop the research conducted within OCCPOL.

Particular importance will be attached to:

• the quality, originality, and relevance of the applicant's own research;
• demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and produce high-quality scholarly work;
• experience of quantitative methods;
• experience of data construction, data harmonization, classification, record linkage, or the management of complex research data;
• proficiency in relevant programming environments, especially R or Python;
• the applicant's ideas concerning how the OCCPOL data could be developed and used; and
• motivation to participate actively in a collaborative research project and contribute to its shared infrastructure.

Experience of machine learning, automated text analysis, historical census or register data, occupational classifications, comparative research, or research on labor-market and political change will be considered meritorious. Knowledge of one or more project countries and relevant language skills will also be considered an asset.

Applicants are not expected to have prior experience with every country, period, data source, or method used in OCCPOL. The assessment will consider the overall strength and complementarity of the applicant's qualifications, including their capacity to identify suitable methods for new research problems and acquire additional skills where necessary.

Great weight will be placed on the applicant's capacity to combine intellectual independence and initiative with constructive collaboration and responsibility for shared work.

Applicants must have excellent written and oral proficiency in English.

To be successful in this position, applicants must demonstrate attention to detail, strong organizational and problem-solving skills, and excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Great emphasis is placed on personal suitability for the position. We will make an overall assessment and the applicant who is considered best qualified to carry out and develop the tasks described above will be appointed to the position.

Employment

This is a fixed-term appointment for 24 months at 100% of full time, with the possibility to extend the employment by another 12 months after review, based at the Department of Political Science. The starting date is 1 September 2027 at the latest, preferably earlier.

Contact information

For questions about the position or the project within which it is based, please contact Johannes Lindvall, Johannes.lindvall@gu.se.

If you have any questions regarding the employment procedure, please contact Helena Jensen, helena.jensen@gu.se

Unions

Union representatives at the University of Gothenburg can be found here: https://www.gu.se/en/work-at-the-university-of-gothenburg/how-to-apply-for-a-position#collective-agreement-and-union-representatives

Application

Submit your application via the University of Gothenburg's recruitment portal by clicking the "Apply" button. It is your responsibility to ensure that the application is complete as per the vacancy notice, and that the University receives it by the final application deadline.

Please write your application in English, as it may be reviewed by English-speaking staff. The selection process is likely to include interviews, reference checks, and work tests conducted in English.

The application should include the following:

• A letter of application (max 3 pages) outlining how the applicant's own evolving research agenda can contribute to the project. It should explain clearly how the applicant meets the requirements specified above.
• A CV (including a list of publications).
• An article-length writing sample.
• A list of at least three references (with contact information) from whom letters of recommendation may be solicited.

Applications must be received by: 2026-11-19

Information for International Applicants

Choosing a career in a foreign country is a big step. Thus, to give you a general idea of what we and Gothenburg have to offer in terms of benefits and life in general for you and your family/spouse/partner please visit:

https://www.gu.se/en/about-the-university/welcome-services
https://www.movetogothenburg.com/

The University works actively to achieve a working environment with equal conditions, and values the qualities that diversity brings to its operations.

Salaries are set individually at the University.

In accordance with the National Archives of Sweden's regulations, the University must archive application documents for two years after the appointment is filled. If you request that your documents are returned, they will be returned to you once the two years have passed. Otherwise, they will be destroyed.

In connection to this recruitment, we have already decided which recruitment channels we should use. We therefore decline further contact with vendors, recruitment and staffing companies.