项目介绍

2025年1月24日

Aalto University is where science and art meet technology and business. We shape a sustainable future by making research breakthroughs in and across our disciplines, sparking the game changers of tomorrow and creating novel solutions to major global challenges. Our community is made up of 13 000 students, 400 professors and close to 4 500 other faculty and staff working on our dynamic campus in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. Diversity is part of who we are, and we actively work to ensure our community’s diversity and inclusiveness. This is why we warmly encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to join our community. 

The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) is a Nordic leader in higher education for design, fashion, games, media, architecture, film, art education and fine art. We produce world-class research e.g. in design, digital media and visual culture, art education, urban planning and architecture. Our graduates innovate in and beyond their fields, drawing on over a century of tradition of our institution, a humane and forward-looking approach, and the latest technologies.  

The Department of Design is a community of creative and responsible researchers and design experts. We educate front-line design professionals and visionaries for established, changing and emerging fields of design. (https://www.aalto.fi/en/department-of-design). 

The Department of Design is now seeking two candidates for the following position:

Postdoctoral Researcher

The duration of the employment contract is 33 months and it starts on April 1, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Your role, goals and networks

The consortium ‘Material Democracy’, funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland, is seeking two postdoctoral researchers.

MaterialDemocracy explores the future of democracy amid major societal changes related to climate change, urbanization, the green transition, and species loss. These complex challenges have widespread consequences, creating unequal public participation and inclusion opportunities, disconnecting the public from decision-making, and impacting their lives and communities. To address this gap, MaterialDemocracy creates an innovative material approach to democratic participation. The project studies how citizens can better shape Finland’s long-term infrastructure, energy, and environmental policies, the role of everyday actions and energy solutions in reducing social polarisation. We will establish the Material Democracy Hub (MD Hub). This hub will serve as a resource to build knowledge and strengthen capacity for promoting democratic reforms through stakeholder collaboration. It will also facilitate experiments and evaluations to enhance public involvement in shaping our democratic future.

Professor Sampsa Hyysalo from the Aalto leads the consortium, which includes a total of five partners and has a duration of 3+3 years. The Aalto sub-project investigates three sub-themes: a) how participatory practices can be developed in the preparation of long-term transformational policies b) how citizens’ material participation and peer support can create new spaces for engagement and how these can be supported c) mapping, comparing, and developing participatory practices in the democracy incubator.

The postdoctoral researcher will conduct research in one or more of these sub-themes both independently and as part of a larger research team of 5-20 people.

The likely outputs of each hired person’s work are 4–6 co-authored articles, participation in societal interaction activities and producing outputs of analyses for digital media platform.  The team is committed to mentoring and supporting the new researcher throughout all stages of the research.

Your Experience and ambitions

Candidates are required to have a doctoral degree in a relevant field such as design, science and technology studies, social sciences, behavioral sciences, information systems or business studies. Proficiency in both Finnish and English is necessary for the position.

The position can be filled with somewhat varying competence mix in the following areas:

• Proficiency in academic literatures on participation, participatory design, and participatory democracy
• Experience in researching or developing democratic practices or democratic innovations
• Competence in or an ability to learn about climate work, citizens’ energy solutions, energy transitions, and digital peer support
• Experience in conducting and analyzing qualitative thematic interviews
• Experience in developing digital platforms and refining and analyzing case studies on digital platforms
• Good collaboration skills to work as a member of a multidisciplinary close-knit team and consortium formed by several universities
• Ability to independently manage part-projects and to write at an international scientific level

What we offer

We offer the innovative working community of Aalto University and meaningful and varied work as part of a high-level research team and consortium. The work includes the possibility of participating in interesting staff training at Aalto University.

The salary for the postdoctoral researcher is 3900–4400€ depending on merits.

Interested?

Please submit your application via the Workday system by February 15, 2025 (midnight Finnish time, GMT+2).

Attach to your application in English:

• Curriculum vitae

• A short one page description of your expertise and interest in the position

If you are already an employee of Aalto, please apply directly through your internal Workday profile.

Further information

For further information on the position, please contact Professor Sampsa Hyysalo at sampsa.hyysalo(at)aalto.fi. For questions related to the recruitment process, please contact HR Partner Katju Helminen at katju.helminen(at)aalto.fi

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