The Fairwork Project is hiring for the following two positions:
- Postdoctoral Researcher I (Grade 8: £41,526 – £49,553 p.a; fixed term contract until 30 June 2022 in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter; deadline: 12.00 midday on 27 August 2020)
- Postdoctoral Researcher II (Grade 8: £41,526 – £49,553 p.a; fixed-term until 31 December 2021 in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter; deadline: 12.00 midday on 10 September 2020)
About Fairwork
Fairwork is an action-research project based at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. We research working conditions in the gig economy, in order to develop ‘fairness ratings’ for digital labour platforms like Uber, Helpling and Deliveroo (see examples here). We use these ratings as a lever to improve pay and conditions for platform workers, through media and consumer pressure.
Fairwork’s programme of action research intends not just to understand the world, but to change it. By bringing workers, platforms, scholars, labour researchers and policymakers to the table, we work to collaboratively develop and embed principles of fair work into the script of the gig economy. Fundamental to the project is a commitment to being participatory and non-hierarchical within our communities: we are all—workers, unions, platforms, regulators, academics—the experts, and we all have co-developed this project. Our ultimate aim is to understand, and counter, some of the forces that disempower gig workers across the world.
Over the past three years, we have mobilized a unique and growing transnational network of social justice minded scholars from over ten countries in pursuit of this planetary goal. In order to effectively advocate for gig workers everywhere, we believe it necessary for our team too to reflect a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and more. In growing our team, we value and welcome the unique contributions that applicants can bring in terms of their education, opinions, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, ethnicity, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, age, religion, disability, and beliefs. We actively strive to build and nurture a culture of empathy, inclusiveness, and respect.
About the Postdoctoral Researchers
The ideal candidates will have:
- A postgraduate degree in sociology, geography, economics, law, development, or related fields;
- Academic or professional experience and specialist knowledge relating to the gig economy, platform work, the digital economy, decent work, or precarious/temporary work;
- Excellent project management skills, including the ability to develop and execute granular work schedules and coordinate diverse stakeholders; and,
- Excellent communication abilities, including the ability to write for diverse audiences, present research proposals and results, and represent the research group at meetings.
See details of essential and desirable applicant criteria in the full job descriptions (Postdoctoral Researcher I and Postdoctoral Researcher II).
The team welcomes applications that reflect diverse modes of knowledge production and traditions of scholarship.
Structure and Primary Responsibilities
As the successful candidate for one of the positions of Postdoctoral Researcher, you will be based at Fairwork Foundation within the Oxford Internet Institute. You will be a core part of a team led by Professor Mark Graham, and will play a key role in conducting research and guiding the Fairwork partners in the research that they conduct. You will be based at the University of Oxford, and will work with partners in Brazil, Bangladesh, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and the UK. The primary aims of this position will be to:
- Conduct research with platform workers and platform managers about job quality on digital labour platforms;
- Use that research as part of action research strategies to leverage change in the gig economy;
- Play a coordination role with some of the project’s international partners; and,
- Collaborate on publications and research outputs to disseminate the evaluations of platforms against principles of fair work.
Duration and Deadline
These posts are available immediately.
The post of Postdoctoral Researcher I is fixed-term until 30 June 2022 in the first instance with the possibility of renewal thereafter. Only online applications received before 12.00 midday on 27 August 2020 will be considered for this position.
The post of Postdoctoral Researcher II is fixed-term until 31 December 2021 in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter. Only online applications received before 12.00 midday on 10 September 2020 will be considered for this position.
To be considered for both positions, please submit applications for both calls.
Learn more about and apply for the positions of Postdoctoral Researcher I and Postdoctoral Researcher II.
Contact
If you have any questions about these roles, please email info@fair.work.
The Fairwork project endorses the wider call from the Oxford Internet Institute community to advance anti-racist initiatives in higher education. We commit to upholding the values it espouses in our recruitment processes, to the best of our capacities.
Deadline for submission of BUIRA abstracts: Friday 29th January 2021.
BUIRA Conference 2021: The past, present and future of industrial relations and the politics of work
Virtual (with potential for some hybrid participation at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, if public health allows)
July 13th to 15th 2021
Plenary Speakers:
Judy Wajcman http://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/judy-wajcman
Anne McBride https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/a.mcbride.html
Sian Moore https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-business/sian-moore
Kirsty Newsome https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/staff/kirsty_newsome/index
Jean Jenkins https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/610450-jenkins-jean
The conference will also feature an 'Early Career Researcher Plenary Pannel' and a 'Work in the Real World' Special Session with Ian Allinson (President of the Manchester TUC) and others.
Call for Abstracts
Due to Covid, the 2021 conference will be a virtual online event, but with potential for some hybrid participation at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, if public health allows. A decision regarding on campus activities will be communicated no later than 30 April 2021. Information about plenary speakers and non-paper sessions will be provided once confirmed.
The 2021 conference will be FREE to BUIRA members. Non-members will only need to pay the £40 BUIRA (£20 for PhD students and associate members) membership fee.
Call for papers
BUIRA turning 70 last year presents a good opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future of industrial relations. This was the topic of the postponed 2020 conference, and, if anything, is more salient than ever. Despite facing recent challenges, the field of industrial relations continues to be a vital topic of academic and practitioner enquiry. Issues that have long been central within the study of industrial relations, such as pay, collective bargaining, rights at work, employee representation, national and transnational forms of regulation, health and safety, job (in)security, precarity, equality and diversity, and workplace conflict are highly prominent within many current political and academic debates. Understanding the politics of work, grounded in a critical social science tradition, is crucial for academics and policy makers alike.
Where are we now? How have we got here, and what should the future of the field look like? Reflecting on historical developments in industrial relations is crucial in order to ground and contextualise current developments in the world of work. History matters in helping us to understand the changing nature of industrial relations, and yet is often overlooked in modern accounts of work relations. It is also important to reflect on pressing current issues. Most notably, what has/will continue to be the implications of Coronavirus for employment relations and the future of work? This was the subject of the BUIRA Special Seminar on November 4th 2020, and an ongoing research issue for BUIRA members. What about the continuing impact of austerity and the 2008 financial crisis in a more financialised world, increasing inequality, as well as economic and social challenges caused by the Covid pandemic and Brexit? What have been the consequences for public sector industrial relations? What is the impact of patterns of precarious work and non-standard employment relationships on the changing nature of work and employment, skills and the quality of work? Across all of these questions, issues of social class, equality and diversity remain more relevant than ever before. Looking to the future, one key question concerns the extent to which unions can play an active role with social movements to tackle climate breakdown. How is power deployed and distributed at work? How much voice and influence do employees have? Whither economic and industrial democracy at work?
We welcome empirical (both quantitative and qualitative), analytical, conceptual and methodological papers that concern any area of industrial relations, or fields cognate to industrial relations. We would particularly appreciate submissions from early career researchers and doctoral students. Papers concerning topics under the following headings will be particularly welcome:
Abstracts of papers should be submitted here
Abstracts should be a maximum of up to 4000 characters including spaces in length (around 500 words) and cover the following headings:
Deadline for submission of abstracts: Friday 29th January 2021.
All abstracts are refereed anonymously by BUIRA Executive Committee members. Please note that abstracts previously submitted to the cancelled 2020 BUIRA conference can be ‘rolled-over’ without being refereed a second time (providing there are not major changes – if there are substantial revisions, abstracts should be re-submitted). The BUIRA committee will be in contact shortly with those who were accepted in 2020. If you submitted an abstract and have not heard from us, please contact Genevieve Coderre-LaPalme (g.coderre-lapalme@bham.ac.uk).
18th January 2021