Postdoctoral Researcher, Science and Technology Studies (STS) and aquatic restoration in the Nordic and Arctic regions

We are looking to hire highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Department of Anthropology, in the History, Culture and Communications Unit at the Faculty of Humanities, the University of Oulu. The hired researcher will develop and implement their own research plan in the specified research area and work in collaboration with Dr. Jose A. Cañada and their research team under the programme “Safeguarding biodiversity through interdisciplinary research on habitat restoration” (SAFIRE). Aquatic ecosystems are a central element in how humans are addressing their own survival. Lakes, rivers, wetlands, seas, oceans and melting ice caps are central elements of the ongoing ecological crisis linked to human modes of economic and capitalist production. Discourses and practices of ecological repair coexist with refusals to give up on ideals of economic growth, often featuring techno-optimist visions to develop possible solutions. In this context, restoration of aquatic habitats has emerged with force as a dominant strategy for environmental care, with links to more traditional conservation approaches or more intrusive geoengineering initiatives. The researcher hired will have the opportunity to develop their own research plan to study how the relation between humans and their surrounding environments is shifting as the result of alterations to aquatic ecologies in the Arctic and Nordic regions, with a special focus on knowledge production and practices from technoscientific, regulatory, citizen, and indigenous perspectives. Social research in this area is key to ensure responsible technoscientific development, and socio-ecologically just development of policy and governance. The position benefits from the University of Oulu’s long-term development of trans- and interdisciplinary research about human-environment relations, currently under the programme “Safeguarding biodiversity through interdisciplinary research on habitat restoration” (SAFIRE). As a result, the hired researcher will be an active participant in the exciting calendar of interdisciplinary activities and events. More information about SAFIRE and its research themes can be found here . About the job Hired researcher will work closely with Dr Jose A. Cañada and their research team. The group is conceived as a site for close collaboration among likeminded researchers that also fosters independence and career development. Dynamics of the group build on the CSSM model for distributed and less hierarchical academic collaboration (learn more here ). The team is formed around a common interest in aquatic ecologies and perspectives in the social sciences on care, participation, methodological experimentation, and justice. These areas of interest are articulated around four thematic areas, which all originate in scholarship in the area of Science and Technology Studies: Thematic area 1: A more-than-human approach based on care that serves as a frame diverse practices for environmental management. In this context, management emerges as a form of interaction that requires close contact with other species and habitats. These are practices that are carried out by a variety of actors, including scientific practitioners, environmental managers, governments, civil society organizations, private sector, citizens, and more. Thematic area 2: A broad understanding of knowledge production with an emphasis on flows manifested through practices and discourses that contribute to diverse and situated accounts of the world that do not fit the universalist and positivist approaches that have historically dominated modern science. Knowledge is understood not as fact discovery but as a collective endeavour that takes place across different societal areas and involves human and nonhuman actors. Thematic area 3: Scientific citizenship and public participation in the production of environmental and aquatic futures through hybrid citizen and scientific communities involved in different strategies to know and care for aquatic habitats. This entails understanding the intersectional positioning and situated contributions of different actors, including not just citizen participation in scientific initiatives but the citizen status of experts and interested parties with specific positions towards socioecological debates. Thematic area 4: Methodological experimentation and sensory approaches to develop new lenses and techniques able to yield different results that do not reify normative understandings which, in some cases, can stagnate and polarize environmental debates. This involves relying on modes of knowledge production that step away but continue to engage with scientific methods developed around notions of validity and reliability. The primary duties will include: Planning and conducting social scientific research on aquatic ecologies that directly engages with at least two of the four thematic areas mentioned above. Participating of and contributing to internal research group