Associate Researcher at the Department of Political Science

Position Overview

The Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) at the Department of Political Science is recruiting an Associate Researcher for an 11-month fixed-term engagement. This role focuses on advancing the LGPI (Local Governance Process Indicators) project, particularly in measurement validation, contributing to important governance and local development research.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze and compute raw data to generate LGPI indicators.
• Devise and implement a comprehensive validation plan for the LGPI metrics.
• Conduct expansive literature reviews to identify existing measures suitable for validating LGPI indicators.
• Select appropriate test cases for LGPI based on current academic literature.
• Perform comparative analyses between LGPI indicators and existing measures.
• Assess LGPI indicators' performance within standard model frameworks.
• Contribute to the creation of interactive data visualization tools using R ShinyApps for LGPI display.
• Support the preparation and development of scholarly articles stemming from LGPI findings.

Employment Details

This is a full-time position with an 11-month contract. The starting date is set on or before January 1, 2023, arranged by mutual agreement.

About the Program and Department

The University of Gothenburg is a prominent institution addressing societal challenges via diverse academic strengths, hosting 56,000 students and 6,600 staff. The Department of Political Science encourages engagement in societal discourse with research expertise covering elections, democracy, corruption, governance, globalization, environmental politics, and European affairs. It manages several research initiatives including QoG Institute, V-Dem, CeCAR, GLD, and the Swedish National Election Studies Programme, offering various degree courses in Swedish and English. The department is centrally located in Gothenburg city with approximately 1,400 students and 160 staff members.

The GLD program, led by Professor Ellen Lust, seeks to explain governance and local development disparities to enhance human welfare globally. The LGPI project produces innovative local-level governance indicators based on novel household survey data, focusing on corruption, transparency, participation, extraction, and authority to inform government, citizens, and international actors engaged in decentralization processes.

Application Deadline

Applications must be submitted by September 26, 2022.