[Air-L] Job alert: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford Internet Institute / Fairwork

[Mark Graham]

Dear colleagues,

Please share the following role with anyone who might be interested in
joining our team at the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford).

Full details of the job are available at:
https://fair.work/en/fw/blog/join-our-team-we-are-hiring-a-cloudwork-postdoctoral-researcher-to-work-for-the-fairwork-foundation-at-the-oxford-internet-institute/

Thanks, and Happy New Year!
Mark


The Oxford Internet Institute seeks to hire a Cloudwork Postdoctoral
Researcher for the Fairwork Project

The University of Oxford’s Fairwork project, partnered with WZB (Berlin
Social Science Center) <https://wzb.eu/en>, is recruiting a Cloudwork
Postdoctoral Researcher.

This is a full-time, fixed-term position, with remuneration at grade 8
(£42,149 – £50,296 per annum), starting as soon as possible until August
2023.

The closing date for applications is midday, 5 February 2022.
About Fairwork

Fairwork is an action-research project that currently operates in 26
countries. We research working conditions in the platform economy, in order
to develop ‘fairness ratings’ for digital labour platforms like Uber,
Helpling and Deliveroo (see examples here <https://fair.work/en/fw/ratings/>).
We use these ratings as a lever to improve pay and conditions for platform
workers, through media and consumer pressure.

The project currently operates in twenty six countries on five continents,
and studies both geographically-tethered gig economy platforms and cloudwork
<https://fair.work/en/ratings/cloudwork/> (or ‘remote work’) platforms. The
Researcher position will involve co-leading the Fairwork Cloudwork project
that scores platforms from around the world, and speaks to cloudworkers on
every continent.

Reporting to the Principal Investigator, the post holder will act as a
researcher and the Cloudwork Lead of the Fairwork project.

Fairwork’s action research approach 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
<https://fair.work/en/fw/about/people/> 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 Cloudwork Postdoctoral Researcher

Selection Criteria:

Essential

   - Hold a relevant postgraduate degree in sociology, geography,
   anthropology, economics, development studies, social policy, or related
   fields.
   - Strong publication record and familiarity with the existing literature
   and research in the field.
   - Academic or professional experience, and an established career,
   related to the gig economy, platform work, remote work, the digital
   economy, decent work, or precarious/temporary work.
   - Possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop
   research projects and methodologies.
   - Ability to manage own academic research and associated activities.
   - Previous experience of contributing to publications/presentations.
   - Experience with survey design and analysis.
   - Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for
   publication, present
   research proposals and results, and represent the research group at
   meetings.
   - Ability to organise complex sets of information, and develop granular
   work schedules.
   - Experience coordinating a diverse set of stakeholders.
   - Ability to independently plan and manage a research project, including
   a research budget
   - Ability to raise research funds through making grant applications.
   - Experience studying platform work in any of our countries of interest,
   and its relationships to inequality, race, gender, culture, and society.
   - An interest in understanding obstacles faced by platform workers.

Desirable

   - Experience of supervising staff
   - Experience of managing a research budget
   - Experience of making grant applications

Equality of Opportunity

Entry into employment with the University and progression within employment
will be determined only by personal merit and the application of criteria
which are related to the duties of each particular post and the relevant
salary structure. In all cases, ability to perform the job will be the
primary consideration. No applicant or member of staff shall be
discriminated against because of age, disability, gender reassignment,
marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or
belief, sex, or sexual orientation.
Responsibilities

   - Develop a survey instrument about the job quality in the gig economy,
   conduct research, analyse detailed and complex data from a variety of
   sources
   - Doing primary and secondary research, and drawing on existing data
   collected by the Fairwork team in order to evaluate platform companies
   against principles of Fairwork.
   - Having operational responsibility for multiple sub-areas of work
   within the bigger Fairwork project, and giving input to all key
   decision-making project-wide.
   - Regularly liaising with project stakeholders, and supervision of some
   of the project researchteam who are external to the OII. Agree clear task
   objectives, organise, and delegate work to other members of the team.
   - Disseminating the ‘fair work’ rating criteria in collaboration with
   the PI and project team.
   - Collaborate in the preparation of research publications, chapters,
   summaries, and
   reports.
   - Extensive travel to conduct research, both alone and with partners, to
   investigate and analyse wider issues shaping platform work in field sites.
   - Small scale project management and the co-ordination of multiple
   aspects of work to meet deadlines.
   - Represent the research group at external meetings/seminars, either
   with other members of the group or alone.
   - Prepare regular update reports to the funder and other collaborators.
   - Disseminate findings in the media.
   - Leading efforts to maintain a constant public profile (blogs, social
   media, short reports, etc.)
   - Managing the project’s stakeholder relationships.
   - Maintaining an awareness of key project deadlines and helping to steer
   the team
   towards them.
   - Leading in the organisation of workshops and an international
   conference about fair work.
   - Raise research funds through grant applications and manage delegated
   budgets.
   - Share responsibility for shaping the research group’s plans and the
   writing of group-
   funding applications for new research projects
   - Carry out collaborative projects with colleagues in partner
   institutions, and research groups
   - Other duties as may be required by the PI.

Duration and Deadline

This is a full-time, fixed-term position, with remuneration at grade Grade
8 (£42,149 – £50,296 per annum), starting as soon as possible until August
2023.

The closing date for applications is midday, 3 February 2022.