Heur B (van) (VKS) on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:24:55 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime-ann> Two PhD positions at the Maastricht Virtual Knowledge Studio


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The Maastricht Virtual Knowledge Studio within the Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) program of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University offers the following PhD positions (4 years, 75 % research, 25 % teaching):

 

- Technological Urbanism and Knowledge Production

- Digital Technologies and the Everyday Life of Scholars

 

Technological Urbanism and Knowledge Production

 

From the informational city to digital cities to cybercities to the open source city, the always complex relation between cities and technologies has over the last decades become rephrased in the language of digital technologies and the internet. This PhD project focuses on the epistemological dimensions of this shift. What does it mean for knowledge production about the city when this knowledge is increasingly acquired through the use of new media techniques, methods and metaphors? Who are the main actors involved in this process and in what ways do these epistemologies of the city reproduce old and create new lines of in- and exclusion?

 

Within this research theme, interested applicants are encouraged to develop a historical focus by analyzing how different cases at different times have used ‘new technologies’ to shape our knowledge and vision of the city. This approach in turn will enable a better evaluation of the supposed newness of contemporary new media cities and will contribute to a more refined view of technological innovation in urban environments. Empirically, depending on the background of the PhD candidate, the project studies concrete cases in fields such as architecture, urban planning or infrastructure.

Theoretically, the study is informed by science and technology studies and highlights the social and cultural construction of urban technologies.

 

For more information, please read carefully the graduate school website:

http://www.fdcw.org/phdprogram/2007/06/sts.html

 

Those interested, contact and e-mail a CV plus a brief _expression_ of interest to Bas van Heur before Sunday 1 March: b.vanheur@vks.unimaas.nl

 

Digital Technologies and the Everyday Life of Scholars

 

New, digital forms of data collection, storage, exchange and representation as found in dynamic databases, simulations and archives as well as new communication possibilities offered by social networking sites offer exciting opportunities to scholars to raise new research questions, to collaborate with others and to reach new audiences. However, much more mundane applications, such as word processing, email and online searching, have also had profound effects on the work of scholars in the humanities and social sciences over the past 20 years.

 

This project will focus on a particular group of ‘information workers’, namely researchers in the humanities and social sciences, a group that is deeply affected by the explosion in information and therefore it is interesting to see how they are coping with the challenges to their professional lives. What are the implications of the use of digital technologies for the nature and pace of their work? What is the response of their professional associations or unions? What skills are needed to process information? How do highly educated scholars decide which information is important for their work? How do they reconcile contradictory information? What new forms of inter/mediation are emerging in relation to new technological applications? How are their relationships with colleagues, students and university management changing?

 

This project will bring together insights from science and technology studies as well as information and library science, and the history of institutions and ideas.

 

For more information, please read carefully the graduate school website:

http://www.fdcw.org/phdprogram/2007/06/sts.html

 

Those interested, contact and e-mail a CV plus a brief _expression_ of interest to Sally Wyatt before Sunday 1 March: s.wyatt@vks.unimaas.nl

 

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