University of Amsterdam (UvA) - PhD position - The external dimension of EU regulatory governance

PhD position - The external dimension of EU regulatory governance

Job description

The PhD candidate will undertake research on the external dimension of EU regulatory governance in one or more substantive policy fields linked to the European internal market and the global trading regime. Possible policy fields to be studied include financial regulation, competition/anti-trust, data privacy, product safety (e.g. food and drug safety, GMOs, chemicals), environmental protection (e.g. control of illegal logging, transboundary water management, climate change), food security, and development cooperation.

The position is funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) research project ‘Global Reordering: Evolution through European Networks (GR:EEN)’, and forms part of a work package on ‘Global Public Policy: Trade and Finance’ directed at the University of Amsterdam by Prof. Jonathan Zeitlin and Dr Daniel Mügge. This work package focuses on the extension of new or ‘experimentalist’ forms of governance developed for the regulation of the European internal market to relations with the EU’s trading partners, and their potential contribution to emerging arrangements for global regulatory governance in a rising multi-polar world.

Over the past fifteen years, the EU has developed a new architecture of experimentalist governance based on framework rule-making and revision through recursive review of comparative implementation experience in diverse local contexts. Experimentalist governance architectures of this type have become pervasively institutionalized in the EU across a wide and growing array of policy domains. They take a variety of organizational forms, including networked agencies, councils of national regulators, open methods of coordination, and operational cooperation among front-line officials, often in combination with one another (Sabel and Zeitlin 2008, 2010). Key questions to be addressed in this research project include how far, through what mechanisms, and with what results the revisable framework rules and experimentalist governance processes developed within the European internal market are or may be being extended to the wider world, together with the reciprocal interaction of these efforts with the multilateral trading regime and other emerging forms of global or transnational regulatory governance.

References:

Sabel, Charles F., and Zeitlin, Jonathan, 2008: Learning from Difference: The New Architecture of Experimentalist Governance in the European Union, European Law Journal 14(3): 271-327.

Sabel, Charles F., and Zeitlin, Jonathan (eds), 2010: Experimentalist Governance in the European Union: Towards a New Architecture, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Requirements

The candidate must have a relevant MA degree (or equivalent) in political science or a related social science discipline (including law). Candidates should demonstrate interest in and knowledge of EU and/or global and transnational governance. Excellent oral and written command of English is essential. Experience with qualitative research methods is recommended.
Tasks

* Empirical research and writing of a PhD dissertation
* Producing and publishing academic papers, individually or in collaboration with other members of the research team
* Active participation in the work package research team, which may include organizational tasks for conferences and workshops
* Participation in and presentation of research to conferences, workshops, and meetings organized within the framework of the larger GREEN project

Conditions of employment

We offer a fixed-term position for three years, 38 hours per week, beginning 1 September 2011. The gross monthly salary will be €2042 in the first year and €2492 in the third year in case of a full-time position (38 hrs/week). Secondary working conditions at Dutch universities are attractive and include 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
Department

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) is the largest educational and research institution in the social sciences in the Netherlands. The Faculty serves around 9,000 students in numerous Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Science, Psychology, Social Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, and Educational Sciences. The academic staff is employed in education as well as research. There are over 1,200 employees at the Faculty, which resides in a number of buildings in the centre of Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) studies the functioning of contemporary societies and their interrelationships from historical, comparative and empirical perspectives. The AISSR aims to be an organisation that offers training to PhD researchers, as well as housing top-quality research that conforms to a clear, scientific mission with high-level research programmes. The AISSR is also a research institute within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) and is the administrative unit for researchers of three departments: The Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, The Department of Sociology and Anthropology and The Department of Political Science.
Additional information

Substantive inquiries about the project may be addressed to Prof. Jonathan Zeitlin, j.h.zeitlin@... and/or Dr Daniel Mügge, d.k.muegge@....