King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us

The Department of Geography at King’s College London invites applications for a two-year (24 months), full-time (1.0 FTE) position of Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in Qualitative Social Science. The post will be based in the research team of Professor Katie Meehan at KCL’s Strand Campus in central London. The position is funded by Prof Meehan’s 5-year European Research Council-selected project (Plumbing poverty: insecure access, shutoffs, and the social infrastructures of water in Europe and the USA), which is funded under the UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee scheme

About the role

The Department of Geography at King’s College London invites applications for a two-year (24 months), full-time (1.0 FTE) position of Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) in Qualitative Social Science.

The PDRA will report to Professor Katie Meehan (Department of Geography) and work on her funded research project Plumbing poverty: insecure access, shutoffs, and the social infrastructures of water in Europe and the USA (PLUMBPOV). The project aims to explain the emergence and persistence of household water insecurity – specifically problems in access to running water and the rise of shut-offs – in European and US cities in relation to the changing political economy of the welfare state, social infrastructures, and public service provision.

Under the direction of Prof Meehan as Principal Investigator, and working closely with other project team members, the PDRA will be responsible for conducting in-depth qualitative fieldwork in an overseas site for periods of time and help to develop and implement the academic, theoretical, and policy-applied work components of the project. The PDRA position has three primary work packages:

Work Package 1 (Case Study Fieldwork): The PDRA will be responsible for the development and implementation of a case study in a US or European city (to be confirmed), using qualitative case study methodology under a cross-cultural research design. Fieldwork duties will include: cultivate and maintain key gateway contacts and local stakeholder relations; develop and pilot questionnaires; recruit, organize, and conduct interviews with participants; collect and organize primary and secondary documents and relevant materials; attend public meetings; record and manage fieldnotes, metadata, photographs, and other project data; organize and archive data, consent forms, and ethics paperwork in line with project and KCL policies; and deliver periodic presentations and written fieldwork reports to the Principal Investigator and team.

Work Package 2 (Analysis and Data Management): The PDRA will be responsible for data analysis, interpretation, and write-up using a critical social science approach. Duties will include: coding and thematic analysis and of data; interpretation of results; developing a robust qualitative explanation of key social and institutional factors that produce conditions of plumbing poverty; identify and situate key trends, forces, and dynamics in urban inequality and debt-driven governance; developing a broader theoretical explanation of the state of social infrastructures in advanced capitalist countries, drawing on ideas in social reproduction and racial capitalism; organize, store, secure, and archive project data; compliance with KCL/funder requirements and the project’s data management policy; management of research assistants.

Work Package 3 (Project Outputs and Outreach): The PDRA is expected to deliver and/or significantly contribute toward an average of four written outputs (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles) per year; demonstrate leadership in the development of co-authored scientific articles; deliver other output forms as requested, such as reports and policy briefs; and actively engage with the media, including the writing of press releases, speaking/interview engagements, and collaboration with local journalists.

Other responsibilities include active participation and leadership in team-based workshops (data analysis, writing outputs, and project planning); delivering academic presentations at scientific conferences and project talks to the general public.

This is a full-time position (FTE 1.0 or 37.5 hours/week). The successful candidate will be offered a fixed term contract until 27 January 2027.

This post corresponds to PDRA 1 for 24m on RE21860. We would like to run an internal recruitment with the post advertised between 16-23 Dec 2024 and interviews on 10 Jan 2025