We offer a PhD student position for the OUTIP project

IGOP researcher Lara Maestripieri has launched a call for PhD students who want to join the OUTIP project which aims to study the impact of precariousness on the psychological well-being of young people through an intersectional analytical framework.

Project “Out of control. Analysing precarity and its effect on the psychological wellbeing of youth under an intersectional perspective” (OUTIP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The project involves research in the project, under the supervision of Prof. Mireia Bolibar and Lara Maestripieri, and in collaboration with other members of the OUTIP team.

Do not hesitate to contact lara.maestripieri@uab.cat if you need more information regarding the position.

 Useful link

• Curriculum vitae according to the CVA model (AEI): https://cvn.fecyt.es/editor/#HOME
• Declaration of equivalence of the average grade for bachelor’s and master’s studies, using the Ministry of Education and Professional Training form: https://www.universidades.gob.es/equivalencia-de-notas-medias-de-estudios-universitarios-realizados-en-centros-extranjeros/

For validate your documentation, please send it to the UAB using their Official Registrer:

https://seuelectronica.uab.cat/es/info-solicitud-generica

(at the end of the form, choose destination: OMAR (Registry)-Rectorate)

In case you do not have a valid certificate and you are having troubles with the OAMR system, please send your updated documents to  recerca.respo@uab.cat specifying that you are a candidate for the position:

PID2023-147403NB-I00 “OUT OF CONTROL. ANALYSING PRECARITY AND ITS EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING OF YOUTH UNDER AN INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE (OUTIP)”

Job description

The successful applicant will become part of the research team PID2023-147403NB-100. In close collaboration with the principal investigator and the rest of the research team, the selected candidate will be able to: i. develop a doctoral thesis on a topic related to the project, ii. assist in the development of the research project, iii. present and publish related publications with the results of the research, iv. help organise and participate in the conferences, dissemination events and seminars of the project.

In particular, we expect the applicant to be involved in the following research activities:

• Carrying out an in-depth review of the literature on the relationship between labour market insecurity, economic insecurity and the perception of insecurity (precarity) in advanced capitalist countries;
• Management and analysis of data related to the longitudinal survey on precariousness and mental health among young people at the state level;
• Carrying out, managing and analysing biographical interviews with young people with a vulnerability profile;

Profile of the candidate

We are looking for a person with a master’s degree in social sciences, primarily sociology or political science, with an interest in developing a doctoral thesis in the field of social sciences, preferably in sociology. We will value both the theoretical and methodological preparation of the candidate and, in particular, their competence in data collection techniques and analyses with a quantitative and qualitative approach and the ability to frame a research object within broader theoretical debates. Our ideal candidate has skills in both approaches and knows how to carry out quantitative and qualitative research with a relative level of autonomy. People with research experience with mixed methods will be particularly valued, as well as those candidates with research experience around the topic of precariousness and youth.

Competence in English will also be assessed, which is the official working language of the research group of this project, given that the composition of the team is international, with the collaboration of the Politecnico di Milano (Italia), Université of Geneva (Switzerland) and the Fundació 1Maig (Spain). Competencies in Spanish or Catalan are not required at the outset. Still, we expect that the selected person acquires this language competence throughout their pre-doctoral career to develop autonomously their qualitative fieldwork.

Candidates’ competence with qualitative and quantitative data analysis software will also be assessed, such as STATA, SPSS, R or Atlas.Ti and N-Vivo.

Presentation of the proyect

The general objective of OUTIP is to study the impact of precariousness on the psychological well-being of Spanish youth, considering the mediating role of vulnerability through an intersectional analytical framework. This project conceives precariousness as perceived insecurity based on a subjective assessment of current labour and/or economic conditions. Opting to apply this notion of precariousness allows us to unite two currents of literature (job precariousness and economic insecurity), developed mainly independently despite having points in common in their research object. The first original point of this project is to analyse the impact of precariousness on psychological well-being, considering at the same time its dimensions of insecurity related to work and the economy. As a second original contribution, we argue that youth’s increased vulnerability to mental health problems depends on various economic and social determinants as well as specific individual circumstances. Vulnerability mediates between precariousness and psychological well-being and will be conceived from an intersectional gender perspective. We focus on young people because the stage of the life course they are in makes them particularly vulnerable to precariousness and mental health problems.

This project addresses the following research questions:

1. How does precariousness influence the psychological well-being of young people?
2. To what extent does an intersectionally-conceived vulnerability mediate this relationship?
3. Are there any specific intersections that are particularly exposed to the adverse effects of precariousness on psychological well-being?

OUTIP will take a mixed methods approach to address these questions among the population of 20-34 year olds. We will conduct an original longitudinal survey to explore the influence of labour market precariousness and economic insecurity on subjective feelings of precariousness over time (2 waves, 18-month span). A second research action will address the most vulnerable profiles of young people and explore difficult-to-intercept meanings through a survey. We conduct 20 biographical interviews to reconstruct the life course of young people and understand the intersectional complexity of their vulnerability. This will allow us to understand if specific intersections of inequalities magnify the person’s exposure to the negative consequences of precariousness on psychological well-being. The policy implications of the empirical evidence gathered within the project will be disseminated through personalised actions to the public, civil society associations and policymakers.