Postdoc in Public Administration; AI & Citizen Engagement - DTU Management

DTU - Technical University of Denmark; Kongens Lyngby; On-site; DKK 420,000 - 540,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Academic freedom

International environment

Job summary

DTU - Technical University of Denmark invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral researcher position focused on the intersection of public administration, governance, and artificial intelligence. The project STÅSTEDER investigates whether large language models can represent citizen perspectives and support democratic decision-making in sustainability transitions.

The successful candidate will conduct organizational ethnography, fieldwork in Aarhus and collaboration with municipal partners,

Qualifications

• PhD required or equivalent.
• Experience with ethnography and qualitative fieldwork.
• International research profile or publications.
• Strong analytical and writing skills.
• Excellent communication with academic and non-academic stakeholders.
• Danish language proficiency advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the STÅSTEDER project examining perspectival models for diverse cultural standpoints in public debates on sustainability transitions.
• Conduct organizational ethnography and qualitative fieldwork in collaboration with municipal partners.
• Develop and validate perspectival LLMs with stakeholders.
• Collaborate with a second postdoctoral researcher on technical and methodological development.

Skills

STS & related disciplines

Organizational ethnography

Public administration

Political sociology

Citizen participation

Stakeholder engagement

Qualitative research

Analytical writing

Academic communication

Education

PhD or equivalent

Tools

Qualitative methods

Job description

If you would like to contribute to knowledge creation at the intersection of public administration, democratic governance, and artificial intelligence, this position offers a unique opportunity. Public administrations are increasingly adopting digital technologies and artificial intelligence to understand citizens, design policy interventions, and address complex societal challenges. This position offers a unique opportunity to investigate and controbute to this development through the research project STÅSTEDER. Funded by the VELUX foundations initiative for democratic sustainability and conducted in collaboration with Aarhus municipality, STÅSTEDER explores whether large language models can be used to represent citizen perpectives and how they can potentially complement established approaches to citizen engagement in sustainability transitions. In collaboration with project partners, the candidate will contribute to the development and empirical evaluation of perspectival models designed to represent different cultural standpoints in public debates concerning sustainability transitions. Through organizational ethnography and qualitative fieldwork in Aarhus municpality, the sucesful candidate will examine whether and how AI-based models can legitamately provide new ways of bringing diverse cultural standpoints into democratic decision-making and public sector problem-solving. Furthermore, the sucesful candidate will work closely with a second postdoctoral researcher on the projevct responsible for the technical and methodological development of the perspectival models. Together they will organize a series of field laboratories in which municipal employees, stakeholders, and perspectival models are brought together to explore new approaches to public engagement and policy development. Part of the etnographic field work of the post doc is thus to deveop strategies for training and validating perspectival LLMs with the people they are supposed to represent.

Responsibilities And Qualifications

• science and technology studies (STS), organizatioal etnography, public administration, political sociology, citizen participation, stakeholder engagement, or related disciplines
• studies of digital public administration and controversies surrounding AI and public governance
• qualitative research methods, including ethnography, interviews, participant observation, and case-study research
• an internationally oriented research profile documented through a PhD dissertation and/or research publications
• strong analytical and academic writing skills
• excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage productively with both academic and non-academic stakeholders

Furthermore, it will be considered an advantage if applicants can document:

• familiarity with environmental governance, sustainability transitions, or climate-related policy challenges
• experience studying datafication, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, or algorithmic systems in organizational settings
• familiarity with digital methods, computational social science, computational humanities, or related approaches
• experience working across qualitative and computational research traditions
• proficiency in Danish or another Scandinavian language, as the empirical fieldwork will be conducted in collaboration with a Danish municipality

As a formal qualification, you must hold a PhD degree (or equivalent).

We offer

DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.

Salary and terms of employment

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. In addition, supplements can be negotiated in accordance with DTU’s salary structure for scientific staff: www.inside.dtu.dk/en/human-resources/during-employment/salary/salary-structures . The period of employment is 2 years. The starting date is 1 February 2027. The position is a full time position.

Further information

Further information may be obtained from Anders Koed Madsen, Department of Technology, Management and Economics: [e-mail] . You can read more about DTU Management at www.man.dtu.dk . If you are applying from abroad, you may find useful information on working in Denmark and at DTU at DTU – Moving to Denmark .

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works in critical technology research, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.