PhD student (Re-contract Research Programme)

ENS; France; Sur place; EUR 23 000 - 28 000; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

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Résumé du poste

ENS in France seeks a First Stage Researcher (R1) for a three-year PhD project under the Re-contract program. The role focuses on social contract theory, trust in institutions, and risk governance, with emphasis on information, epistemic security, and disinformation as risk.

Supervisor: Marie Gaille; a 3-year fixed-term contract with a gross salary of 2300€ per month will be provided. E-mail applications to [e-mail].

Qualifications

• In-depth background in political philosophy and social epistemology.
• Familiarity with risk theory and disinformation as a risk.

Responsabilités

• Analyse risk governance within social contract theory.
• Develop doctoral research based on the international state of the art.

Connaissances

Political philosophy

Social epistemology

Risk theory

Doctoral research development

Autonomy & initiative

Formation

Master degree or equivalent

Master’s 2 degree in philosophy

Description du poste

Organisation/Company ENS Department Pole Ressources Lettres Research Field Philosophy Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 24 Sep 2026 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 1 Nov 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The Re-contractresearch program focuses on the idea of the social contract and its rethinking for our time. It aims, over a three-year period, to develop original, innovative, integrative, and open research, in dialogue with non-academic stakeholders.Re-Contractseeks to embed its reflection in a contemporary context that appears to contradict its very project. Indeed, characterized as an era of loss of common values and the foundations of living together—an anxious, conflict-ridden time marked by the proliferation of risks, particularly systemic ones—this context seems ill-suited for projecting toward the future, whether individually or collectively. Instead, it embodies an era of "polycrisis."

What levers for action can we identify and implement to recreate a shared narrative? How can we regain the individual and collective capacity to project ourselves into the future, a capacity essential for fueling present action with the perspective of a shared destiny? These are questions many are asking, yet there are no obvious answers.

Re-Contracthypotheses that the concept of the social contract provides a framework for addressing these questions. If not to produce answers—which belong to collective decision-making—it can at least help identify the stakes, the lines of bifurcation and choice, the sticking points, and the obstacles.

In particular,Re-Contractwill focus on what tests the bond of trust, which is fundamental to the social contract: trust among citizens, in institutions (in the broadest sense), and in public and private governance actors. Indeed, all the systemic risks identified to date relate to factors that weaken collective life. However, not all equally undermine individual and collective commitment to a common political project. Furthermore, this commitment also relies, in a context of intertwined crises of various natures, on a shared vision of what needs to be protected, preserved, and upheld—a common culture in terms of risk and danger perception. This is all the more true if the principle of prevention comes to structure risk management. The Re-Contract project will therefore focus in particular on the challenge of developing a shared understanding of invisible risks.

This Ph.D. in philosophy proposed here forms part of the first research strand of the project, which focuses on analysing what strengthens or, conversely, undermines the bond of trust in interpersonal relationships, the relationship between the individual and the collective, and, finally, the relationship between citizens and institutions. The aim here is to foster reflection on what underpins and sustains trust amongst members of a political community and between them and democratic institutions. The rise of illiberalism, a growing challenge to the rule of law and doubts about the ability of institutions to sustain democratic processes appear today to be undermining the social contract. In light of these phenomena, social science research is now conducting detailed analyses of the relationships of trust or mistrust in the state and its institutions.

More specifically, this Ph.D.will aim to shed light on how our relationship with information, knowledge and the scientific method plays a role in these dynamics today. It will focus on disinformation, which has emerged over the last decade as one of the major public challenges facing contemporary democracies. It has also gradually come to be regarded as a risk — that is to say, as a threat that is deemed measurable, foreseeable and manageable, and subject to measures for prevention, mitigation and resilience. The themes of the ‘infodemic’, ‘epistemic security’ and ‘systemic risks’—which the Digital Services Act (1) now requires major platforms to assess and mitigate—bear witness to this shift: from a moral and epistemic framework — lies, errors, credulity — to a strictly governmental framework, where informational disruptions, whether strategic or not, become a risk to be managed. This call for applications focuses on this shift, whether in terms of measuring it or questioning its reality.

This call invites reflection at the intersection of the rapidly expanding field of disinformation studies and philosophical and sociological thinking on risk governance. The aim will be to analyse how disinformation is constructed as an object of risk — which rationalities (probabilistic, preventive, ‘precautionary’, security-based) and which technologies (detection, inoculation, moderation, reliability indices) this framing of disinformation as a risk mobilises. The aim also lies in examining the tensions involved: the conversion of political questions into management problems, and the dynamics of ‘securitisation’. How can one govern a risk made up of words?

Within the Re-Contract project, this line of inquiry may contribute to an analysis of risk and its implications for social contract theory.

It will also contribute to the dialogue between Re-Contract and two national research programmes: the PEPR RISQUES (https://www.pepr-risques.fr/fr ) and a programme dedicated to combating the manipulation of information, which is currently being set up.

Supervisor: Marie Gaille,
A research environment will be provided for the postdoctoral researcher recruited

3-year fixed-term contract – Gross salary : 2300€/month.

Where to apply

E-mail [e-mail]

Requirements

Research Field Philosophy Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• A strong background in political philosophy and/or social epistemology
• Familiarity with risk theory is desirable, as well as an openness to both empirical research and the regulatory frameworks that now recognise disinformation as a risk in its own right
• An interest in developing doctoral research based on the international state of the art, as well as an ability to work within a multidisciplinary project, would be an advantage.
  

Specific Requirements

• Critical argumentative analysis
• Analysis of handwritten sources, archives and/or research datasets
• Ability to integrate into a project-related work team
• Ability to interact with academic stakeholders in France and internationally
• Autonomy and initiative
• Ability in work organization and long-term follow-up of research through to publication and dissemination
• Applicants must hold a Master' 2 degree in philosophy, having completed their thesis less than three years ago.
• Applicants must hold a Master’s 2 degree in philosophy,
• A research environment will be provided for the recruited doctoral researcher