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Dear colleague, I am pleased to inform you that the University of Milan will soon offer 2 TWO-YEAR POST-DOC POSITIONS at the Department of Social and Political Sciences. Post-doc fellows will be included in the “REScEU” research team “Reconciling economic and social Europe: values, ideas and politics”, a research project funded by the European Research Council – Advanced Grant. I would be very grateful if you could forward this information to potentially interested candidates. Thanks in advance for your cooperation Best regards prof. Maurizio Ferrera **CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST - 2 Postdoctoral Research positions in Political Science, University of Milan The University of Milan – Department of Social and Political Sciences - invites expressions of interest for two post-doc positions in political science, offered within the research project “REScEU - Reconciling Economic and social Europe: values, ideas and politics” directed by Professor Maurizio Ferrera funded by an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (Grant agreement no.: 340534; Duration: 60 months). The initial contract will have a duration of 2 years, renewable for an additional two-year period. *PROJECT DESCRIPTION The nation-based welfare state (NBWS) and the EU are two precious legacies of the XX century. Their mutual relationship has been however fraught by an unresolved tension (and potential “clash”), which the recent crisis seems to have markedly exacerbated. The purpose of the project is to develop a new theory for a better understanding of the genetic roots of such tension, its temporal swings, the range of possible institutional solutions and their political pre-conditions. The project will address these questions by closely investigating the intellectual and political dynamics of both welfare-state building and EU-building. Drawing on Weber’s pioneering insights on the relationship between values, ideas, institutional orders and politics, a new framework will be elaborated, with a view to overcoming the “compartmentalized” treatment of each of the four elements which characterizes contemporary neo-institutional approaches. Extensive empirical work will reconstruct the logic of some key developmental junctures: the crisis of the 1970s, when the tension emerged; the period between the Amsterdam and the Lisbon Treaties, characterized by rebalancing efforts; the post-2007 crisis, which seems to have re-ignited the tension. Phase-specific intellectual and political constellations as well as actors’ strategies in decisive “moments of choice” will be the object of detailed case analysis. The project will also include an applied and policy-oriented component. An “observatory” will be created (EUvision), aimed at monitoring factual developments in the social politics of integration and at carrying out a second-order analysis of intellectual “contents” on EU-building, produced by prominent ideational actors at both the national and supranational levels. Successful applicants will be involved in theory-building, theory probing and the empirical application streams of the research project. Under the supervision of the project director, they are expected conduct empirical research in accordance with the theoretical framework in order to cast new light on the political/intellectual mechanisms that facilitate/hinder a “balanced” EU-building process, based on a sustainable and legitimate mutual “nesting” between the economic and the social dimension. The empirical research will focus in particular on two temporal phases: i) the 2000s; ii) the 2010s. A number of independent case studies focussing on specific moments/events of the two phases will be carried out. The end-product of the empirical research stream will be a fully-fledged neo-weberian theoretical reinterpretation of EU-building in its economic and social dimensions. The empirical exploration of the two phases will rest on qualitative methods and will entail extensive and detailed process tracing through primary documentary sources and, most critically, a number of (loosely semi-structured) interviews to top national and EU politicians and key intellectual figures in Europe (ca. 20 interviews per phase, for a total of 40). *ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS We are particularly interested in young scientists with a leading position in their field of expertise, proficient in qualitative research methods, with a solid background in Political Science/Historical macro-sociology, interested in welfare state, EU, public policy and governance studies, as well as in historical-comparative, case-centered empirical research. . Applicants must have completed a PhD in Political Science/(macro-)Sociology. An excellent command of English (spoken and written) is essential for the purpose of the project. A working knowledge of other languages (in particular, German and French) will be highly welcomed. *TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT Each position is a 2 year full-time appointment, renewable for an additional two-year period following the assessment of research results by a Departmental committee. Expected starting date: May/June 2014 (negotiable) Salary in the range between € 1800 and € 2500 net/month, depending on academic records and experience. The contract does not envisage formalized teaching duties, but the contract holder is expected to hold graduate seminars and to collaborate in the overall teaching activities of the Department. *INFORMATION Interested researchers should send by e-mail their CV, together with a brief outline of their research interests and achievements to the project Director – prof. Maurizio Ferrera - [log in to unmask] – by 20 March, 2014. Also, they should indicate the name of two referees. Applicants may be invited for an interview – in person or via skype. The formal recruitment procedure (compliant with the rules of the University) will start in April 2014. For further information about the project and the post-doc positions, please contact Professor Maurizio Ferrera, [log in to unmask]