Offer description:

We are looking for a potential PhD student/researcher to work with the Principal Investigator based at the University College Cork in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, on an international project funded by the Research Ireland Pathways Programme 2024 call.

NIGHTWORK_FOOTPRINT analyses the paradigm shifts that have led to the normalisation of the nightshift how they took place, developed, and changed across temporal frontiers and political systems. The PI and the PhD will, examine political systems, in the Eastern (PI) and Western (PI & PhD) Europe, to question the historical course across time and space that has led to the colonisation of the night and the normalisation of nightwork. To achieve this objective, the project will hire the PhD to study Irish nightwork spaces in two sub-sectors: nightlife/recreation and travel/tourism and provide insights into the organisation of nighttime labour in the Republic of ‘Ireland and/or Northern Ireland’.

This fully funded doctoral research will focus on the Irish Nighttime Economy (NE) with a specific emphasis on the politics of marginality and the invisibility of night workers, exploring political structures and temporal regimes. The researcher will be expected to conduct ethnographic fieldwork at night focused on ir-/regular, un-/registered workers, locals and migrants, women and men (e.g. nightlife and tourism hospitality workers).

Throughout the four years of funding, the successful candidate will also be expected to engage with relevant community organisations and subjects involved in the NE, with the support of the project PI and PhD co-supervisor.

This project seeks to understand the subtle dynamics behind the expansion of NE in today’s capitalism(-s). Moreover, the aims are to question if nightwork has a ‘pro socialist’ or ‘pro capitalist’ agenda or if it subscribes to both Western and non-Western types of capitalism, from its rise of ‘modern capitalism’ to its contemporary global transformations.

The PhD candidate’s research will focus on workers in one city in the Republic of ‘Ireland and/or Northern Ireland’ for a period up to one year. Based on this in-depth ethnographic fieldwork of the NE and interacting with night, urban and migration theory, the project will theorise forms of nightwork, as fundamental in feeding nations, maintaining of cities, and in the strategic role of carrying the NE infrastructures onto the nightworkers’ bodies.

The PI and his mentor, and the PhD will be based at the University of College Cork in one of the largest and most interdisciplinary Departments in Ireland. Under the umbrella of UCC Futures – Collective Social Futures, the Department of Sociology and Criminology is home to multiple national and international projects and research teams working on issues of contemporary theoretical and social importance. This globally networked interdisciplinary platform will become the home of the successful PhD candidate, and welcome them to a collegiate community committed to advancing on issues of high relevance through social research that is policy – oriented and has impact.

Job description

The PhD researcher will – under co-supervision by the PI and his Mentor, and support from the project collaborators – immerse into the night to investigate nighttime urban dynamics, and in particularly focus on the re-occurring issues that impede access to nightwork and to decent working conditions for all people working at night, in the context of the Irish NE.

The PI is an experienced night ethnographer, and the Mentor is an experienced researcher and supervisor. The PhD will benefit immensely from their co-supervision and additionally, from the project collaborators. The PhD researcher will also be provided with in-house training and opportunities to acquire new skills and competencies to become an autonomous post-doctoral researcher.
We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated PhD candidate, who will engage thoroughly with the project's groundbreaking field to:

• Independently and effectively carve out this investigation’s segment on Irish NE; and link it to migration, urban and social theory literature on the industrial modernity’s capitalism(-s);
• Engage social theory and night ethnography in relation to the project themes in dialogue with the fieldwork;
• Through conversations with the PI and Mentor, as well as the support of project’ advisors, take initiative to develop and conduct in-depth, immersive, full-time ethnographic field research at night, with some relation to its embodied and reflexive aspects;
  Contribute bottom-up, build-on theory to critique, and develop social theory from the context of in-depth fieldwork;
• Actively seek to innovate collaborative research and dissemination activities – including graphic recording, as well as multi-modal (cyber, sonic and visual) fieldwork; and
• Write and publish social science scholarship from the research – some of which may be co-authored, all of which will be in English.

Key responsibilities

• Develop fieldwork in the Irish nighttime sub-sectors (nightlife/recreation and travel/tourism) through the nightwork lens of the project;
• Conduct in-depth fieldwork with workers migrant/local and wo/men in the above mentioned sub-sectors – with support from PI and collaborators’ advice;
• Engage respectfully with vulnerable or marginalized nightworkers during fieldwork;
• Read literature and make policy comparisons on NE, and the Eastern-Western paradigms, respectively, and conduct research focused on the Irish Nighttime segment of the project;
• Analyse ethnographic data of the Irish Nighttime segment, and interact actively with the PI through the process of analysis and theorization;
• Write and publish articles and chapters – some co-authored with co-participants – in top journals in English – and possibly in local and regional languages;
• Consider publication of special issues to disseminate findings in top journals, some of which will be in English, especially during the four years of their PhD, as well as after the project’s life time;
• Present research with the PI at conferences and panel discussions;
• Co-organize with the PI the conference in year four of the project;
• Get involved to make a positive impact on social change to the current model of nightwork, beyond the academy;
• Remain a dedicated member throughout the project’s four-year duration;
• Follow the project’s ethics and data management protocols; show concern in the welfare of co-participants; ensure participants’ ‘right-to-disappear’ from study’s findings.

Participate actively in the UCC CSF’s research activities, including being present at the UCC in Cork or during crucial times of preparation; whilst present at the fieldwork’s location, and at later phases of analysis, co-writing and discussions, conferences and workshops and in meetings. Interact actively virtually during times when the PI and Mentor are not present together at UCC and in Cork.

Eligibility criteria

Essential:

• Motivation to conduct in immersive, field ethnographic research methods, at night, ideally with embodied and reflexive components;
• Advanced / near-native written and verbal command of academic English, and English language;
• Evidence of expertise, dedication and motivation to write and publish top-quality publications in English;
• Knowledge of and interest in social theoretical, ethnographic and social science literatures relevant to nighttime, urban and migration studies, and its relation to the Irish context;
• Interest in NE, nightwork, capitalism, particularly in relation to East and West paradigms, across temporal boundaries and political regimes.

Desirable:

Language Skills  (that would be considered advantageous)

• Brazilian Conversational / Good
• Hungarian Conversational / Good
• Polish Conversational / Good
• Romanian Conversational / Good
• Turkish Conversational / Good

• Prior fieldwork experience in the nighttime economy or night studies adjacent areas (e.g. night travel/tourism, nightlife, night governance)
• Previous mobility for research experience (3 months – 6 months)
• Experience with anthropological research methods

Audio-visual technical skills (for podcasting, short documentary making) and graphic illustrations (graphic recording)

https://www.ucc.ie/en/news/2025/38m-funding-awarded-to-six-ucc-early-career-researchers-in-research-ireland-pathway-programme-awards.html