Postdoctoral Researcher – Project “Analysing and Critiquing Relations of Inequality” (Political Philosophy/Theory)

A Postdoctoral Researcher is required to work on the Faculty of Humanities-funded project, “Analysing and Critiquing Relations of Inequality, directed by Christian Schemmel, MANCEPT, Department of Politics, University of Manchester [UoM].

The position starts on 1 October 2023 and the contract is for 18 months. The Postdoctoral Researcher will be based within MANCEPT in the Department of Politics, in the School of Social Sciences.

The Project: Analysing and Critiquing Relations of Inequality

This is a project in the political philosophy of justice and equality with significant interdisciplinary elements. It connects with inequality research in other disciplines, especially sociology of class. According to relational egalitarianism, the value of equality requires that social and political relations be free from hierarchies of unchecked power, respect, and social status. This ideal has gained traction in the recent literature, but relational egalitarians have settled neither what social hierarchy is and what is unjust about it, exactly, nor what the main concrete implications of the ideal are for contemporary societies.

Relational egalitarians frequently use, for heuristic purposes, ideal-typical examples in which one person enjoys comprehensive, arbitrary power over her inferiors (as masters do over slaves), or in which a comprehensive hierarchy of respect and esteem reigns supreme (as in feudal or caste societies). Yet this is mostly not how hierarchy works in our societies, where mechanisms of domination and status differentiation are subtler, and more manifold and multidimensional, rarely leading to rigid rankings. Analyses of social class promise to yield a clearer and more nuanced view of the kinds of hierarchies at work in these societies, and are crucial for explaining the nature of individual encounters on a footing of inequality. A sustained focus on connecting theories of relational equality to sociological research on class can thus serve to test their coherence and plausibility, develop them further, and deliver more targeted and applicable policy and institutional implications.

The project has two parallel strands. The first focuses on the questions of which asymmetries in social relations are (in)compatible with relational egalitarian demands of justice, in domestic or international settings, and on the relationship between the basic moral equality of persons and relational equality. The second focuses on what relational egalitarianism in political philosophy and theory can learn from research on social class in contemporary sociology (e.g. from Bourdieusian approaches). It asks how philosophical accounts of non-domination, and of equality of respect, status, and social esteem have to be reformulated and adapted to be able to account adequately for class-based generation and reproduction of social inequality.

The PI Christian Schemmel will focus on the second strand. The Postdoctoral Researcher will focus on the first strand, with or without a similar interdisciplinary focus (on social class or other domestic or international issues of relevance to social inequality). Please outline your proposed research and how it will fit with the larger project in a one-page research proposal.

The Postdoctoral Researcher will be based at the Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT), enjoying full integration into its very active and supportive research environment.

Working under the guidance of the P.I., you will have responsibility for undertaking and publishing independent research of high international quality on social equality in line with the project description, as well as for project management and organisation duties.

Interviews are expected to be held in the week commencing 15 May 2023.

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Our University is positive about flexible working – you can find out more here

Blended working arrangements may be considered.

Please note that we are unable to respond to enquiries, accept CVs or applications from Recruitment Agencies.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Christian Schemmel

Email: christian.schemmel@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:

Email: People.recruitment@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support:

https://jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Please see the link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria.