We’re recruiting!  We are seeking two postdoctoral researchers to work on the Programmable City project to (1) unpack data assemblages, and (2) examine big data industry and smart cities.
These posts will complement the existing research team.

Post 1: Unpacking a data assemblage, including the associated technological stack
Adopting a critical data studies approach, this researcher will examine in depth, and compare and contrast, two data assemblages, mostly likely operating in the public sector.  The aim is to gain a detailed conceptual and empirical understanding from a social sciences perspective of how data infrastructures are on the one hand technically assembled (through a technical stack composed of hardware, networks, software, algorithms, data, interfaces) and operated using a set of technical and social practices, and how their production and operation is socially, politically, legally and economically framed.  The empirical research will consist primarily of ethnographic work within organisations, along with in-depth interviews with key actors and stakeholders.

Post 2:  Big data industry and smart cities
This researcher will, on the one hand, examine in depth the development of big data industries in Dublin and Boston, examining the big data ecosystem (including big data analytics and data brokers) and its associated discursive regime, and on the other, examine how big data are being mobilised and deployed within smart city initiatives as part of big data assemblages.  The aim is to gain a detailed conceptual and empirical understanding of the development and use of big data and big data analytics within the private and public sector to complement existing project work on open data, and how big data are being deployed in practice in cities and any associated consequences.  The empirical research will consist primarily of in-depth interviews with key actors and stakeholders and one and two case studies of urban big data initiatives.

There will be some latitude to re-jig these projects in negotiation with the principal investigator in order to fit the interests, expertise and experience of the appointed researchers.

Full details can be found on the Maynooth University vacancies page (labelled
Post Doctoral Researcher x 2 – NIRSA).