PhD position in Sociology: Security culture, trust and society in the age of digital identity

About The Position

The Department of Sociology and Political Science (ISS) has a vacancy for a PhD research fellow in sociology. This position is suited for candidates interested in critical, interpretive and ethnographic approaches to the study of security, power and digital technology in society, and in exploring how these shape cultural practices, democratic processes and social life through the case of digital identity infrastructures.

In this position, you will conduct research as part of the project Cryptology and social life: Sovereignty, security and society meet digital wallets, while achieving your doctorate degree. In this manner, you will gain valuable experience that qualifies you for a further career in higher education, research and other sectors requiring analytic skills, both within and outside academia. The position is situated within NTNU’s interdisciplinary area “A more resilient society” (“Et mer motstandsdyktig samfunn”), and affiliated with the interdisciplinary research project “Cryptology and social life” and NTNU’s interdisciplinary team “Democratic resilience” (Demokratisk motstandskraft). You will also become part of the research groups “Technology and social change” and “Ethnography” at ISS, ISS’ junior scholar seminars, and the national research school on “Digitalization, Culture and Society.” Thus, the position offers excellent opportunities for academic development, research collaboration, conference participation, international publication, and engagement with societal actors. The position is for 4 years, including one year of promotion work such as teaching. Your immediate leader will be the Head of Department.

About The Project

The PhD position is part of a group of four PhD’s forming the core of the NTNU funded interdisciplinary project “Cryptology and social life: Sovereignty, security and society meet digital wallets", combining sociology, STS, ethnography, ICT, and cryptology perspectives. The EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Walleti is currently being deployed, with the intention to provide citizens with easier and expanded access to public and private services. Digital identity wallets will potentially become a critical socio-technical infrastructure also in Norway, and raises challenges related to issues such as privacy, fairness, stakeholder engagement and securityi. On this background the project's overall goal is to develop knowledge, methodologies and competencies that strengthen Norway's ability to deploy and maintain secure, privacy-preserving and democratically aligned digital identity wallets. Truly interdisciplinary, the challenges cut across issues of digital sovereignty, identity management, security technologies, and sociotechnical practices and imaginaries. Presently, critical, digital infrastructures are strongly dependent on foreign technology platforms, which limits the options for maintaining national and democratic control and accountabilityi. This is a sociotechnical challenge that entails mobilizing political, institutional and citizen knowledge, engagement and support.
As a critical societal infrastructure we need to understand how various actors such as citizens, user groups, employees, and institutions perceive and use digital identity wallets. As sociotechnically embedded infrastructure, digital wallets can be seen as “cultural practices” that are both entangled with and contribute to shaping individuals and social life, and fundamental social concepts such as power and trust, freedom and dominance, autonomy and control. The PhD project investigates how digital identity technologies such as EUDI Wallet contributes to shaping such perceptions and practices in the emerging digital society, including the cultural foundations of risk perceptions and security practices. The methods and approaches are based on ethnography and include empirical case studies, qualitative interviews, observations and document analysis.
Applicants are expected to develop a proposal that explains what you consider the societal relevance of this topic, as well as how you plan to contribute to the project’s agenda, suggesting relevant theoretical perspectives, and your thoughts on research design and the way forward. We particularly welcome proposals that engage critically with questions of security, power, identity, democracy, and lived experience, and that demonstrate conceptual ambition. Either in the attached application letter or project outline, you are encouraged to demonstrate some familiarity with ongoing debates on digital identity wallets and infrastructures, and explain your personal motivation for the topic.

Duties of the position

• Complete the doctoral education ( Sociology – Programme Components – Social Sciences
  - NTNU )until obtaining a doctorate
• Develop and carry out an independent research project, including data collection, analysis, and academic writing, representing high-quality research with