This is a fixed-term, 24-month post-doctoral position under the supervision of Dr. Richard Rijnks. The aim of this post-doctoral position is to gain insights into the complex interactions between, on the one hand, social entrepreneurs and vulnerable individuals in rural areas, and, on the other hand, mental healthcare providers and individuals in vulnerable situations. The key methodological tools for these studies are digital ethnography and conventional primary data collection (surveys, interviews). The post is part of two Horizon Europe projects: INSPIRE and EQUICARES.
INSPIRE is a three year EU Horizon project that aims to provide a thorough understanding of social inclusion, trends, and challenges in rural areas. It is specifically targeted towards hard-to-reach populations, and aims to incorporate novel methodological advances to improve our understanding of these processes and point towards potential interventions. EQUICARES is a four year EU Horizon project that will investigate inequalities to mental health service accessibility for people in vulnerable situations, identify potential solutions, and pilot innovative activities tailored towards vulnerable populations.
The University of Groningen is responsible for deploying both conventional and novel methods for data analysis to study the way that providers of services for vulnerable groups interact with their populations. For both INSPIRE and EQUICARES, this involves using digital ethnographies within existing online communities to establish the patterns of interactions and manner of diffusion of service provision. These data will be complemented by data from a bespoke survey, designed and analysed by other members of the team.
The results from the digital ethnographies will feed into spatial micro-simulation and agent-based-modelling. This post-doc will be responsible for conducting these tasks. The spatial microsimulation will create maps that cover the pilot areas and show where demand for either social services, or mental health provision are expected to be higher or lower. The agent based modelling will form an innovation where we attempt to create business models and descriptions of best practices for social inclusion and mental health care.
The post-doctoral researcher will work with an international team of researchers across Europe. The University of Groningen team of researchers also includes Prof. Dimitris Ballas, Prof. Aleid Brouwer, Prof. Viola Angelini, and Prof. Milena Nikolova. You will be based in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences and will be responsible for liaising with relevant partners and for collecting and analyzing suitable datasets as well as for developing suitable digital ethnographic models. You will also take the lead in the analysis of model outputs and writing up the results as scientific manuscripts.