PhD Position on the Geography of Online Labour Platforms

The department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning is looking for a PhD candidate who will develop a geographical perspective on the emerging phenomenon of online labour platforms.

Your job

Online labour platforms play an important role in organising the global outsourcing of tasks. Online labour platforms bring together providers and requesters of short-term tasks that can be executed completely online, such as visual design or annotating data to train AI models. Online labour platforms come with the promise of allowing individuals located in more remote or less connected regions to benefit from economic opportunities. Yet, initial evidence suggests that participation in online labour platforms is spatially uneven, hence their benefits and implications too.

As a PhD candidate, you will develop a geographical perspective, which can include topics such as:

• the geography of online platform job requesters and job seekers;
• the tasks and skill requirements of online platform jobs and their differences across regions;
• how drivers of worker participation in online labour platforms are shaped by geography;
• the spatially uneven implications for worker outcomes and wellbeing.

Main responsibilities include:

• designing the research project focusing on topics related to the geography of online labour platforms;
• collecting, processing and analysing data relevant for the research project;
• writing and publishing research papers with supervisors in fulfilment of the PhD requirements;
• presenting your research at (inter)national conferences, workshops, and seminars;
• completing a dissertation within four years;
• contributing to the teaching and supervision activities of the department.

You will be based at the Economic Geography Section of the department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning. The spatiality of the digital transition is one of key strategic research themes at the department. You will work under the supervision of Dr Deyu Li,Dr Damion Bunders and Professor Carolina Castaldi.

Your qualities

We expect the PhD candidate to have a strong interest in topics related to the digital economy and online labour markets. We welcome applicants from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including economic geography, sociology, economics, innovation studies, media studies, development studies, and other related fields in social sciences.

We are looking for candidates with:

• a passion for research;
• quantitative analytical skills including data analytics and statistics; experience with web scraping or large scale online data is welcome;
• a strong interest in interdisciplinary approaches;
• excellent writing skills, demonstrated through a writing sample such as your Master's thesis;
• ability to work independently and communicate professionally;
• proficiency in spoken and written English (C1 level);
• motivation to develop teaching skills.

Our offer

We offer:

• a position for one year, with an extension to a total of four years upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period;
• a working week of 36 hours and a gross monthly salary between €2,770 and €3,539 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.