Postdoctoral Researcher in Anthropology - Digitalisation in Greenhouse Horticulture - Meertens

At the Meertens Institute (KNAW) in Amsterdam, there is an opportunity for 1 Postdoctoral Researcher in Anthropology — Digitalisation in Greenhouse Horticulture within the ERC Starting Grant project Greenhouses as Vital Landscapes: Sustainability, Relationality, and the Future of Food (VITALGREENHOUSE), led by Dr. Rebeca Ibáñez Martín.

The Ethnology department invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher position within this multisited anthropological project, which takes an ethnographic approach to analyse how sustainability is enacted by diverse actors in two European horticultural greenhouse hubs, the Netherlands and Spain.

VITALGREENHOUSE is designed to meet three main objectives:

1. Identify the diverse ways that sustainability is understood and performed in different greenhouse practices and by different greenhouse actors, including humans and non-humans.
2. Analyse historical, environmental, and social dimensions of industrial greenhouses in order to deepen knowledge of the greenhouse industrial complex and its relation to sustainability.
3. Conceptualise greenhouses as vital landscapes in order to develop a new analytical framework that theorises sustainability as a relational practice.

The Position

Digital agricultural innovations are often framed by policymakers, international organisations, and private actors as key drivers of sustainable agricultural transitions. This postdoctoral position focuses on the digitalisation of greenhouse horticulture, one of the most contested political and socio-ecological dimensions of contemporary industrial food production.

Industrial greenhouse horticulture is heavily concentrated in two key European regions: Westland (the Netherlands) and Almería (Spain), both of which have become focal points of public concern and scientific debate about the future of food, sustainability, and the broader socio-ecological effects of industrial agriculture.

You will investigate the relationship between digitalisation and sustainability within the framework of the EU Green Deal, developing your own empirical case study in consultation with the PI to produce an ethnographic account of digitalisation in greenhouse horticulture.

The research will be guided by questions such as:

• How are greenhouses responding to, or resisting, European sustainability visions and the particular forms of knowledge and practice these entail?
• What digital systems are being introduced for automating climate control, recognising pests, guiding harvesting, or codifying green knowledge, and how are the humans working in greenhouses engaging with such systems?
• What new dependencies, power relations, and subjectivities does digitalisation produce among growers, workers, and other actors?
• How do specific innovations, such as new LED lighting systems, accommodate or interfere with the lives of insects living and labouring in and around the greenhouse?

These transformations encumber farmers and workers with new dependencies, socialities, and knowledge systems, yet their social, political, and more-than-human dimensions remain poorly understood.

You will conduct fieldwork in the Netherlands, Spain, or both countries, depending on your prior research experience. Candidates with previous fieldwork experience in one or both countries are particularly encouraged to consider a comparative approach spanning both sites.

Your Tasks

• Design and conduct ethnographic fieldwork on a case study surrounding the digitalisation of greenhouse horticulture, including participant observation, interviews, and literature revision.
• Develop your own case study for the work package in close collaboration with the PI.
• Participate actively in the VITALGREENHOUSE research team, consisting of the PI, one PhD candidate, one Postdoc, and a co-supervisor.
• Publish 2 peer-reviewed articles.
• Provide supervision support to the PhD candidate, particularly during fieldwork.
• Reside in Amsterdam, or within commuting distance, when not conducting fieldwork, and actively participate in team meetings and the research environment at the Institute.

Requirements

Essential:

• A doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Human Geography, or a closely related field within the social sciences. The degree must be obtained by the time of appointment.
• Demonstrable experience in ethnographic fieldwork.
• A track record for publishing in peer-reviewed academic journals.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team.
• A commitment to academic integrity and transparency.

Desirable:

• Affinity with Science and Technology Studies (STS).
• Previous engagement with topics such as infrastructure studies, agricultural transitions, sustainability, or political ecology.
• Oral and written communication skills in Dutch and/or Spanish.
• Prior fieldwork experience in the Netherlands or Spain.

What We Offer

• A 2-year postdoctoral contract at 0.8 FTE, embedded within an active and internationally connected ERC project.
• Access to the KNAW career development programme, including Dutch language courses, academic writing support, and grant writing training.
• An intellectually stimulating environment at the Meertens Institute, a research institute within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), located in Amsterdam.
• You will also be affiliated with the Health Care and the Body program group of the Anthropology department of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

About Meertens

The Meertens Institute, together with the International Institute of Social History and the Huygens ING, is part of the KNAW Humanities Cluster.

The Meertens Institute is a national institute for research and documentation of the Dutch language and culture, and language and culture in the Netherlands. It consists of the research groups Ethnology and Variational Linguistics, both of which hold leading positions in international research on everyday language and culture.