"Postdoc Impact of Computational Infrastructures on Public Institutions and Administration of Justice"

This is an opening for a two-year postdoc position in the NWO algosoc Project, located with our research group at TU Delft. We invite applications from candidates who are interested in taking a technically informed political economic approach to empirically researching the expansion of computational infrastructures into public institutions. We are especially interested in candidates who want to move the needle from tech reformist projects towards reimagining other socio-technical-economic futures that respect public values and interests in the making. This position is an exciting opportunity for scholars who like to do impactful research in transdisciplinary settings.

Background and Context of the Project: Over the last years, players in academia, tech policy and public institutions have started demonstrating greater consciousness of the power of “clouds”. Popular discussions revolve around the topics of data protection, algorithmic regulation, and asymmetric ‘technological dependencies’ that raise concerns around monopolies and “digital sovereignty”. Different scholars have located the power of clouds in market devices like intellectual monopolies (Rikap) or assetization (Birch), or in infrastructural aspects like computing arrangements for scale (Narayan), data-driven supply chains (Cobbe), or infrastructuralization of platforms (Plantin). These approaches have in common that they take either a data- or compute-centric view on what drives the industry while exploring the various economic, legal or technical mechanisms to engage with these developments.

In the Programmable Infrastructures Project based in TU Delft, we add to these family of approaches by taking software production as our main protagonist. We ask how software production has come to increasingly take place in an agile production environment we call ‘computational infrastructures’, concentrated in the hands of a few companies. These infrastructures consist of ‘public clouds’ with global reach as well as end-devices, like smart phones, necessary to produce digital services. We empirically study how computational infrastructures develop over time through shifts in software production. We do so to critically engage with these transformations and explore more equitable ways of organizing the technological interdependencies that shape our societies.

Situated within the context of the algosoc project, this postdoc position will inquire into how computational infrastructures expand into and impact public institutions in the justice sector. The project will seek to understand how software production -- the practices, economic models and material conditions necessary to deliver digital services-- undergirds computational infrastructures’ expansion into different sectors under the heading of “digitalization”. Marketed with the promise of making organizations as programmable as computational systems, services developed in these infrastructures are expected to bring with them improvements in the management of resources, innovation of operations, and economic gains to public institutions. However, the underlying software production models often require public organizations to adopt new technical, economic, governance, and labor frameworks—changes that may have far-reaching consequences beyond what is currently anticipated.

The candidate is invited to collaborate with existing projects in algosoc on Automated Decision-Making Systems (ADMs) in order to identify how their delivery as services enable or deter computational infrastructures expansion into public sector organizations. The empirical collaborations will provide a deeper understanding of how computational infrastructures reconfigure public organizations and the administration of justice. Ultimately, we hope the findings will serve to evaluate whether and how associated changes and challenges are reflected in the public imaginary as well as in existing digital policies aimed to govern these developments.

Being part of the algosoc project comes with a community of support but also responsibilities, which include: Developing, conducting, and publishing research on project topics; Contributing to the public debate, advocacy and organization of outreach activities of algosoc; Contributing to the overall program in terms of events, research meetings, activities; Collaborating with other researchers within the algosoc consortium; Participating in the development of a project internal digital infrastructure; Giving guest-lectures in the area of your expertise at BA or MA level including our internal courses on Computational Infrastructures; Helping in co-supervising research projects of students working on related topics.

Job requirements: The candidate has completed a PhD in a relevant field including but not limited to STS, Computer Science, or Organizational, Software or Infrastructure studies. This project requires the ability to conduct interdisciplinary literature research and empirical studies combining qualitative methods and perspectives from political economy. The position requires enthusiasm for engagement with current computational infrastructures (cloud + end devices concentrated in the hands of a few companies), with some understanding of their technicalities, financials or everyday practices underlying their production. A critical perspective on technology production and institutional processes, as well as experience working with technologists will help in conducting the project. The ideal candidate: has a clear research interest in the topic of the project and enthusiasm for joining our research group on Programmable Infrastructures (https://www.tudelft.nl/tbm/onze-faculteit/afdelingen/multi-actor-systems/onderzoek/projects/programmable-infrastructures-project); has excellent written and spoken command of English, as demonstrated by publications in English-language journals (written and spoken command of Dutch is not required but is a plus); is able to conduct autonomous work in a transdisciplinary team that includes legal scholars, communication scholars, economists, ethicists and computer scientists; has experience with organising workshops, lecture series, and similar events; is based in the Netherlands sufficient time to collaborate with algosoc researchers and partake in project activities regularly.

At TU Delft, we are committed to creating an environment of mutual respect, inclusiveness, and equal opportunities.