Research Assistant at the Institute for Analytical Sociology

Research Assistant in Analytical Sociology We have the power of over 40,000 students and employees. Students who provide hope for the future. Employees who contribute daily to Linköping University addressing contemporary challenges. Our core values rest on credibility, trust, and security. By being brave, thinking freely, and creating something new, we collectively build a better future through big and small actions. Welcome to apply for a job with us! We are now seeking a Research Assistant in Analytical Sociology at the Department of Economic and Industrial Development. About the Position The position is part of the research program "Observatory of Poverty". Approximately 900 million people, one-third in Africa, live in extreme poverty. Assuming that daily life in poverty can trap people in poverty cycles, influential development organizations like the World Bank have invested billions of dollars to break these cycles through poverty interventions. However, researchers lack methodological tools to answer questions about the extent of poverty traps and the degree to which these interventions liberate societies from poverty. The project aims to identify the extent to which African societies are trapped in poverty cycles and explain how competing development interventions change these societies' opportunities to escape scarcity. To achieve this goal, the project will (i) train machine learning algorithms to identify poverty traps from satellite images between 1990 and 2020; (ii) use these poverty data to examine how the World Bank and competing development programs from China affect poverty levels in these societies, (iii) use results from (i) and (ii) to develop a theory about the types of poverty traps that exist in Africa and how different interventions unlock these traps. The project involves researchers from sociology and computer science. The work primarily involves contributing to answering research questions (ii) and (iii), and also (i) if needed. Refer to the English job posting for further project description. Specifically, the tasks include: • Preparing geotemporal data for causal inference. • Leading and supporting research articles based on the two research questions. • Conducting literature reviews, compiling key results, and identifying remaining research questions. About You Requirements for the position: • A bachelor's or master's degree in social sciences with a strong quantitative and computational focus, or equivalent education in computer science or statistics. Expected qualifications: • Excellent communication skills in English, both written and spoken. • Excellent coding skills in R, Python, or equivalent languages. • Research interest in causal inference (e.g., Morgan and Winship, 2014, Counterfactuals and Causal Inference or Imbens and Rubin, 2015, Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences, or Pearl, 2016, Causal Inference in Statistics) • The candidate should have produced academic articles, with at least one publication in high-quality peer-reviewed journals or at least one working paper manuscript. Desired qualifications include: • Working with temporal and geographical data (or the willingness and ability to learn to use such data). • Experience using machine learning models is welcome (or the willingness and ability to learn to use such data). • Research interest in global development, poverty, inequality, governance, international organizations and institutions, Chinese politics, World Bank, social demography, political sociology, or political economy. Your Workplace The position is located at the Institute for Analytical Sociology on Norrköping Campus. About the Position The position is full-time for 12 months. Start as soon as possible. Salary and Benefits Linköping University applies individual salary setting. Read more about employee benefits here. Union Contact Persons Information about union contact persons can be found in the Help for Applicants section. Application Welcome to submit your application with CV and cover letter by November 26, 2025. You apply for this position by clicking the "Apply" button below. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, which enrich and develop our organization. We are committed to protecting the equal value, rights, and opportunities for all. Read about our Equal Opportunities work. Welcome with your application! Linköping University has procurement agreements and requests no direct contact from staffing and recruitment companies or job advertisement sales representatives.