3505626CC - Research Fellow - Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE) project


Company:	University of Southampton
Salary:	£36,636 to £44,746 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Working pattern:	On-site
Job type:	Contract
Posting date:	18 Sept 2026
Closing date:	16 Oct 2026

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Summary

We are delighted to welcome applications for the position of Research Fellow within a new ERC-funded research group on Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE): Rethinking Conceptual, Ontological and Methodological Foundations (https://poppieproject.com/).

The project aims to develop new ways of understanding how citizens and other political actors think their political institutions should function. Existing surveys like the European Social Survey show extremely strong support for liberal democratic values across Europe, yet people are increasingly voting for far-right parties that reject exactly these values.

To make sense of this conundrum, we need to shift away from researching democratic attitudes as a choice between alternative normative models of democracy, such as representative democracy versus direct democracy. Instead, we require an approach that is psychologically more realistic and more closely approximates the reality of the complex democratic systems we inhabit, which do not correspond to the neat conceptual delineations of democratic theories.

The post holder will take a prominent role in developing the conceptual and methodological innovations to create and operationalise the new approach by designing, conducting and analysing original survey research. This will involve connecting with the projects qualitative work, for instance; focus groups and cognitive interviewing to better understand the nature and content of political process preferences, then using the insights from this work to create survey experiments that will test the new approach. The post-holder will take a role in all stages of this process, from conceptualisation to data collection and analysis, as well as writing up and presenting the findings. As such, there is scope for the post-holder to bring their own skills and interests to influence the direction of the research.

This research position will be based in the Department of Politics and International Relations within the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the University of Southampton, and the work will be carried out under the supervision of Rikki Dean (principal investigator of the project). You will join a vibrant Department with a high concentration of scholars at all career levels researching related themes in the Public Opinion Research Network and the Centre for Behavioural, Experimental and Action Research. The position also comes with its own budget for travel and professional development.

To be successful you will have completed your PhD in a relevant (or equivalent professional qualifications). You will have: a strong background in survey research, with previous experience of survey experiments desirable; a track record of research on the political attitudes of the public and/or other key political actors; a facility for solving conceptual and methodological problems; the ability to plan and organise work independently and as part of a team; the ability to write research presentations and papers for peer-reviewed publication. An interest in combining insights from quantitative and qualitative research is also desirable.

The Research Fellow post is full-time fixed term with a negotiable start date. Hybrid working is possible for this post.

Please included a cover letter and CV when submitting your application.

The University of Southampton holds an Athena SWAN Silver Award demonstrating commitment to equal opportunities in the workplace.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Rikki Dean, email: r.j.dean@soton.ac.uk

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