The Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford has 3-year graduate scholarship on topics related to a new ERC-funded project. The successful candidate will work with Dr. Erdem Yörük on his project that investigates the political causes of welfare state development in emerging market economies (summary below).

Deadline for applications is 31 May 2017

Candidates with MSc degree in social sciences and research interest in social welfare and emerging market economies as well as quantitative research methods are encouraged to apply.

This is a 3-year fully-funded scholarship, covering university and college fees as well as maintenance costs. In addition, funds for additional research costs such as travel, conference participation, in‐house events, and outreach events such as training and summer schools will be available. Travel to case countries may be required.

The successful candidate is expected to complete their doctoral dissertation within the scope of the ERC project and to conduct research in related work packages of the project. The proposed doctoral research should be original and feasible and should be relevant to the broader ERC project.

Application online through the University of Oxford’s Graduate Admissions Portal (please visit: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/applying-to-oxford/application-guide?wssl=1). The application pack should include the following documents: application form, a brief description of the proposed research (2000-2500 words), transcripts and three recommendation letters.

The Department of Social Policy and Intervention is a multidisciplinary social science centre of excellence for research and teaching in social policy and evidence-based social intervention. Learn more about the Department here: http://www.spi.ox.ac.uk

Doctoral students follow a unique graduate programme tailored to their individual needs and supervised and supported by internationally renowned academics. In addition, we offer a large and diverse range of seminars, workshops and advanced training opportunities in order to further enhance postgraduate research experience. Most of our doctoral students find jobs in leading research universities, international organisations or government departments.

 For enquiries, please contact Dr. Erdem Yörük (eryoruk@ku.edu.tr).

The New Politics of Welfare: Towards an “Emerging Markets” Welfare State Regime (ERC Starting Grant)

This research project aims to identify a new welfare regime in emerging market economies and explain why it has emerged. The project will compare Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey to test two hypotheses: (i) emerging market economies are forming a new welfare regime that differs from liberal, corporatist and social democratic welfare regimes of the global north on the basis of extensive and decommodifying social assistance programmes, (ii) the new welfare regime emerges principally as a response to the growing political power of the poor as a dual source of threat and support for governments. Based on a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, the project follows a multi-method strategy that combines state-of-the-art computer-based protest event data collection techniques, macro-historical methods, quantitative data analyses and qualitative content analysis.