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[ecrea] Postdoctoral researcher position at UNamur (BE) in media literacy in the workplace

Wed May 04 10:25:58 GMT 2016





*Post-doctoral researcher position at the Université de Namur (UNamur, Belgium)*

The Research Center in Information, Law and Society (CRIDS, UNamur) is currently looking for outstanding candidates (m/f) for a post-doctoral research on “digital media uses and competences in new work practices” as part of LITME@WORK, a larger, multi-university research project (see below for description).

Candidates should send a complete CV and a cover letter highlighting their skills and motivation to join the project to Anne-Sophie Collard (<mailto:(anne-sophie.collard /at/ unamur.be)?subject=Candidate%20LITME@WORK>(anne-sophie.collard /at/ unamur.be)) before 23rd May 2016.

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Profile*

- PhD in Information and Communication
- Fields: media education, digital and media literacy, digital media uses, or teamwork practices - Otherwise, close academic profile, confirmed by studies and PhD in at least one of the above areas. - Experience in research methods related to case study analysis and qualitative data collection and analysis.
- Experience in research coordination or project management is an asset.
- French (native or bilingual) and English (fluent). Dutch is an asset.
- Driver’s licence.

Duration of commitment: from 15th August 2016 to 28th February 2019.

Nature of the contract: “Chargé de recherche” (postdoctoral researcher), part time (75%).

Primary location: Namur, Belgium.

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Research Project: LITME@WORK
Digital and media literacy in teamwork and distance work environments*

LITME@WORK is a four-year research project funded by Belspo (started in March 2015), coordinated by the Université de Namur, with the Université catholique de Louvain, the Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
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Research area_

Digital and media literacy / Science and technology studies / Sociology of ICT uses / Organization theory_
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Keywords___
Teamwork, Work at a distance, Competences, Digital and media literacy, ICT uses
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Summary of the overall project_

Digital technology has become ubiquitous in the workplace, especially for office workers. New ways of working individually and collectively gradually emerge, supported by both technological and social evolutions. For example, workers have to deal with increasing quantities of information and need to develop strategies to avoid information overload, teleworking becomes more and more common over the years, coordination between several people through (synchronous and asynchronous) computer-mediated communication has become commonplace, and workers equipped with mobile technologies may be required to perform part of their professional activities in mobile contexts. All these situations raise questions regarding the evolution of the infrastructures provided by organizations, the changing ways through which work is achieved by individuals, the new set of competences that they need to have, and the now complex relationships between one’s professional activity and private life. LITME@WORK will explore those questions in relation to office work practices, from clerical work to managerial tasks, focusing on ICT-supported teamwork and work at a distance.

Specifically, LITME@WORK will investigate the digital and media literacy (DML) competences called for by today’s evolving, technology-supported environment of work. These interrelated informational, technical and social competences are indeed required for practicing teamwork and work at a distance, as visible in activities such as distance collaboration, different types of teamwork, personal and shared information management, re-creating and maintaining one’s personal work environment throughout contexts of work, or managing a team at a distance. As main research questions, LITME@WORK will ask (1) how is DML addressed and practiced in today’s office work and (2) how can DML be further integrated in emerging team/distance work structures and practices in order to support efficient, stimulating and meaningful ways of working. Starting from these questions, LITME@WORK will pursue four objectives: (i) understanding changing work environments and their DML requirements, (ii) developing a systemic approach to DML in team/distance office work, (iii) providing resources for societal and policy stakeholders, and (iv) contributing to research efforts in relevant fields of research (DML studies, science and technology studies (STS), sociology of innovation, sociology of ICT uses, human-computer interaction studies, organisation theory, research on job quality and learning at work).

Relying mainly on qualitative analyses, LITME@WORK will investigate DML from three different but complementary perspectives, each corresponding to one work package: the social configuration and appropriation of (DML) competence frames within and across organizations, the relationship between work organization, workplace design and structural conditions for (DML) competence utilization and learning, and the relationship between digital media uses and competences in employees’ new work practices (see below). Each approach uses its specific methods, related to its focus and theoretical framework, but the overall methodological structure is the same across the work packages, the case studies are tightly coordinated and the final results will be integrated.

The project intends to provide an up-to-date, encompassing knowledge of DML in teamwork and work at a distance, which will enhance stakeholders’ understanding of DML and their capacity to take action. Specifically, LITME@WORK will deliver as main research results: a research framework for analysing the many aspects of DML in teamwork/distance work practices and environments, ranging from the broader context of organization structures to the point of view of individual workers themselves; an in-depth analysis of the ways in which organizations understand and negotiate the “(digitally) competent worker”; an up-to-date description of the changing office work competences, practices and structures, with a focus on teamwork and distance work trends; and a conceptual map and set of measurable indicators for DML competences aimed at serving as a resource for societal and policy stakeholders in terms of defining, evaluating, monitoring, recognizing and supporting DML in office work.

_Summary of the two work packages related to the post-doctoral researcher:_

1) WP1-Overall coordination of the project
The overarching aim of this work package is to coordinate the workplan and organize the dissemination of the research outputs. This WP includes the following tasks: - General management. The general management consists in managing the day-to-day administration of the project, which includes managing internal communication and contacts with the follow-up committee and the BELSPO administration, planning and preparing coordination meetings with the partners, reporting on activities and finance, and feeding the project website with content. - Coordinating communication tools development (i.e. website, information sharing space). - Coordinating the follow-up committee. The follow-up committee brings together representatives from a range of actors (e.g. policy makers, public administrations, professional bodies, trade unions, ICT sector, academia) who feed the research with their needs, interests and insights. - Coordinating the integration of the work packages. LITME@WORK brings together partners who have different backgrounds, each addressing one specific aspect of DML in the context of team or distance work. - Disseminating the research outputs. The aim of this task is to disseminate findings to social actors, decision makers, scientific experts and other stakeholders.

2) WP4-Digital Media Uses and Competences In New Work Practices
In order to study the competences called for and developed by ICT-supported teamwork and distance work practices, the proposed research will veer away from tool-oriented approaches that reduce digital competences to technology-related operational skills. Such approaches define their unit of analysis based on the use of specific software or hardware tools by workers. Instead, we consider the new work-related competences under its scrutiny as sets of interrelated informational, technical and social competences that form a subset of the individual’s digital and media literacy. Hence, the candidate will collect and analyse data based on categories of activities involved in emerging work practices. Unlike the majority of research works dedicated to DML competences, which define such competences a priori before attempting to validate their definition, the objective pursued in this project is the very definition of these competences, from the perspective of workers, based on field observation, along with the definition of indicators for these competences.

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Anne-Sophie COLLARD
Chargée de cours en communication
Directrice du Département des Sciences politiques, sociales et de la communication
Centre de Recherche Information, Droit et Société (CRIDS)

(anne-sophie.collard /at/ unamur.be) <mailto:(anne-sophie.collard /at/ unamur.be)>
http://staff.unamur.be/ascollar

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