Position
The Unit of Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) is inviting applications for a PhD Position (100%) in the research project «Digital Agriculture: Sino-European Contrasts, Correspondences and Collaborations».
Starting date: 1 August 2024 (or by agreement). The position is limited to four years.
Description
The successful PhD candidate will conduct research within the Ambizione project «Digital agriculture: Sino-European contrasts, correspondences and collaborations» funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The project is headed by Dr. Lena Kaufmann. Based on the example of the digitalization of agriculture through drones/UAVs in China, Germany and Switzerland, the overall objectives of this project are to gain an in-depth, actor-centered understanding of the challenges and opportunities of agricultural digitalization through drones, and to use this as a case for understanding broader reconfigurations of global hierarchies of digital technologies and knowledge. The project consists of two studies exploring the use of agricultural drones in the Sino-German context (PhD candidate) and in the Sino-Swiss context (PI). Together, the two subprojects aim to better understand the digitalization of agriculture, especially from the farmers’ perspectives, to assess its social implications and contribute to responsible innovation. A further goal of the project is to achieve more comprehensive, actor-centered insights into China’s role in global food security, shedding light on the challenges related to the implementation of digital agricultural technologies in a transnational context.
