Junior Professorship (W1) “Urban and Regional Sociology”

The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) bundles top-level research and transfer at an international level, thereby creating an interdisciplinary innovation network and an excellent science and technology location. Together with its renowned partners, the BTU forms the Lausitz Science Network - an alliance of research institutions that together want to further develop the strengths of the science location Cottbus-Senftenberg and increase its visibility. Through innovative research and new teaching and learning formats, the BTU is shaping the future: with scientific findings and practice-relevant solutions, it is helping to shape the major issues of the future and transformation processes. In four profile lines - "Energy Transition and Decarbonization," "Health and Life Sciences," "Global Change and Transformation Processes," and "Artificial Intelligence and Sensor Technology" - it combines its strengths in teaching and research across institutes and faculties.

At its locations in Cottbus and Senftenberg, the BTU guarantees its students a challenging education, individual support and the opportunity to learn from and with each other with curiosity and openness. The BTU stands for an inspiring atmosphere of learning and research in a dialogical, democratic cooperation of all: The diversity of our faculty and students enables innovation and progress in Lusatia.

The Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner near Berlin is a non-university research institute and a member of the Leibniz Association. It researches how social transformations affect the development of cities, villages and regions. The focus is on individuals, actor groups, and institutions that actively shape these changes. With its orientation on applied research, the institute contributes to the understanding of current and historical problems. The IRS advises actors from politics, administrations, economy, culture and civil society on questions of spatial development. It provides impulses for the future development of social spaces.

The Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning invites applications in a joint appointment procedure with the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research (IRS) in Erkner near Berlin for a

JUNIOR PROFESSORSHIP (W1) “Urban and Regional Sociology”

with tenure-track option to W2 professorship commencing at the earliest opportunity. At the same time, a leave of absence to the IRS takes place with the assumption of the function of a leader of a junior research group.

The junior professorship is a joint appointment of the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) together with the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner near Berlin based on the Jülich model. The junior professorship will initially be filled for a period of 6 years (with an interim evaluation after four years). The teaching load at the BTU will be 4 SWS - in case of continuation to W2, the teaching load will be reduced to 2 SWS. An evaluation committee jointly composed by BTU and IRS decides on the tenure-track option (to W2) for a transfer to an IRS research group leadership on the basis of previously clearly agreed criteria.

The task of the junior professorship is to establish a spatially distributed junior research group at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (location Cottbus) and the IRS in Erkner on the topic of "Value and Valuation in Structural Change Processes". The junior professorship and the junior research group are equipped with three doctoral positions (65%). At the BTU, the junior professorship is embedded in Faculty 6 "Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning". Cooperation with Faculty 5 "Economics, Law and Society" in research and teaching is explicitly desired. At the IRS, the junior research group is integrated in the Research Area "Economy and Civil Society". The group will investigate the complex socio-spatial dynamics of the valuation of novelty in the context of regional transformation processes. It deals with social initiatives, activities and collective

agency at the interface between normative goals (e.g. to shape processes of structural change) and creative, innovative social endeavours. In this context, the junior research group focuses, for example, on processes of negotiating value attributions and evaluations of novelty that aim at social "impact." Similarly, the research should reconstruct the multi-layered and complex forms of the unfolding impact.

We are looking for:

An early career researcher with in relation to his/her academic age excellent national and international research reputation experienced in the fields of urban and regional sociology, proven by a relevant doctorate in the field of spatial social research. The junior professorship should repre-sent the above-mentioned fields in research and in teaching in the Master's program "Urban and Regional Planning", in the Bachelor's program "Urban Planning and Urban Development" and in further study programmes at the BTU. Teaching duties in the Bachelor's and Master's programmes should be performed in German and English. If there is no sufficient knowledge of German, the willingness to learn the German language as soon as possible is required, which will ensure participation in the management of the institute, the faculty, and in university and non-university committees, as well as the teaching of the bachelor´s programs in German.

The aim is to qualify the junior research group leader for future leadership activities in scientific institutions and to create the prerequisites for an appointment as a full university professorship. In addition, the junior research group leader is expected to further establish himself/herself in his/her research field within the framework of the outlined denomination and actively shape the research field.

Your responsibilities:

• Establishing and profiling a research group, including recruitment of doctoral students.
• Acquisition of complementary third-party funded projects for further profiling and differentiating the junior research group (e.g. DFG, ERC...)
• International, peer-reviewed publication activities
• Development of a teaching profile
• Active engagement in transfer activities
• Human resource management

Your profile:

As a future Junior Professor, you are able to demonstrate the following requirements according to § 47 para. 1 Brandenburg Higher Education Act (BbgHG):

• A completed university degree
• Pedagogical aptitude
• Special aptitude for scientific work, proven by the outstanding quality of the doctorate in a social science discipline with spatial relevance (e.g. urban and regional sociology)
• Proven first achievements in the post-doctoral phase
• Initial experience in project management functions and in science management
• Proven knowledge of empirical social science research methods
• Secure grounding in theories and concepts, e.g.: 
  • Knowledge work and creativity
  • Social construction of value and practices of valuation
  • Transformation theories
  • Spatial Theories

In addition, the candidate has experiences in the acquisition, management and implementation of third-party funded projects. The research topics should be relevant for the DFG or comparable international research funding institutions.

Your university teaching experiences enable you to provide excellent teaching in the field of re-search to be filled here. You have the ability to teach at all curricular levels from undergraduate

to doctoral, to supervise theses, and to support young researchers. Your knowledge and experi-ence will enable you to participate in academic self-administration and in raising the profile of the faculty.

We offer:

• Fair and transparent appointment negotiations
• Attractive working conditions both in Cottbus - in a city with a high quality of life - and in Erkner near Berlin
• Two dynamically developing research locations
• Independent research at the intersection between theoretically ambitious and at the same time practically relevant research projects
• Research activities and profiling at a non-university research institute
• Diversified and autonomous activities in all research steps
• Development of own teaching formats at the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg in the field of urban and regional sociology and economics
• Involvement in the strategic development of the IRS and the Research Area "Economy and Civil Society”
• Support in relocating to the immediate vicinity of your place of work
• Comprehensive advice in the dual-career service and in the area of family orientation, and
• An attractive salary with a negotiable appointment benefit.

Other duties result from the requirements set by § 44 BbgHG in conjunction with § 3 BbgHG.

For further information please contact Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Ludger Gailing, Tel. +49 (0)355 / 69 3626 / email: ludger.gailing@b-tu.de.

The requirements and conditions for appointment are set out in §§ 47 and 48 BbgHG. According to § 47 Para. 2 BbgHG, the periods of full-time academic activity between the last examination performance of the doctorate and the application for a junior professorship may not exceed six years. These periods shall be extended to the extent of a reduction in working hours by at least one fifth of the regular working hours granted for the care or nursing of one or more children under the age of 18 or other relatives in need of care.

According to § 48 BbgHG, junior professors are appointed as temporary civil servants for a period of up to four years. If the interim evaluation is positive, the appointment is to be extended to a maximum of six years. After successful probation during the six-year junior professorship, there is the option, within the framework of the tenure track, to transfer a professorship of grade W2 to the holder of the post after an appointment procedure has been carried out.

BTU is committed to equal opportunities and diversity and strives for a balanced gender ratio in all employee groups. Persons with a severe disability and their equals are given priority in the case of equal suitability.

As a family-oriented University, BTU offers a Dual Career Service.

Information on appointment management including the legal basis as well as the status of ongoing appointment procedures can be found at: https://www.b-tu.de/en/university/career/professional-appointment-management

The application, including academic certificates, curriculum vitae, a list of publications, as well as proof of teaching experience, should be sent by e-mail in a single pdf file with max. 7 MB until 26.07.2024 to:

E-Mail: fakultaet6+bewerbungen(at)b-tu.de

Dekan der Fakultät für Architektur, Bauingenieurwesen und Stadtplanung, postal adress: BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg, Postfach 101344, 03013 Cottbus.

When sending your application by unencrypted e-mail, please be aware of the risks regarding the confidentiality and integrity of your application content and please also note the data protec-tion information on the BTU website.