Researcher,WEDiDEA Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN)

About this position

[Background of the recruitment and description of the project]

• Background of the recruitment and description of the project

Project description

In a rapidly changing and interlinked world, achieving sustainable development has been increasingly understood as an outcome not only of economic and social policies but also of the ability to manage disaster-related risks. Economic connectivity has made increasingly clear ecological connectivities between distant places and transformed multi-sited local nature-society relations. We seek to understand how thickening economic and ecological connectivities through global commodity chains have led to growing risks and vulnerabilities of disasters, and integrative policy responses.

Conceptually, our project draws on World Ecology, Social Production of Disasters, and Diverse Values of Nature to rethink development that would integrate multiple values into policies and governance of economy, environment, and disasters through shifting knowledge systems, worldviews and values on humanity-in-nature relations. By integrating these themes, the postdoctoral researcher engages in collaborative research that enhances the impacts of the WEDiDEA.

https://www.disastersanddevelopment.org/

[Work content and job description]

(At the time of appointment)

The candidate will carry out research activities of the WEDiDEA project, in close collaboration with the team and under the guidance of the PI and case study leads. Specifically, the selected candidates will carry out the following research tasks:

1)Analyses of environmental changes associated with disasters and development in East Asia. Drawing on open data from different sources, literatures, government statistics, and data collected by project members, the candidate will carry out qualitative and quantitative analyses on changes in social-ecological relations and values in the study areas and support a comparative analysis across the study sites.

2)Field-based research to evaluate diverse values of nature in changing social-ecological relations. The research will be conducted in close collaboration with the team. The data will be collected using a mixed methods approach and analyzed in combination with social data.

(Scope for changes to duties)

None.

• Assigned department

Newly established departments

Date of new establishment:December 2026

[Work location]

• Address

603-8047 Kyoto Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (Address: 457-4 Kamigamo Motoyama, Kita-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 603-8047 Japan)

[Number of hired]

Number of hired:1 person(s)

Hiring date:2027-04-01 00:00:00

Starting date:2027-04-01 00:00:00