PhD Fellowship: SIRPA — Social Imaginaries and Realisations of Place-based Communities in Ageing Societies

The Department of Social Sciences and Business (ISE), Roskilde University, invites applications for a position as PhD fellow as part of the VELUX Foundation-funded research project SIRPA — Social Imaginaries and Realisations of Place-based Communities in Ageing Societies from February 1st, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter. The position as PhD is limited to a period of 3 years.

The SIRPA project
Across ageing welfare states, demographic change and pressures on formal care provision have renewed policy and scholarly interest in community as a potential site of support, belonging and collective capacity. Local authorities are increasingly encouraged to mobilise local, community-based initiatives alongside formal long-term care for older people. However, community is not a neutral or self-evidently beneficial resource: it is simultaneously a social ideal, an organisational form and a governance instrument. There remains limited knowledge of how institutional imaginaries and governance arrangements shape the emergence and operation of such communities; how responsibilities and boundaries between public care and citizen-led support are negotiated; and how these processes affect inclusion, exclusion and unequal access to support.

SIRPA is a four-year research-practice collaboration between Roskilde University, VIVE — The Danish Center for Social Science Research, and Hørsholm Municipality. The project develops and follows Community Circles (Fællesskabscirkler): small, place-based and citizen-driven neighbourhood communities in which participants across generations offer one another practical help, social contact and light everyday support.

The project investigates:

1. How do ageing societies shape social imaginaries of the role and value of community?

2. How do these imaginaries form the realisation and experienced value of reciprocal, place-based micro-communities for citizens and local authorities? The project is qualitative, and the PhD project is supposed to combine sociology and political science, including policy analysis, interviews, rapid ethnography and research-practice workshops.

Description of the PhD project
The PhD fellow will develop an independent research project within SIRPA’s sociological and political-science research strand focusing on governance, inequality and boundary-making in community-based support.

The PhD project should examine how institutions and individuals understand and negotiate the role of local communities in long-term care for older people; how institutional arrangements shape participation; and how boundaries are drawn between citizen-led support and formal municipal care. A central concern is whether and how Community Circles can promote inclusion and social support while avoiding responsibility shifts from public services to citizens and unequal access to community resources.

Relevant topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Social imaginaries, policy discourses and governance rationales concerning community-based support in ageing societies;
• The negotiation of roles, responsibilities and boundaries between municipalities, care workers, volunteers and citizens;
• Inclusion, exclusion and unequal participation, including the role of local resources and social capital;
• The development of semi-formal support arrangements and their implications for state–citizen relations;
• The conditions under which community-based support can complement, rather than replace, formal long-term care.

The PhD fellow will contribute to data collection and analysis in close collaboration with the research team and Hørsholm Municipality. The project will draw on national and local policy documents, individual and focus group interviews with municipal managers, care workers and participants in Community Circles, as well as participation in interdisciplinary fieldwork and research-practice feedback workshops. Applicants are expected to formulate a focused and feasible PhD proposal that is clearly connected to SIRPA while making an original scholarly contribution.

The PhD fellow will be supervised by Professor Tine Rostgaard, Principal Investigator of the SIRPA project.

The Doctoral School
You will be enrolled as a PhD fellow at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences and Business with approximately 47 PhD fellows from all over the world.

The Doctoral School of Social Sciences & Business provides PhD training and research within an interdisciplinary, international, and professional environment. It is part of a dynamic community of researchers who share a commitment to understanding society in diverse contexts of change and global engagement. Researchers come from all over the world and engage in topics that are geographically, theoretically and methodologically diverse. The Doctoral School has one PhD programme. The programme offers work-in-progress seminars, thematic professional development seminars, feedback and social activities for enrolled PhD fellows. As a PhD fellow you will be part of the Social Sections and associated with one or more of the following research groups; Crossroads of Care and Social Reproduction (CARE) Transformation and Ordering of Political Institutions (TOPI) , Globalization & Europeanization Research Group (GERG) or Roskilde School of Governance (RSG).

Responsibilities and tasks
As a PhD fellow you are trained at an international level to undertake research. You are responsible for carrying out independent research under supervision and receiving constructive feedback in the PhD program to finish your PhD thesis. During your employment you are required to take 30 ECTS of coursework, and gain experience in teaching and supervision. You are also required to have a research environmental change during your PhD enrollment. The environment change can take place at foreign or local universities or research institutions.

For more information, see chapter 3, Ministerial Order on the PhD Programme at the Universities and Certain Higher Artistic Educational Institutions . Read more on what it entails to be a PhD Fellow at Roskilde University.

Qualifications
You must hold a master’s degree or equivalent from relevant social science programs (e.g. Social Studies, Sociology, Political Science, Public Administration, Anthropology, Social Policy, Human Geography, Social Work, or a closely related social science discipline).

Qualifications within the following areas are required:

• Strong interest in empirical and theoretical approaches to welfare state transformation, governance, civil society, ageing, and community studies;
• Experience with, or strong training in, qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups, ethnography and/or document analysis;

We also emphasize the following qualifications:

• The ability to develop a coherent, feasible and theoretically ambitious PhD project;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English;
• Proficiency in Danish, Norwegian or Swedish, for fieldwork and collaboration with practice partners.

You are required to be enterprising and to possess good communication skills and to be a visible, involved participant in the Department’s daily activities, in addition to being willing to engage in disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Applications are invited from both inside and outside Denmark.

Assessment
In the assessment regarding employment consideration will be given to:

• Relevant master’s degree or equivalent (according to Danish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education )
• Any additional academic requirements stated in the job advertisement.

In the assessment regarding enrollment consideration will also be given to the following criteria:

• Educational skills and any further professional qualifications within the social sciences.
• Grades at a social science master’s program or equivalent.
• Quality and relevance of the project description.
  • Quality and relevance of the methodical and theoretical choices.
  • Consistency and coherence between the problem and the choice of method and theory.
  • If the PhD project seem realistic and feasible.
• Ability to complete the PhD project.
• Relevance of the project to the profile of the Doctoral School.
• Your project description shall be no more than 5 pages (excluding references).

Questions
For further information about the position, please contact Professor Tine Rostgaard, Principal Investigator of SIRPA ( Se e-mailadresse på studerendeonline.dk ). For technical or administrative questions, please contact the PhD Administration ( Se e-mailadresse på studerendeonline.dk ).

Terms of employment
The employment is full time, 37 hours per week and you will refer to the Head of Department.

The position will be filled according to the Agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) and Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities.

According to the Pay Transparency Directive, the salary ranges for the various job categories at Roskilde University are listed here .

Application procedure
After the deadline for applications the Head of Department will shortlist applicants for assessment with assistance from the recruitment committee including the chairperson of the assessment committee.

Shortly after the application deadline all applicants will be notified whether or not their application has been selected for assessment.

The shortlisted applicants will be informed about the composition of the assessment committee, and each applicant will be given the opportunity to comment on the composition of the committee and - later on - their assessment.

Once the recruitment process is completed, all applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application.

Application
To apply for the position go to

Only applications in English are accepted.

Applications must include:

1. Cover letter

2. CV

3. Documentation of education including grades from Master’s programme or equivalent. If you master degree is not awarded within the ECTS frame, please provide us with: Your bachelor diploma and grades. An official English translation of diplomas. A description of the master programme including the official duration (in years).

4. Your description of the PhD project (Max 5 pages)

5. Your time schedule of the PhD project

6. If applicable: Documentation for any research experience, work experience or publications.

Please submit your application no later than August 20, 2026.

Material received after this date will not be taken into consideration.

Roskilde University wishes to reflect the diversity of society and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

The hiring process at Roskilde University may include a risk assessment as a tool to identify potential risks associated with new hires, ensuring the safety, compliance, and integrity of the workplace.

Application deadline: Apply no later than 20. August 2026

Location: Roskilde Universitet