Postdoctoral Position : “New normativities for a new world?"

DESCRIPTION

The Center for interdisciplinary rEsearch and expertiSe on Transitions (University of Lorraine, Nancy, France) opens a postdoctoral fellowship for 2026–2027. 

This position is open to PhDs in economics, law, philosophy, or political science whose research focuses on the challenges of transitions. More specifically, the candidate’s research must fall within the main themes of Axis 3 of Celest, namely the interrelation between transition and normativity. 

The first area of Celest is concerned with new approaches to the modalities of collective action, particularly political action and State policies, confronted with transition issues. The relatively stabilized opposition between State and market, represented by the liberal paradigm that gradually took hold at the end of the 20th century, has now been replaced by new models. The central question is whether the plurality of models justifying public intervention is an epiphenomenon, or whether the parenthesis of a State that simply regulates conduct, opened in the 1980s, is now closing. This plurality involves the reactivation of normative models that were thought to have been definitively abandoned: paternalism, the cooperative model of collective action, epistocracy, post-liberalism, and institutional pluralism. Similarly, while we are witnessing a certain return to planning, we are also looking to highly decentralized models for institutional solutions to transitions. These typologies can vary from one social domain to another and from one discipline to another, and we need to know how to interpret these variations. It is striking to see how difficult it is for the social transition model promoted by the European Union to break away from what is ultimately a very classical model of regulatory law.

The second area of Celest research aims to understand how transition challenges, particularly ecological and digital ones, are reshaping legal rules. This second area therefore focuses on the transformations of law in the 21st century. Such an approach cannot be confined to a normative perspective, i.e. focusing on law as a normative system. This would certainly prove inadequate in that it would obscure two sets of dynamics: on the one hand, those likely to shape new normative horizons (the prospective perspective), and on the other hand, those at work in the interplay and expectations of legal actors in context and in action (the empirical perspective). The conjunction of these three perspectives (normative, prospective, empirical) will enable us to look at three distinct but irreducibly linked objects: legal norms, legal narratives, and the uses of law (by its actors). These are registers through which the functions and purposes of law are recomposed. And it is in this respect that they constitute both anchor points and privileged prisms for grasping the emergence of “grammars” that are already being sketched out, or, if need be, for imagining those that could emerge tomorrow. Topics such as “work and ecology,” “private property and transition,” and “human vulnerability” are of particular interest to Celest.

The post-doctoratal researcher will work under the supervision of Samuel Ferey (professor, economics, BETA-CNRS), Anna Zielinska (associate professor, philosophy, AHP-CNRS) and Frédéric Gea (professor, law, IFG). Depending on their main area of expertise, they will be hosted by the BETA, the AHP or the IFG. 

TERMS AND TENURE
This one-year position will be based at the [BETA-CNRS, Maison de la recherche, 23-25 rue Baron Louis 54 000 Nancy]. 

The target start date for the position is [2026, October 1st], with some flexibility on the exact start date.

HOW TO APPLY 
Applicants are requested to submit the following materials:
• A cover letter applying for the position
• Full CV and list of publications
• Academic transcripts (unofficial versions are fine)

The deadline for application is [June 30] . Applicants will be interviewed by an Ad Hoc Commission by [July 10].

Applications are only accepted through email. All documents must be sent to [[email protected] ; [email protected]; [email protected]]

JOB LOCATION

Nancy, Lorraine, France

REQUIREMENTS

DOCUMENTS

• Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated CV including list of publications
• Cover Letter
• Statement of Research