Over the past three decades Russia’s health care has underwent marketization, its locally produced medical knowledge has come in touch with the ideas of evidence-based medicine, while its pharmaceutical industry has become the center of the state’s efforts to consolidate its political status. This complex arena opens a unique window to explore mutually constitutive relations between politics, health technologies, and markets, and the role informality plays in these relations.

The two PhD projects will focus on 1) pharmaceutical market and 2) private healthcare provision. Both projects will concern accessibility of quality medicines and health care to patients and accessibility of the Russian market to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations. PhD candidates will trace the multitude of (informal) ways actors use to navigate this uncertain terrain. What kinds of market mechanisms have been created to enable work in this environment with its changing and often unspoken rules and ways of doing things? How do novel health technologies and knowledge become engaged in profit-making? What are the implications for public health, business cultures, political authority, and practices of citizenship?

The appointed PhD candidates are expected to contribute conceptually to the scholarship on informality and on relations between science, politics and markets, and to develop methodological expertise in studying informal phenomena in uncertain situations. PhD candidates will spend considerable time in the field, collecting data and developing ethnographic understanding of the environment. They will also collaborate with the rest of the Marie Curie PhD cohort and project team members to better understand and compare their results. PhD candidates at Maastricht University are also expected to disseminate their results to both academic and non-academic audiences and develop skills in translating research results into useful insights for practitioners.

Candidates’ profile:

-       Masters’ degree with focus on Science and Technology Studies, anthropology, sociology, political sciences, history of science and medicine or related fields

-       Strong interest in health

-       Affinity with, knowledge of, and at least some experience in qualitative research methods

-       Excellent command of written and spoken English

-       Ability to speak Russian is an asset

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

The terms of employment of Maastricht University are set out in the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities (CAO). Furthermore, local UM provisions also apply. For more information look at the website http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl > Support > UM employees.

What we offer:
-       3-year full time contract
-       You will be offered plenty of opportunities to develop your research and analytical skills, including enrollment in PhD workshops and schools by The Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC)
-       Being a part of Marie Curie Innovative Training Network offers excellent networking opportunities

-       You will be working in interdisciplinary and international environment of Health, Ethics and Society Department (HES) in Maastricht University. At HES philosophers, sociologists, health law and gender studies scholars, historians, and anthropologists work together in order to contribute to the identification of effective, legitimate, and just solutions and policies for better health in different geographic regions and cultural settings. Department collaborates closely with public health and biomedical researchers.

You will be based in Maastricht, a wonderful city to live in. Exactly the right size, inviting and lovely city centre, historic buildings besides cutting-edge architecture and industrial heritage. The city is vibrant, not in the least thanks to the many students. Since the Maastricht Treaty (1992) the city is known as the birthplace of the European Union and the ‘Schengen Treaty’. It is an international city that opens up to young and old, to people from all cultures and backgrounds, for students and working people. Maastricht counts over 100 international institutes and organisations.

Maastricht University

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 18,000 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.