Erasmus School of Law, department Law, Society & Crime, is looking for 2 postdoc researchers.
Job description Do you want to contribute to a better understanding of the organization of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling through the Port of Rotterdam? Do you want to improve the governance of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling together with the public and private actors in the Port of Rotterdam? Do you want to develop innovative tools like interactive models, dynamic heat maps, crime scripts, and serious games to enable governance actors to intervene proactively? Do you want to help facilitate the interdisciplinary cooperation between academics from criminology, anthropology, law, history, mathematics, network science, computing and information sciences, and with public and private actors with governance responsibilities in the PoR? Do you want to be a mentor for the PhD students in our research team? Apply to one of 2 postdoc positions in the research project FORT-PORT (Focusing on the Right Things in the Port of Rotterdam).
FORT-PORT aims to uncover the criminal business processes, modi operandi and criminal networks underlying cocaine trafficking and human smuggling through the Port of Rotterdam. Ultimately, FORT-PORT contributes to a strong, future-proof port that is acclaimed for its security and its resilience against subversive crime, mindful of the potential economic and societal consequences of raising all possible barriers.
FORT-PORT is organized in 5 work packages. Work package 1 and 3 offer 4 PhD and 2 postdoc positions at the Erasmus School of Law. You will collaborate with researchers at TU Delft and Utrecht University as well.
FORT-PORT is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), with Erasmus University Rotterdam as the main applicant. The Department Law, Society & Crime of Erasmus School of Law now has 2 postdoc vacancies.
Postdoc research 1 - Ethnography of illicit flows through the Port of Rotterdam (workpackage 1a)Previous research has shed light on the modi operandi of cocaine trafficking in the PoR, the social organisation of human smuggling in the Netherlands, the social embeddedness of organised crime in the Netherlands, and the structural embeddedness of cocaine trafficking in the PoR. We build on these insights by combining different methodologies and theoretical perspectives to advance our understanding of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling via the PoR. More specifically, we aim to uncover the criminal business operations of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling in the PoR, by focusing on:
- modi operandi of drug trafficking and human smuggling based on a crime script analysis that examines why and how offenders use logistical, technological, legal, and financial infrastructures in and around the PoR;
- social organisation of the criminal networks involved in cocaine trafficking and human smuggling, exploring the modes of cooperation between and within the networks, degrees of specialisation and professionalisation within the networks, and the use of violence between or within the networks;
- social embeddedness of cocaine trafficking and human trafficking, describing the ways in which cocaine trafficking and human trafficking are relationally and structurally embedded in and around in the PoR.
In this work package, 2 PhD positions and 1 postdoc position are available which focus on three distinct yet interrelated case studies about the social embeddedness of the cocaine economy in Rotterdam, about human smuggling networks and migrant communities and about crime scripts of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling. This work package combines literature reviews, analysis of large-scale police investigations and other relevant law enforcement data about cocaine trafficking and human smuggling in the Netherlands; semi-structured interviews with practitioners involved in the approach to cocaine trafficking and human smuggling; semi-structured interviews with port employees; semi-structured interviews with detained and convicted offenders; and ethnographic research starting in Rotterdam neighborhoods and following the illegal flows of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling through the Port of Rotterdam. The postdoc will be expected to do part of the empirical work, mentor the PhD students, and, together with the supervisors, coordinate the research activities and project’s deliverables.
Work package 1a relates to work-package 1b on network data analysis and modelling of regional criminal vulnerability and criminal supply chains (PhD & postdoc project at TUDelft), and therefore the postdoctoral researcher is expected to help coordinate the criminological (EUR) and mathematical, network science, computing and information sciences (TUD) research strategies.
Supervisors: dr. Robby Roks & Prof. Richard Staring
Postdoc research 2: Partnerships in the governance of subversive crime in the Port of Rotterdam (work-package 3a)The Port of Rotterdam has pioneered public-public and public-private partnerships as well as legislative initiatives and legal proceedings about cocaine trafficking and human smuggling. The governance of subversive crime in the PoR therefore builds on previous commitments, experiences, and experiments. FORT-PORT aims to help strengthen the governance of subversive crime in the port. Governance refers to the provision, distribution and regulation of security by public and private actors, specifically focusing on cocaine trafficking and human smuggling. The current, more advanced stage of governance comes with its own challenges about keeping oversight of and learning from past and existing initiatives and about sustainably anchoring what works. Contemporary governance is also about keeping governance structures manageable, which involves continuous trust building and staying abreast of current developments. FORT-PORT provides a unique opportunity for the longitudinal and intensified evaluation of the governance of subversive crime in the port.
This work-package will:
- Evaluate past and existing public-public and public-private partnerships on cocaine trafficking and human smuggling in the PoR;
- Provide project-level feedback about bottlenecks and success factors of public-public and public-private governance of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling;
- Develop aggregated feedback about bottlenecks and success factors of public-public and public-private governance of cocaine trafficking and human smuggling to stimulate exchange with other (main)ports in the Netherlands and Europe.
In this work-package 1 PhD position and 1 postdoc position are available which together focus on three case studies of public-private partnerships in the PoR: the Information Sharing Centres on Port Safety and Security; Project Gatekeeper and the Implementation Agenda. This work-package combines literature reviews; document analysis; semi-structured interviews project team leaders, project members and relevant stakeholders; observations of project group meetings, meetings with stakeholders and (semi)public meetings about the project; and reflection methods with the learning communities. The postdoc will be expected to do part of the empirical work for this work package, mentor the PhD student, and, together with the supervisors, coordinate the research activities and work towards realizing the project’s deliverables.
This work package 3a is also closely related to work-package 3b, which focuses on the normative framework for governing subversive crime (PhD project 4), and therefore the postdoctoral researcher is expected to help coordinate the criminological and legal action-oriented research strategies that together allow for immediate feedback and continuous internalization of learning experiences.
Supervisors: Prof. dr. Lieselot Bisschop & Prof. dr. Karin van Wingerde