News
Postdoc ‘Effect of Societal Transitions in History on Living Standards’ (Utrecht University) – deadline 6 May 2025
Utrecht University’s economic and social history group is looking to recruit a postdoctoral researcher to reconstruct changes in living standards during transitions and rapid shifts in social-economic organisation of societies. As a postdoc you will be part of the project ‘The Good Society’, which is funded by a Spinoza premium.
This project will as a first step identify interesting cases of societal transition in history. Next, the researcher will reconstruct for a few selected cases the development of living standards during this transition. The project takes a broad perspective on living standards, including real wages, education, height/stature, life expectancy, etc. Stature in particular is an interesting proxy for living standards as it is available for most areas and periods throughout history.
The final goal of the project is to find out how living standards developed during these changes in social-economic organisation within a society. This requires a long-term analysis, preferably of a comparative nature, to capture changes over time and differences between societies. The latter will also enable the postdoc to make a first step in identifying possible (causal) links between changes in living standards and social-economic organisation. The output of the project consists both of datasets on living standards and academic papers analysing the link between living standards and societal organisation.
Applications should be submitted ultimately 6 May 2025 via Utrecht University’s application portal.
