Missions

The person recruited will be part of a research project on illicit drug market-related violences in Marseille and its surroundings (DRAME project funded by MILDECA - France's interministerial strategy for mobilization against addictive behaviors), coordinated by Marwan Mohammed (Maurice Halbwachs Center, CNRS). This research project is structured around five axes: analysis of police and court records; sociology of the anti-drug police enforcement; analysis of the social trajectories of perpetrators, the prison repercussions and the family and local repercussions of drug-related homicides; and the coverage of drug trafficking in the press. The postdoctoral researcher will work more specifically on axes 1 and 5. To do so, he/she will have to establish two databases. The first will be based on police files opened, centralized, and archived by the Interregional Department of Judicial Police (DIPJ) in Marseille and any other department responsible for compiling and archiving them. The postdoctoral researcher will thus draw up an initial descriptive overview of the known circumstances (temporal and spatial aspects) of the homicides, the social characteristics of the perpetrators and victims, the relational environment of the protagonists, and the police and judicial accounts of the events. The period covered will be from 2003 to 2023. To supplement and compare this administrative record of homicides linked to criminal economies in the Marseille metropolitan area, the postdoctoral researcher will compile a second database, this time based on media coverage. This will be based on coverage of the events in the regional and national press. The aim is to provide a descriptive overview of the quantitative and qualitative evolution of homicides linked to drug trafficking in Marseille, as well as their administrative, political-judicial, and media framing. This overview will serve as a reference base for the other parts of the research.

Activities

- Description of research activities:
The person recruited will benefit from the DRAME collective research project structure. They will conduct personal research work, which may include data collection and analysis, writing original manuscripts, or a combination of these different elements. The contract is expected to result in scientific communications and publications, as well as dissemination to a wider audience.
- Related activities:
The person recruited will take part in the scientific coordination of the research project. In particular, they will be involved in organizing the team's biannual seminars and the research seminar to be held at EHESS at the start of the 2026 academic year. In order to have access to the field, the successful candidate is expected to be based in Marseille (with regular trips to Paris).

Skills

- Qualifications/Knowledge:
- PhD in humanities and social sciences, preferably in sociology, anthropology, or political science.
- Good knowledge of the relevant field of research.
- Fluency in French and English.
- Ability to build and organize databases

- Operational skills/know-how:
- Ability to present research results orally and in writing (communications, publications, etc.).
- Proficiency in Europresse
- Ability to work in a team
- Ability to work independently and good work organization

Work Context

The Maurice Halbwachs Center was created on January 1, 2006, and moved to its current location on the campus of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, 48 Boulevard Jourdan, in the same year. It is the result of a merger between a laboratory formerly specializing in the provision of INSEE surveys and longitudinal data analysis (LASMAS) and the École Normale Supérieure's Social Sciences Laboratory. Benefiting from quadruple supervision (ENS, EHESS, CNRS, INRAE), the CMH has been directed since January 2025 by Anne Lhuissier (DR INRAE).

Constraints and risks

The successful candidate must be based in Marseille to facilitate access to the archives, but will travel regularly to Paris, in particular to the CMH and the EHESS.
As part of the collective research project, the successful candidate will be involved in the organization (preparation, communication, and management) of scientific events.