Missions

The Gendhi project aims to understand how social relations of domination are articulated in order to account for social inequalities in health from early childhood to adulthood. The research is structured around two complementary questions: (i) How are (un)healthy bodies socially constructed? (ii) Do the use of care and the management by the health system differ according to the social properties of sick people?
The approach is resolutely multidisciplinary, combining sociology, demography, economics and epidemiology, in close collaboration with clinician-researchers.
This project is led by Nathalie Bajos, sociologist-demographer and research director at INSERM, Muriel Darmon, sociologist and research director at CNRS, Pierre-Yves Geoffard, economist and research director at CNRS, and Michelle Kelly-Irving, epidemiologist and research director at INSERM.
The objective of this post-doctorate is to study the contemporary forms of appropriation of knowledge about depression in France. The aim is to target in particular the appropriations that characterize “ordinary” social agents - in the sense that they are neither health practitioners nor necessarily patients themselves, but are led to take a closer interest in this mental health problem.
The exact empirical approach will be discussed with the person recruited. This may include, but is not limited to: observations and interviews in awareness-raising or even training settings designed for non-professionals; systematic (possibly quantitative) use of medical or paramedical documentation intended for the general public, as well as certain non-medical cultural media (websites, books, etc.); a survey of relatives and/or caregivers of patients suffering from depression, and more or less driven to find out about this subject; interviews with actors from associations or public bodies, involved in various capacities in the wider dissemination of knowledge about depression; a study of public health policies, with an emphasis on local reception; etc.
On a more theoretical level, this research will be an opportunity to reflect on the social inequalities (of generation, gender, class, ethno-racial belonging, etc.) that the dissemination of knowledge about depression, and more generally current “psychological cultures”, encounters or generates. Specific attention will be paid to the question of the different social dispositions and interests of those who are exposed to this knowledge. It will also involve contributing, on a detailed scale, to the renewal of studies on medicalization (in this case, of sadness, grief, malaise, etc.), by specifically targeting those who participate in it “from the bottom up” (in contrast to the “top-down” medicalization that can be carried out by public authorities or health professionals).
Ultimately, the challenge will be to understand what the unequal appropriation of this knowledge does, today, to the concrete management of depressive disorders.
This sociological research should be able to interact with the other disciplines of the Gendhi project.

Activités

Participation in the scientific life of the Gendhi project.
Collection of mainly qualitative data, through interviews and observations. The interview transcripts, observation reports and any other written analysis documents will be added to the Gendhi materials at the end of the post-doctorate.
Writing scientific articles.
Presentation of work and participation in Gendhi working groups and seminars.
This list is neither exhaustive nor restrictive.
- 20% of working time may be devoted to the promotion of previous work, particularly theses.

Compétences

Essential criteria:
• PhD in sociology, defended or with a defense date set before the start of the post-doctorate (the post-doctorate will begin at least one month after the thesis defense date).
• Experience and mastery of the sociological approach and qualitative methods.
• Autonomy.
Skills that are useful but not essential:
• Previous experience of health-related fields of investigation.
• Experience of quantitative methods.

Contexte de travail

The recruitment is associated with the Gender and Health Inequalities (Gendhi) research project. This project has obtained funding from the European Research Council, via the “ERC-Synergy-2019” call, for a period of 7 years.
The person recruited will become a post-doctoral researcher in the CESSP laboratory (UMR 8209 / CNRS, EHESS, Paris 1) and will be based on the premises of CESSP and those of the Gendhi project on the Condorcet campus.