Human Geography at the University of Aberdeen is member of the ESRC Scottish Doctoral Training Centre Human Geography pathway. Applications for ESRC 1+3, and +3 doctoral studentships are invited from prospective students who wish to be considered for specific projects (details available at www.abdn.ac.uk/geography and www.abdn.ac.uk/cops/graduate/studentships/ ) or from those who are interested in developing their own project proposal with members of staff (see www.abdn.ac.uk/staff for information about staff research interests).
Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria for holding an ESRC studentship (see http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/Postgraduate-Funding-Guide-2010-11-DTCs_tcm8-14766.pdf) will be considered for an award by the Human Geography pathway of the ESRC Scottish Doctoral Training Centre. The Human Geography Pathway have at least 5 studentships for award for an October 2011 start and the awards will be made by a committee comprising representatives from the Geography Departments at the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. Other funding opportunities will be investigated where appropriate.
For further information please contact the member of staff associated with specific projects or Dr Lorna Philip (l.philip@abdn.ac.uk).
The closing date for applications to be received by the University of Aberdeen is 15th April 2011. The Human Geography pathway will make their awards in mid May 2011. Information about how to apply is available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cops/funding/postgraduate/esrc/. Please note that the application must include a 2 page research proposal, a full CV and 2 references (one must be from someone other than a member of the proposed supervisory team).
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Title |
Environmental degradation, social exclusion and the role of the state: The emerging agenda of environmental justice |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Antonio Ioris |
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Description |
This doctoral research will explore the emerging agenda of environmental justices with reference to case studies in northern and southern hemisphere countries (particularly related to the climate justice movement). It will require an interdisciplinary methodology to be able to account for the organization and discourse of social movements, local socio-ecological circumstances and the ability to form networks with other sectors and regions. The overall aim of the research will be to provide a better understanding of the similarities and differences of the environmental justice movement in industrialized and industrializing countries. An innovative contribution of the research will be an examination of how the environmental justice agenda has been considered by the nation state and regulatory agencies, and how the state has mediated the interface between conventional environmental policy-making and grassroots demands. |
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Title |
State reforms and the introduction of new environmental regulatory frameworks: Case studies from the water sector |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Antonio Ioris |
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Description |
This doctoral research will expand the current understanding of the role of nation states in the interpretation and response to mounting water management problems. The research will consider the totality of water issues, including their material, discursive and symbolic elements and will require an interdisciplinary methodology that combines political science, environmental regulation and state theory. The main purpose is to investigate the theoretical and political bases of the introduction of new regulatory approaches, which have been based on the naturalization of water problems. The nation state will be the main focus of analysis, which will be considered both as a key social player and as an arena of disputes. |
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Title |
Active lifestyles and personal well-being |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Professor Colin Hunter |
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Description |
This is a unique opportunity to help evaluate and refine on-going work in the Grampian area of Scotland on health and environmental sustainability through the multi-agency ‘Health and Transport Action Plan (HTAP)’ initiative. HTAP is designed to bring together key strategies for improving the mental health and personal well-being of residents, promoting active lifestyles (e.g. walking and cycling to school and work), and reducing transport-related environmental impacts. Indicative research questions for the project include:
The project would involve using a mixed methods approach, employing both quantitative (e.g. questionnaire survey) and qualitative (e.g. key informant interviews, participant observation) research techniques, with research focused on one particular local community within Aberdeen. Additional support would be available through the HTAP initiative, including additional finance and support in conducting fieldwork and accessing relevant policy documentation. The supervisory team would be drawn from UoA staff in Human Geography and Psychology, and include a representative from HTAP personnel.
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Title |
Understanding local contexts and social networks for public perception of gastrointestinal disease risk |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Professor Colin Hunter |
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Description |
Knowledge and understanding of disease risk are distributed across lay and technical (scientific) communities, and it is now widely accepted that effective policy-making to encourage risk reduction behaviour in groups particularly at risk from gastrointestinal disease (e.g. E. coli O157 infection) must have buy-in and input from key stakeholders within the lay community (e.g. farmers, other rural residents). It is vital to better understand, therefore, how perceptions of disease risk are formed and communicated within local communities, and how these may influence existing (and desired) risk reduction behaviours. Indicative research questions for the project, which would bring together expertise in human geography and anthropology, include:
Research would be mainly qualitative/ethnographic in nature and involve being embedded within a local community for short periods of time. |
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Title |
Ageing, mental health and interactions with nature |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Professor Colin Hunter |
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Description |
Interacting with nature can profoundly influence cognition, mood and personal subjective well-being, all of which are important aspects of lifelong mental health. However, very little is known about how the beneficial effects of engaging with nature change across the life-course. This project would explore lifespan changes in the ways that people interact with nature, while also investigating possible benefits to mental health, bringing together expertise in both psychology and human geography. Indicative research questions for the project include:
Research would employ a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques; for example, life-graph interviews, the use of indices of subjective well-being and cognition, and field experiments on well-being derived from active and passive forms of nature interaction. The project would also involve working closely with a wide variety of participants. The supervisory team would be drawn from UoA staff in Human Geography and Psychology. |
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Title |
Navigation systems: current practice and future use |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Mark Beecroft and Professor John Nelson |
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Description |
Sat-nav systems represent a key growth area in the field of transport technology with ownership in the UK alone increasing fivefold within the period 2003-2006 representing a consumer spend of £300 million. The corollary of this market-led boom is a poor understanding of how systems are used in practice, despite a wealth of user-generated data (particularly from on-line reviews). The proposed research would develop extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of current practice and scope out future applications for driver information systems, e.g. ... Data will be collected from key stakeholders including motorists, local authorities and service providers. Students should have a commitment to interdisciplinary research and should have a background in geography or a cognate disciple. Ideally candidates will have experience of working with both quantitative and qualitative methods.
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Title |
Collaborative adaptation to climate change in UK uplands |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Mark Reed |
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Description |
This project seeks to understand how we can enable land owners and managers to collaborate more effectively across property boundaries for the adaptive management of upland ecosystem services at a landscape scale. Adaptation to climate change may require changes in land management at catchment and habitat scales, which cross property and administrative boundaries. This project will identify a case study where adaptation to climate change requires collaboration between land owners and managers to collaborate at a landscape scale to maintain ecosystem services under future climate change. Then, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative social science techniques, factors influencing collaborative behaviour will be identified, working closely with members of the land management and policy community. The study will lead to recommendations for policy and practice that can facilitate adaptation to climate change at the sorts of scales necessary to maintain some of Britain’s most important ecosystem services long into the future.
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Title |
Mobility, conflict and power: reimagining and remaking spaces of European migration |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Sergei Shubin |
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Description |
This project will address intersections between mobility, conflict and power in the context of European migration. The ways in which migrants move to the European Union are often shaped by conflicts, economic crisis and trauma experienced in their home countries. Likewise geographical imaginaries of conflict and forced movement become mobilised in myriad ways in the embodiment, practice and legitimation of particular notions of belonging and citizenship. Empirical scope and theoretical orientations of this study focus on spaces where mobile identities and lifestyles are constructed, conferred and contested, including spaces of everyday geographies of encounters with danger (Sharp 2000), affectual engagements with fear and conflict (Pain 2009, Anderson 2010) and discursive conceptualisations of security and state control (Adey, 2010). Apart from looking at the economic factors influencing this forced movement, this study also focuses on symbolic, emotional and embodied elements of mobility and construction of power regulating this movement. Using a range of qualitative methods (interviews with migrants, video diaries), the project explores imaginations, experiences and representations of conflict shaping the mobility of migrants and their settling in Europe. It considers the ways in which mobile embodiment of conduct, technology, style and memory of conflict shapes understandings of the place, status, and belonging of individuals moving to the European Union. It explores orientations of power that legitimize claims to space by these forced migrants, regulate social construction of appropriate conduct, define their visibility and contest norms regarding their participation in the host communities.
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Title |
Integration of Eastern European migrants in Scotland through education |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Dr. Sergei Shubin |
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Description |
To understand migration and integration of young Eastern Europeans in Scotland, the project attends to three key areas: understanding migrants' mobility, interconnecting it with integration policies in the sphere of education and development of recommendations for more inclusive approaches. The problem of inclusion of new migrants is one of the top priority policy issues in the EU and the UK (Home Office, 2008), but despite significant number and the impact of East European migration to the UK they migrants have been under-represented in the governments' inclusion strategies (Markova and Black, 2007). This study will address this gap by investigating different forms and temporalities of migrants' mobilities and constructions of the idea of "home" over multiple and overlapping scales. Via in-depth questionnaires, video diaries, interviews and focus groups with Eastern European migrants the project will identify local educational priorities and highlight migrants’ views on symbolic, emotional and affective aspects of their socio-cultural integration. Similarly, integration policies in the UK expect migrants to "integrate with diversity" mainly through language and educational training (DCLG, 2008), but fail to acknowledge migrants’ mobility practices, different mentality and links with migrant communities. This study will address these policy drawbacks by focusing on main barriers to inclusion of these migrants in Scottish communities in the education context, potential reasons for racism, harassment and bullying of migrants in schools and the role of educational institutions in excluding migrant populations. This research uses existing links with Aberdeenshire Council, NGOs and service providers working with migrants, Integrate Aberdeenshire Forum and migrant associations to develop policy tools encouraging broader participation and integration of migrants and identifying mechanisms challenging misperceptions, harassment and discrimination of migrants.
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Title |
The rebranding of Aberdeen |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Professor William Neill |
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Description |
The project, drawing on a discourse analysis of the contested nature of current efforts to rebrand the city of Aberdeen, will explore the historical evolution of Aberdeen modernist branding from the development of Union Street to Granite City and latterly Energy Capital of Europe. Reference will be made to the Energetica renewable energy corridor concept, Trump International golf development, city centre restructuring and the proposed Western Peripheral Route. The central question, exploring the power dynamics of representations of the city with reference to comparative experience, will be why has Aberdeen's image remained so entrenched and reimaging taken so long? Has Aberdeen's image curation kept pace with current competitive pressures for an updated city brand? |
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Title |
A comparative case study of the custodianship of Titanic heritage assets in the cities of Southampton and Belfast. |
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Discipline |
Human Geography |
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Supervisors |
Professor William Neill |
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Description |
The representational legacy of the Titanic sears deep into the collective consciousness of Western society. Titanic as shipwreck in many ways stands for the lost confidence of modernity, a feeling still prevalent as the new century unfolds. While Titanic heritage has been shamelessly commodified in a post modernist relativization of meaning this project will examine whether aspects of Titanic memory projects, in the two cities most intimately associated with Titanic ,do justice to the mythic status of the world's most famous ship. |