This PhD project offers a unique opportunity to work in an international environment and to acquire valuable research experience.
The PhD Project
For too long, discussions about sustainable development have been led top-down by different stakeholders, from governmental officials to local policy-makers, hardly including the voices of (young) citizens. Moreover, while rural areas will play a key role in sustainability transitions, most research on young people’s participation in sustainability causes has been done in urban contexts (e.g. Amponsem et al., 2021; Murphy, 2021). This is concerning, as rural areas face significant challenges in achieving democratic and sustainable development governance.
The Content at the Margins project argues that democratic legitimacy in sustainable development can only be achieved if alternative solutions are informed by the views of young citizens, particularly those from rural, often marginalised areas, most affected by sustainability transitions.
The project aims to investigate if rural youth are content with the sustainability of their living environment, and what the content of their discussions about sustainable development is. By taking an interdisciplinary and ethnographic approach, the project will delve into understanding young people’s lived experiences of sustainable development. The project will also unearth the necessary skills (e.g. critical media use; persuasive communication) to be able to participate in these (online) debates.
Under the joint supervision of Dr Annamária Neag from the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies (Faculty of Arts) and Dr Koen Salemink from the Department of Cultural Geography, the successful candidate will develop their own specific focus within these broad parameters, depending on the candidate’s disciplinary background, interests, and research experience.
You will be asked to:
- Engage in regular meetings with supervisors to discuss the PhD project development.
- Carry out longitudinal ethnographic research in the three selected regions.
- Write four publishable articles/chapters, with supervisory guidance and open-access agreements with the University of Groningen.
- Organize participatory workshops for co-creating policy recommendations together with stakeholders and the supervisors.
- Participate in the activities of The Netherlands Research school for Media Studies (RMeS) and the Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research (NETHUR).
- Attend and present ongoing research at conferences, colloquia, summer/winter schools.
- Provide education to students of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (up to a maximum of 15% of the appointment.
- Move to Groningen or its immediate environs.
- Complete the PhD in the specified timeframe (4 years).
Organisation
Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has established an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative university offering high-quality teaching and research. Its 34,000 students are encouraged to develop their talents through challenging study and career paths. The University of Groningen is an international centre of knowledge: It belongs to the best research universities in Europe and is allied with prestigious partner universities and networks worldwide.
You will work across the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, but you will be officially appointed at the latter.
The Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen is a dynamic faculty with an open character. With approximately 100 employees and over 100 PhDs, we focus on highly qualified education and research in the field of planning, demography and geography. With two bachelor's degrees and seven master's programmes, the faculty offers broad training opportunities to around 1100 students from all over the world. We are a cohesive faculty, committed to internationally-oriented, interdisciplinary research of high societal relevance with our research programme TRACE (Transformations, Communities, and Environments). Our motto is: we are making places better together.
The Faculty of Arts is a large, dynamic faculty in the heart of the city of Groningen. It has more than 5000 students and 700 staff members, who are working at the frontiers of knowledge every day. The Faculty offers a wide range of degree programmes: 15 Bachelor's programmes and over 35 Master's specialisations. Our research, which is internationally widely acclaimed, covers Archaeology, Cultural Studies, History, International Relations, Language and Literary Studies, Linguistics and Media and Journalism Studies.