Full Time Research Degree Studentship
Growing up sustainably? Young people and ‘sustainable’ urban development

£12 500 per annum (including £1000 research expenses budget) and tuition fees for 3 years

The University of Northampton invites applications for a 3-year PhD studentship, to support a research project investigating impacts of ‘sustainable’ urban development upon children and young people’s everyday geographies and environmental behaviours.

The successful applicant will be based in the Centre for Children and Youth, a nationally flagged centre of excellence based at The University of Northampton. Supervisory support and research training shall be provided by staff from the Centre for Children and Youth and from the University’s Field of Environmental Science (based in the School of Applied Sciences).

The Doctoral research project will entail a programme of quantitative and qualitative research regarding new urban developments in the English East Midlands. It is envisaged that this research will entail:

• short, semi-structured interviews with young people;
• in-depth, qualitative projects with young people (perhaps involving discussion groups, diary-work or visual methods);
• consultation with key decision-makers and planners involved in local processes of ‘sustainable’ urban development.

It is anticipated that the research project will lead to new empirical/theoretical understandings relating to one or more of the following areas: sustainability; environmental behaviours; nature-society relations; youth; urban development.

Applicants should possess a good Honours or Masters Degree in Geography or a cognate discipline. They should have demonstrable experience of qualitative and quantitative social research, and a commitment to researching with young people.

Deadline for applications: 09:00 GMT, 11th August 2008

It is intended that interviews will be held during the last two weeks of August 2008.
Start date: September/October 2008
For an application pack, please email: david.watson[a-t]northampton.ac.uk, or call 01604 892812.
Additional informal enquiries can be made to john.horton[a-t]northampton.ac.uk
Please quote reference: UN08SUSTAIN