A new international research project focussed on lives at the urban periphery: You will make an important contribution to a 3-year research project which focusses upon experiences of infrastructural investment on the peripheries of three city-regions in Africa. The primary objective is to understand how urban change in the peripheries of African cities, focusing on infrastructural investments and economic change, is shaped, governed and experienced, and how these processes then impact on urban poverty. 

This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the National Research Foundation (South Africa) as part of the Urban Transformations research agenda. The project is led by Dr Paula Meth and Dr Tom Goodfellow in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and will be conducted in collaboration with colleagues in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University (South Africa). You will play a key role in the research process, particularly in relation to qualitative data collection and analysis. 

Research methods will include literature, document and policy review and analysis; interviewing; using solicited diaries; and auto-photography. Your role will involve spending substantial periods of time in either South Africa or Ethiopia in order to conduct fieldwork and carry out other related research tasks. Whilst based overseas, you will be supported by research partners in South Africa and Ethiopia, as well as being supervised (remotely) by Sheffield-based investigators. In the latter stages of the project, you will contribute to writing of academic and non-academic research outputs and be involved in dissemination activities. You will have or be close to completing a PhD in a relevant subject area; have experience of relevant qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; and have a good track record of successful research writing. The ability to communicate to a reasonable level Sotho or Zulu and experience of conference presentations is desirable.

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We require two Postdoctoral Research Fellows for the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant led by Professor Paul Nugent entitled African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition (AFRIGOS). 

You will investigate the process of 'respacing' Africa, a political drive towards regional and continental integration, on the one hand, and the re-casting of Africa's engagement with the global economy on the other, through a comparative study of port cities, border towns and other strategic nodes situated along the busiest transport corridors in East, West-Central, West and Southern Africa. You should have a track-record of high-quality research within a Social Science/Humanities discipline and experience of working in at least one of the four project study regions of Africa.

AFRIGOS poses the question of how far respacing is genuinely forging institutions that are facilitating or obstructing the movement of people and goods; that are enabling or preventing urban and border spaces from being more effectively and responsively governed; and that take into account the needs of African populations whose livelihoods are rooted in mobility and informality. The principal research questions are approached through a comparative study of port cities, border towns and other strategic nodes situated along the busiest transport corridors in East, Central, West and Southern Africa. AFRIGOS, is divided into 5 thematic streams, each of which will be led by one of the senior researchers on the team:

1. Agenda-setting: This stream is concerned above all with how policy is formulated, and much of it will concern relations between national governments, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the African Union and the European Union
2. Peripheral Urbanism: This is concerned with governance in border towns and port cities
3. Border Workers: this addresses everyday governance emerging through the interaction of officials and others who make their livelihoods through the border
4. Connective Infrastructure: this looks at the transformative effects of new investments in infrastructure
5. People and Goods in Motion: this traces the passage of people and goods and the regimes of regulation to which they are subjected.
   

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Deadline for receipt of applications: 21 June 2016.

This full-time, fixed-term position is available for 4 years, from September 2016 to August 2019.

The scholarship is attached to the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant entitled African Governance and Space: Transport Corridors, Border Towns and Port Cities in Transition (AFRIGOS) that runs for 5 years between 2016 and 2020. AFRIGOS is led by Professor Paul Nugent and investigates the process of 'respacing' Africa, a political drive towards regional and continental integration, on the one hand, and the re-casting of Africa's engagement with the global economy, on the other. This is reflected in unprecedented levels of investment in physical and communications infrastructure, and the outsourcing of key functions of Customs, Immigration and security agencies. The principal research questions are approached through a comparative study of port cities, border towns and other strategic nodes situated along the busiest transport corridors in East, West-Central, West and Southern Africa.

We are looking for someone to work specifically on Chinese infrastructural investment and trade along transport corridors, and more broadly on China-Africa and China-EU relations in the context of regional integration initiatives in Africa. The successful applicant will be expected to develop an independent research project that will connect to the larger agenda of AFRIGOS. This may involve empirical case-studies from one or more regions of Africa. Because the student will carry out much of the research in China, or with Chinese respondents in Africa, we would intend to appoint someone with a good knowledge of Mandarin. It is anticipated that the successful applicant will hold a Masters degree from a relevant Social Science or Humanities discipline.

The supervision will be provided by core members of the project team, and in particular Professor Nugent, Dr. Wolfgang Zeller and Dr. José-Maria Muñoz or by other staff within the School of Social and Political Science.

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