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.
