The opportunity is open to both UK and overseas applicants. The deadline is 15th January 2025 for a May 2025 start date
Project title: People make Coventry: A study in relational place-making
This PhD scholarship embraces a ‘relational’ approach to place-making, according to which places are not ‘made’ by urban planners, policy-makers and politicians, but are in fact produced relationally by the many groups and communities that live and experience them. This entails focusing on cities as ‘networks of place productions’, and as the result of the coming together of diverse and often competing perspectives on the part of those who ‘make’ a place (Pierce et al 2011). Adopting this understanding of place-making, the PhD will centre on a theoretical, conceptual and empirical exploration of how local communities and actors, in their interaction with local institutions and urban planning processes, have ‘made’ the city of Coventry into the rich, diverse, complex and at times contradictory place it is today. The purpose of the PhD is to bring to light, critically examine and understand how community-driven civic, cultural, political and other forms of engagement and even activism have shaped either particular areas of Coventry, or the city as a whole. This will be an interdisciplinary project and we welcome a range of methodological approaches from both humanities and social sciences, and the use of creative methods and/or a co-production approach are especially encouraged.
More information, and a link to apply here: https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-opportunities/research-students/research-studentships/people-make-coventry-study-relational-place-making/