PhD students in human​/economic geography

PhD Students in Human/Economic Geography

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world's top universities. The University has around 46,000 students and 8,500 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

The doctoral candidate program amounts to 240 credits (equivalent to four years of full-time study). It formally ends with the doctoral candidate publicly defending his/her printed doctoral thesis. The holder of a doctoral position has as primary obligation to successfully fulfil the third cycle education ending with a PhD degree. Regulations concerning appointment as a full-time doctoral student can be found in the Higher Education Ordinance Chapter 5, 1-7 §§.

The holder of a doctoral position is expected to participate actively in the research and teaching environment of the department and may perform departmental duties, above all teaching, amounting to about 20 per cent of full time.

The PhD student(s) will be employed in the DECENT project (Socio-technical modularity and the decentralization of infrastructure), financed by the ERC.

Cities have long relied on centralised systems for providing essential services such as electricity, water and transport. These large network-based infrastructures often fail to meet social, economic and environmental needs. The DECENT project aims to explore how decentralized infrastructure solutions, such as micro-grids, small-scale wastewater treatment, multi-modal transport, short food chains, or distributed finance, overcome the historical legacies of large-scale infrastructure systems and supply societal functions in more modular ways.

The doctoral students will study decentralization from a configurational socio-technical perspective and focus on aspects such as: local and global industry dynamics, geography of innovation, sustainability transitions and/or urban experimentation. Empirically, the project will study and compare infrastructure decentralization in high- (e.g., European or North American) and middle-income (e.g., South- or Southeast Asian) cities.

PhD students are expected to:

• design and conduct empirical research on infrastructure decentralization in different sectors (e.g., water, mobility or agri-food) and geographies, in collaboration with the project team;
• write single- and co-authored scientific publications during the duration of the employment;
• work closely together with the project team and contribute to joint meetings and activities;
• present their research at national and international conferences;
• write and defend a PhD thesis.

Eligibility/Entry Requirements:
To be eligible for third cycle studies an applicant must:

• Have been awarded a second cycle degree
• Have completed studies the equivalent of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 credits are at the second cycle level, or
• Have acquired comparable qualifications in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

In addition to the requirements described above, the specific entry requirements for the PhD program in Human Geography is a master's degree in human/economic geography or another relevant discipline (e.g., transition studies, innovation studies, sociology, economics, economic history, political science). Exams must include independent work of at least 30 higher education credits, of which at least half is at the second cycle level.

The applicant must also have proficiency in spoken and written English. The assessment will be based on national guidelines.

The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statues 1998: 80. Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD studies may be appointed to doctoral candidate positions. When an appointment to such a position is made, the ability of the student to benefit from PhD studies shall primarily be taken into account. In addition to devoting themselves to their studies, those appointed to doctoral positions may be required to work with educational tasks, research and administration, in accordance with specific regulations in the ordinance.

Basis of Assessment:
In accordance with…