School of Geography & Geosciences
Department of Geography & Sustainable Development

How can GeoInformatics help with Reducing Risks and Enhancing Effectiveness in Non-Profit Housing Provision
Professor Stewart Fotheringham & Professsor Duncan Maclennan

The project aims to develop new spatial data analysis methods to address the questions posed in the above application context. These methods should cover both a theoretical approach, such as for example, introducing a new appropriate spatio-temporal statistical, data analysis and/or visualisation methods for tracking occupation and analysing changes in housing in general, as well as specific implementations to use available housing data in Scottish context. The student will be advised in terms of method development by Prof Fotheringham and his colleagues at the Centre for Geoinformatics (where the post will be physically located).

In terms of data available, the student will work closely with Prof Maclennan at the Centre for Housing Research at St Andrews and use both commercially available place-based information systems, such as CACI, and the individual-based, fine-grain, and spatially referenced CORE (Continuous Recording of Tenants Incomes), SCORE (the Scottish equivalent of CORE and Supporting People databases. These databases are the key tracking devices, for people and support, in social housing for Scotland and England and they were all developed by CHR at St Andrews.

Further information is available here

Regenerating coastal communities: pathways to sustainable development
Supervisor: Dr Tim Stojanovic

There is an increasing understanding that coastal communities face unique challenges due to the restructuring of maritime economy, peripherality, and changing patterns of human activity. This study will focus on the under-researched and under-theorised field of coastal areas within studies of demography, economic regeneration and wellbeing. Previous research indicates deprivation and disadvantage amongst certain types of coastal community, when compared to other types or community or rural communities. However, the explanation is not straightforward and other explanatory factors such as the size of community and historical path of development seem important. The following avenues of research may prove particularly relevant: (1) Analysis of the changing economic opportunities and wellbeing in coastal communities (2) Exploration of the unique role of the coast in theories of urbanisation and counter-urbanisation; (3) Determination of strategies for coastal communities to encourage sustainable development in the context of an expanding maritime economy. The research will involve a mixed methods approach, using longitudinal data and qualitative research to explore development trends. The findings will be used to enhance understanding of how coastal communities can develop pathways to more sustainable futures, and to identify patterns of change in the UK. Candidates for this PhD would benefit from one of (i) a background in quantitative analysis of longitudinal datas, (ii) qualitative social-scientific methods, or (iii) knowledge of the UK and European policy framework in coastal areas.

Crafting Sustainable Futures
Supervisor: Emilia Ferraro

“[D]espite the many obituaries issued on its behalf and the ever-proliferating forces of mass manufacture, modern craft is not just a symbolic matter”. What makes craft so “resilient”? What distinctive qualities do craft knowledge and thinking bring to the development of community resilience, and more generally to key areas of sustainable development (SD) such as, for example, the re-localization of the national economy; social regeneration; and wellbeing? Defining craft as “a distinctive set of knowledge, skills and aptitude centred on a process of reflective engagement with the material and digital worlds”, this research analyses the craft sector in the UK to uncover the wider role of craft in promoting social sustainability.

Discourses of Energy Justice
Supervisor: Dr Darren McCauley

The PhD studentship would explore the three dimensions of energy justice within a geographical context of the student’s choice. Energy justice refers firstly to the distributional impacts of energy policy (e.g. siting of wind farms, radioactivity, poverty etc.). Secondly, energy justice suggests that equitable procedures must be put in place to ensure the sustainability of energy policy (e.g. stakeholder forums, deliberative democracy, new forms of participation). Lastly, the third tenet of energy justice research involves an exploration of such distributional and procedural issues within the framework of an energy system (e.g. from mining uranium to its disposal, form generating waste to its energy capture etc.). In this vein, the PhD studentship would attempt;

• To understand how ‘energy justice’ is being constructed/articulated by NGOs, businesses, politicians etc.
• To assess how differences in energy technologies and systems influence how discourses of energy justice are constructed
• To explore the political influences on these constructions- e.g. political opportunity structures, Europeanization, climate change, energy security

Homes don’t use energy, people do: exploring household energy demand
Supervisor: Dr Louise Reid

Housing has come to the forefront of energy debates (Lovell 2004, McManus et al., 2010) given high-profile recognition of the 24% contribution that it makes to carbon emissions in the UK (Stern 2006). One ‘solution’ to this problem has been the development of innovative domestic energy-efficiency technology. Yet some have argued that such technology will not sufficiently transform housing to reduce its impact on the environment as it will not challenge the way in which this impact is created (Seyfang 2010, Reid & Houston in press). Indeed, although the energy efficiency of homes has risen steadily over the last 30 years, there has not been a reduction in domestic energy consumption (McManus et al., 2010, Steg & Vlek 2009). Moreover, research has demonstrated that occupants of low carbon (LC) homes found methods to bypass environmentally friendly solutions in order to prevent the curtailment of their activities (Gill et al., 2010). Thus, instead of being solely concerned with changing the physical infrastructure of buildings, the focus ought to be on considering how such technology acts to produce and reproduce environmentally problematic lifestyles (Pickvance 2009). The household diary is one method particularly suited to this task (Reid et al., 2010). Keeping a household diary has been used as a tool to record household consumption and to increase householder awareness of and lead to improvements in environmental behaviour (Hobson 2003, Reid et al., 2011), presenting a significant opportunity to better understand household energy demand. For example, the act of writing down behaviour in a diary encouraged reflection about waste, travel and energy habits independently of changes in household infrastructure or information provision (Reid et al., 2011). Developing this work further, there is a need to assess the potency of an exclusively online diary, as opposed to a paper diary, in encouraging such reflexivity – a research method yet untested. Accordingly, the aim of this studentship would be to compare the experiences of householders living in LC and non-LC housing using an online household diary in order to better understand the way in which energy demand is created, and assess how diary-keeping and/or housing technology may instigate behavioural change.

The transition to a low carbon economy: implications for housing and urban development
Supervisor: Dr Louise Reid

The move to a low carbon economy is frequently presented as a solution to both the economic downturn and the anticipated impacts of climate change (While et al., 2010). An off-spin from the sustainable development meta-narrative (Raco 2005), the low carbon discourse has received criticism for being a weak form of ecological modernisation, where eco-efficiency and technology-led solutions dominate (Lovell 2004). As mechanisms through which the low carbon economy may be realised, housing and urban development have been at the forefront of recent campaigns; the code for sustainable homes and the zero-carbon standard are two prominent examples of the dominance of efficiency and technology in policy-making. However, many questions remain about the role that housing and householders can and should contribute to the low carbon economy, and whether the low carbon economy is indeed even desirable. For instance, is carbon management proving to be ‘less than progressive...reinforcing existing social and spatial inequalities, extending the reach of market environmentalism, and strengthening the power of the state and capital at the expense of consumers, workers and interests in social and spatial equity’ (While et al., 2010)? In short, who are the winners and losers of this transition, and what are the implications for those involved in housing and urban development: planners; managers; housing providers (and registered social landlords in particular); home owners; tenants; and, the homeless? The studentship would therefore critically evaluate the relationship between the low carbon economy, housing and urban development using innovative research methods.

Do good lives have to cost the earth?
Supervisor: Dr Louise Reid

Throughout history, there has been much discussion about what it means to be well or unwell (Diener and Biswas-Diener 2008, Mathews and Izquierdo 2009), how these understandings of wellness relate to life experiences (Christopher 1999), and continued debate about how personal well-being can be measured (Linley et al., 2009). Recently there has been a resurgence of political interest in personal well-being, symbolised by a request from the UK Prime Minister for an Office of National Statistics review of well-being measures, due in 2012 (Seaford 2011). Such interest has been fuelled by the recognition that until the recent economic recession, the UK, like much of the Western world, experienced a prolonged period of economic growth and relative stability which did not result in measurable improvements in personal well-being (Andreou 2010). As Ryan and Deci (2001) have argued, such material wealth created a ‘culture of surplus’ through which the pursuit of improved personal well-being has involved ever greater consumption of material goods, leaving in its wake a legacy of environmental problems.  Yet across the world, people have often reported having long and happy lives (‘happy life years’), whilst consuming different levels of resources (Seaford 2011). The security of these resources varies enormously too with potential implications for well-being, and much of this security is changing with increasing global connectivity and shifts from subsistence to monetary economies (Fazey et al., 2011). This studentship will seek to explore the extent to which resource security, sustainability and ‘the good life’ may be related using a mixed method research design.

The Big Society and Housing Policy: the role of housing associations as community 'anchors'
Supervisor: Dr Kim McKee

Since the formation of the UK coalition government in 2010 the 'Big Society' has been high on political and policy agendas.  Although a slippery and ill-defined concept it nonetheless reflects a shift in the ideological assumptions about the imagined role of communities and the presumed benefits of devolving power downwards to the local scale.  Given their long history and experience in community empowerment and engagement housing associations have been identified as lead agents of the 'Big Society' within the housing arena.  They are more the just landlord organisations, they are 'anchor' organisations in their communities supporting community development and regeneration activities.  This multiple methods PhD project will critically explore this community anchor concept through a focus on the activities of social landlords.   In doing so, this project will add to existing knowledge in policy and practice, as well as develop our conceptual understanding of localism and active citizenship.

Young people, tenure preferences, and the role of socialisation
Supervisor: Dr Kim McKee

Homeownership is now the ‘normalised’ tenure of choice in the UK, with social housing often stigmatised and marginalised as the ‘tenure of last resort’. However, individuals are not born with particular tenure preferences. These are cultural constructs; mobilised and shaped by state intervention in housing (and other social) policies, which make particular tenures more or less attractive at particular times. For example, current challenges in accessing mortgage finance, coupled with volatile labour markets and the growing cost of higher education, makes it increasingly difficult for young people to access homeownership, thus consigning them to the rental market or the parental home. This qualitative PhD project seeks to explore whether the barriers to accessing homeownership, caused by the economic downturn, have impacted on the short and long term tenure preferences of today’s youth. More broadly, it also seeks to consider how young people are socialised into having particular images of, and preferences for, particular tenures, by considering the influence of the family, the state, the media, as well as their own direct experience.

Post-transitional fertility in developing countries
Supervisor: Dr Chris Wilson

Half of the world's population, most of it in developing countries, now live in places where fertility is below the level needed for inter-generational replacement. Even where fertility is above two children per woman, the birth rate is falling fast. How low will fertility go in poor countries? How are individuals, families and governments responding to this new reality?

Replacement Migration in Britain and Europe
Supervisor: Dr Chris Wilson

Fertility has been below the replacement level for decades in most of Europe, and the impending ageing that this implies major challenges to every aspect of society and economy. Can migrants fill the gap and keep Europe's welfare states afloat?

Organ Transplantation and the Geography of the Body
Supervisor: Dr Matt Sothern

Much recent work in cultural, feminist and health geography has highlighted the centrality of “the body” and embodiment to questions about place, space, and scale. At the same time, work in critical science studies, biotechnology and analyses of late capitalism have emphasized how contemporary practices of medicine and science have been remaking the space of the body itself. This project seeks to put these two sets of literatures into closer conversation by using them to understand how organ recipients adjust to the radical new forms of embodiment that are generated by the practice of moving organs from one body to another. Empirically, this will involve a series of in-depth interviews with key medical staff at hospitals across Scotland, interviews and focus groups with organ recipients themselves.

Spatial Practices of Sustainable Communities
Supervisors: Dr Matt Sothern & Dr Emilia Ferraro

This project is essentially a comparative ethnography of two attempts to produce a “sustainable community”. The first is an example of the “transition town movement” where there is an attempt to create a new form of sustainable community within an existing population. The Transition Town Movement is about remaking relationships that already exist between people, place, economy and environment. The second is an attempt to create a new sustainable community by movement to a new place. The spatial practice of isolation through the deliberate movement to “intentional communities” (communes etc) has a long history in radical political struggle and they have become a prominent feature of the environmental/sustainability movement. In both instances these communities revolve around a concept of making place, but do so with very different understandings of the meaning of community itself and do so through very different spatial practices. This project will draw on textual analysis, key interviews, participant observation and focus groups.

Imagining the “Good Blood Donor”:
Geography, Risk and the Biopolitics of Public Health
Supervisors: Dr Mike Kesby & Dr Matt Sothern

The recent controversy surrounding the exclusion of Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) as blood donors highlights a range of issues about the relationship between epidemiological modeling, population health and the understanding of risk. The current approach to ensuring the safety of the blood supply is to exclude those potential donors who are perceived to present a greater risk than the “general public”. The logic of the risk group is key here insofar as the exclusion of risky donors is at the expense of the positive selection of good donors. This project has two parts, the first would be to deconstruct the figure of the “good donor” this could involve textual and visual analysis of blood donation materials and interviews with members of the Blood Service. The second part may involve the design and testing of alternative methods to select for the “good blood donor.”

African Communities and “Care” of HIV in Scotland
Supervisors: Dr Mike Kesby & Dr Matt Sothern

The widespread adoption of Highly Active Anti-retroviral Treatment (HAART) since 1996 has meant that the focus on HIV in the United Kingdom has shifted from a “death sentence” and onto the management of what has become a chronic condition. Despite these advances persons of African origin are both disproportionally affected by HIV and are more likely to be diagnosed late meaning the effectiveness of HAART is compromised and there are complications in managing HIV status long term. Most HIV/AIDS service organizations now recognize the need to develop African specific policies and support structures. In Scotland different HIV/AIDS charities have launched new campaignsthat seek to serve the growing African population. This project would work closely with one of these campaigns to explore the specific issues facing African communities with respect to accessing HIV care. We would like this project to draw heavily on participatory methods.

Sustainable Tourism
Supervisor: Professor Colin Hunter

Studies interested in developing conceptual and practical understandings of, for example, wildlife tourism and agri-tourism in the rural development context and exploring links between tourist motivations and behaviour and notions of personal, subjective well-being are encouraged to apply.