See these two opportunities for PhD projects at the University of Twente below:
Research Project: “Diverse ethical values and just sustainability futures”
Contemporary sustainability research and policy discourses feature calls for ‘transformative change towards sustainability’ (IPCC 2022; IPBES 2022), a sustainable future that ‘leaves no one behind’ (UN Agenda 2030), even the promotion of ‘sustainability-aligned values’ (IPBES 2022). Such calls are vague about what exactly needs to be transformed, and the technologies or institutions necessary to achieve it. Crucially, this ambiguity concerns the ethical values that ought to be recognized and protected by sustainable development policies.
This PhD project will explore the place of environmental values within political theory, in the context of a just and sustainable future. A key challenge will be whether the tensions between anthropocentric theories, non-anthropocentric theories, and plural worldviews can be overcome. This may involve clarification of the controversy about relational values in environmental ethics. Another key focus will be to examine the compatibility between diverse ethical and political values and sustainability futures, for instance involving green growth, or futures challenging high consumption lifestyles and prioritizing human needs.
Research Project: “Planetary Justice and Energy Transition Technologies”
This research project investigates the link between planetary justice and the energy transition. It will clarify the planetary justice issues raised by the energy transition, drawing on the triumvirate approach to energy justice that incorporates recognitional justice, distributive justice, and procedural justice. It will also ask whether the theory of planetary justice can stand in the absence of a broader ethical framework, and, if necessary, explore the role other ethical considerations.
The energy transition relies on renewable energy, technologies aiming at sustainable behavior change and energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, and possibly nuclear energy. The project will start with a review of these technologies to identify whether to focus on a specific type of technology or several of them regarding their potential to promote planetary justice from a multi-level governance perspective.
