There are two fully-funded 3.5-year PhD studentships at the University of Manchester currently being advertised in the fields of energy and sustainability. The focus of these is on climate-friendly retrofitting in residential housing, everyday/organisational practices, and injustices/inequalities.

The first project looks at the relationships between people, places, public policy, and the environment. It will be jointly supervised by colleagues from Geography (Stefan Bouzarovski), Politics (Paul Tobin), and Sociology (Faye Wade). Applicants will be expected to have previously studied one of these subject areas, possibly two, and will be keen to learn how to combine concepts and methods from them to provide rich insights into one of the most important policy areas for mitigating climate change – retrofitting buildings in a comprehensive and inclusive manner.

The second project seeks to develop new conceptual and policy tools to analyse the legal frameworks, strategic decisions, policy practices and spatial patterns linked to the shift away from fossil fuel use in the residential housing stock. This involves several aspects, including how governance practices impact the promotion and regulation of low-carbon energy technologies, the changing nature of cities and towns (involving, also, dynamics of ‘renoviction’ and low-carbon gentrification – see Bouzarovski et al. 2018), as well as the unequal lived experience of fossil fuel phase-out.

Applications for both close on 16th September 2024.