The School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham welcomes applications for a funded PhD scholarship on the topic of: 
 
Effective, equal and fair: examining new inclusive models of representation and community involvement.
 
Project description: The UK like much of the developed world has entered an era of superdiversity. In areas of growing diversity a complex and dynamic set of variables have led to new patterns of settlement and community dynamics that pose challenges to civic engagement and arguably renders group representation based on cultural identity impractical (Phillimore and Goodson 2010). This research aims to generate new knowledge and policy-relevant findings about the ways representation is occurring across the UK and the types of inclusive models being developed.  
 
At the local level, and arguably throughout all of our socio-political structures/processes, issues of equitable representation remain unresolved. In addition, several recent developments have served to push 
representation back up the policy agenda and make a re-examination of processes and practise necessary and timely. These include:
•	A growing public debate which recognises that ‘ethnicised’ multicultural approaches may have 
inadvertently reinforced ‘difference’ and cultural separatism (see Vertovec and Wessendorf 2011).
•	An increasing emphasis on social and community cohesion as key policy objectives, and mounting concern regarding white working class disenfranchisement and the rise of racist far-right groups. 
•	The emergence of a human rights-based agenda, the merger of the various equalities commissions and a ‘multiple-strand’ approach to equality. 
•	The Coalition’s recent Equality Strategy stressing the need to move ‘beyond identity-led approaches’ 
•	The rise of ‘faith’ as a new cultural identifier. 
•	Key public policy drivers including: the ‘Open Public Services White Paper’ which focuses on decentralization and accountability. 
•	The ‘Localism Bill’(2010) which empowers local people to hold public bodies to account in new ways 
•	The Equality Act (2010) which Government Equalities Office hope will be driven by communities and organisations holding public bodies to account on equality performance. 
•	The focus on ‘Big Society’: the idea that local people can take more responsibility in improving public services and their own lives. 
•	Recent ‘riots’ across the country raising questions about how public services engage with those that feel most disempowered and disadvantaged in society to address the causes of disaffection. 
 
With issues of community involvement, engagement and representation clearly at the forefront of public policy, this research will push knowledge forward.  It is proposed that the successful candidate adopt a multi-method approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative research techniques to explore the range of community engagement, involvement and representation models being employed across the UK and to examine new inclusive representative models with public sector partners.  The study aims to address a number of key questions, including: What models are being employed by the public sector to facilitate representation in relation to equality groups? How effective are those models at promoting representation across equality groups? What new models can be developed that have the potential to incorporate new human rights-based and cross-equality strand practise?
 
Supervision: The PhD will be based within the emerging Superdiversity Interdisciplinary Research Institute to be launched in 2012 and will be jointly supervised by Dr Jenny Phillimore and Dr Lisa Goodson in the School of Social Policy.
 
Funding and application deadline: This research project has funding attached. It is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more. The scholarship is only offered on a +3 basis for full-time study. To be eligible, you must hold or be near completing a masters degree (or have equivalent research experience and expertise).The scholarship is funded at ESRC maintenance/fee rates.
 
Applications will be considered after 0900UTC Monday 9th January 2012. Please apply online following the URL below and quoting the code: 2223 http://www.postgraduate.bham.ac.uk/apply/
 
Please send any informal enquires to:  Lisa Goodson, e: [log in to unmask], tel: 0121 414499 or Jenny Phillimore e: [log in to unmask], tel: 0121 4147822.