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The Centre for Urban Policy Studies (CUPS) of the School of Environment, Education & Development at the University of Manchester with the Institute of Public Policy Research North (IPPR North) are looking for applicants for the following ESRC funded studentship.

Title: Sustainable spatial rebalancing for Northern England: alternative models and future scenarios

This full-time, 3-year PhD studentship, starting in September 2015, is funded by the ESRC CASE studentship scheme. CASE studentships involve a PhD student working in partnership with an organisation to undertake a study designed to be relevant to the organisation. This creates an invaluable opportunity for students to undertake a PhD that bridges academic and professional concerns, having a direct impact in a professional context whilst also producing a PhD thesis.

The project
In England, the post-war period saw a rise in the use of a north-south divide narrative to explore regional inequalities as redistributive ‘one-nation’ policies were implemented in the 1950s and 1960s and subsequently dismantled in the next three decades. Since the turn of the millennium, the government has been attracted to the idea of pursuing a balanced competitive regional development strategy by improving the economic performance of lagging regions through a market-led competitiveness agenda while promoting continued growth in the economically successful centre. This coincides with the New Economic Geography thesis on spatial agglomeration and growth efficiency. The drivers of competitive growth have recently shifted from a regional perspective to the sub-regional scale of city-regions, though the spatial divide largely persisted as London and the South East region continued to dominate the economic growth of the country.

The struggle between growth efficiency and spatial equity forms the premise for this proposal to examine different models to achieve a ‘sustainable’ form of spatial rebalancing for the lagging Northern England. While transforming the interconnectivities among the northern cities is a vital component for spatial rebalancing, it has to be strategically related to the future spatial development and planning strategies of the North and the rest of the UK. The gravity and spatially diverse problems in many northern places remain an imperative for strategic thinking. This proposal aims to examine different spatial development models for Northern England to achieve spatial rebalancing and to assess sustainability and viability of these models via spatial simulation modelling and scenario building.

The student will be jointly supervised by Professor Cecilia Wong, Dr. Stephen Hincks and Mr. Nuno Pinto from the Centre for Urban Policy Studies of the University of Manchester, and by Mr. Luke Raikes from the Institute of Public Policy Research North.

The advert and specification can be found at http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AKH484/economic-and-social-research-council-esrc-case-studentship-sustainable-spatial-rebalancing-for-northern-england-alternative-models-and-future-scenarios/

Thanks

Stephen