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Subject:

2 ESRC studentships available

From:

Andrew Jordan <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Andrew Jordan <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 23 May 2002 11:47:47 +0100

Content-Type:

TEXT/PLAIN

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

TEXT/PLAIN (281 lines)

2 ESRC Centre 'Linked' Studentships in Environmental Social 
Science

Applications are invited for two ESRC 'linked' Centre 
studentships which are available in the RAE 5* School of 
Environmental Sciences at the UEA, Norwich:

1. Multi-level Environmental Governance in the European 
Union supervised by Dr Andrew Jordan and linked to the 
CSERGE. http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/all/studentships/60.htm 

2.Social Capital and Adaptation to Climate Change 
supervised by Dr Neil Adger and linked to the Tyndall 
Centre For Climate Change Research. 
http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/all/studentships/61.htm


The 'linked' studentships scheme is designed actively to 
involve postgraduates in the research activities of the two 
centres (see: http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/ or 
http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/).

The studentships will commence on 1 October 2002.  They can 
be undertaken either on a '1+3' or a '+3' only basis 
depending on whether the successful applicant has already 
received ERSC recognised postgraduate training.  Applicants 
must also satisfy the ESRC's standard academic and 
residential eligibility requirements 
(http://www.esrc.ac.uk/esrccontent/postgradfunding/index.asp).

Application forms and further particulars are available on 
the School website 
(http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/all/studentships/) or from the 
Science Postgraduate Studies Office, UEA, Norwich NR4 7TJ. 
Telephone (01603)593002, Fax (01603) 593035 or e-mail 
[log in to unmask]  . The deadline for both is: 10 June 2002.



FURTHER PARTICULARS: 1

ESRC Centre 'Linked' Studentship: "Multi-level 
Environmental Governance in the European Union"

Supervisor: Dr Andrew Jordan
Host ESRC Centre: CSERGE, UEA.

Summary
In a policy sphere such as the environment that exhibits 
many features of multi-level environmental governance, an 
important but surprisingly under-researched question is 
what is the optimal level of governance to take decisions? 
This project will describe and explain the current 
allocation of environmental policy functions across the 
many levels of governance in the European Union.  
Applicants should possess a very good first degree (i.e. a 
IIi or a I) and, ideally, also a Masters degree in 
political science, policy analysis, human geography, 
environmental studies, European studies or similar.  The 
studentship will be an integral part of the ESRC Programme 
on Environmental decision-making within the CSERGE 
(http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/about/pedm.htm). Informal 
inquiries should be directed to: Dr. Andrew Jordan in the 
CSERGE (http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/).  Tel: (00) (44) 
(0)1603 592552; [log in to unmask]

Research plan
'Multi-level governance' (MLG) has emerged as an important 
linking concept in the social sciences.  Nowhere is the 
shift to multi-level governance more apparent than in the 
environmental sphere (Jordan, 1999; 2002).  Thirty years 
ago, almost all environmental policy decisions were made at 
the national or local level.  Supranational governance was 
relatively under-developed.  Today, decisions are allocated 
across multiple levels, including many international bodies 
such as the United Nations, the European Union and the OECD 
(Hooghe and Marks, 2001).  The growing popularity of 
devolution in many countries including the UK has further 
accentuated the shift to a more multi-levelled system of 
environmental governance.

However, the ad hoc and incremental process through which 
environmental policy functions (or tasks) are dispersed 
across different levels of governance has created a 
confusing and very messy pattern of overlapping 
responsibilities (Weale, 2002).  In the EU (which is the 
most important source of UK policy), the overall pattern of 
activities displays a number of striking inconsistencies, 
which does not consistently follow a clear overriding logic 
(Jeppesen, 2002).  Thus, some overwhelmingly 'sub-national' 
issues such as bathing water, urban air quality and access 
to environmental information, are highly supervised by EU 
authorities, even though they have little do with the 
functioning of the common market and do not involve 
significant transfers of pollution across borders.  At the 
same time, the EU is too weak to supervise genuinely 
international problems such as climate change (Weale, 
2002). In the past, many governments have sought to achieve 
a more 'rational' allocation of tasks by repatriating tasks 
back to the national level (e.g. during the EU's great 
subsidiarity debate of the early 1990s), but these efforts 
failed to achieve a significant re-allocation of existing 
tasks (Jordan, 2000), although the legal definition of 
subsidiarity was clarified and proposals for new 
legislation have to be better justified.  Consequently, the 
overall allocation of tasks across levels remains confusing 
and manifestly sub-optimal for some policy actors.

Aims
It is widely appreciated that addressing environmental 
problems at the 'wrong' level undermines the effectiveness 
and legitimacy of environmental policy.  It may also be 
economically inefficient to do things at one level that 
could be better performed at cognate levels.  In a policy 
sphere such as the environment which exhibits MLG, an 
important but surprisingly under-researched question is 
what is the optimal level of governance to take decisions? 
The federal principle of subsidiarity (Føllesdal, 1998) 
states that decisions should be taken at the lowest level 
commensurate with effective action.  However, subsidiarity 
per se does not really explain how issues of policy 
effectiveness, legitimacy and efficiency are or should be 
reconciled (Jordan, 2000) when decision makers decide about 
which level to act.  There is a common presumption that 
'international' problems should be addressed 
'internationally', while 'local' problems should be tackled 
'locally'.  Reality, of course, is much more complex 
(Jeppesen, 2002).

Objectives
Taking a number of specific issue areas such as water and 
air pollution, biodiversity and climate change, which 
involve the UK, the EU and supranational authorities in a 
joint system of policy making, this project will:

·	Describe how decision-making responsibilities in 
these fields are currently allocated in the way that they 
are; ·	Using theories of European integration, fiscal 
federalism and democratic theory, explain why this pattern 
has arisen; ·	Assess the 'optimality' of this pattern by 
examining the extent to which it satisfies the preferences 
of different policy actors, most notably national 
government, environmental pressure groups, the EU and 
industry; ·	Assess the scope for moving decisions 
currently taken at the 'wrong' level to adjacent levels in 
ways that are efficient, legitimate and environmentally 
effective; ·	Make valid comparisons between the EU-UK 
and more fully-fledged examples of multi-level governance 
such as the USA and Germany, in order to assess the scope 
for learning lessons.

Methods/techniques
The project will employ a mixed (i.e. 
qualitative-quantitative) methodology.  It will include: a 
'process tracing' analysis of critical decisions in the 
chosen fields, based on a documentary analysis and 
interviews with key stakeholders; a quantitative analysis 
of the allocation of decision-making responsibilities in 
different domains across time and across space; a 
environmental economic analysis of the extent to which 
externalities are internalised under the current allocation 
of tasks; a theoretically informed explanation of the 
observed patterns.   The student will be able to work 
closely with members of the CSERGE, who regularly employ 
these qualitative-quantitative methods in their own 
research work.



FURTHER PARTICULARS: 2

ESRC Centre 'Linked' Studentship: "Social Capital and 
Adaptation to Climate Change"

Supervisor: Dr Neil Adger
Host ESRC Centre: The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change 
Research, UEA

Summary
The studentship will address the social and physical 
dynamics of adaptation to climate change in 
natural-resource dependent areas, based on emerging 
theories of social capital inform collective action within 
adaptation processes. The research will focus on southern 
Africa. We seek a social scientist with a I or a Iii but 
ideally, also a postgraduate degree in resource economics, 
development studies or human geography.  You should have 
enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research. Contact: Dr. 
Neil Adger in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change 
research (http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/).  Tel: (00) (44) 
(0)1603 593732; [log in to unmask]

Research plan
The studentship will address the social and physical 
dynamics of adaptation to climate change in 
natural-resource dependent areas, based on emerging 
theories of social capital inform collective action within 
adaptation processes. The research will focus on southern 
Africa. We seek a social scientist with strong analytical 
skills and an excellent first or further degree in resource 
economics, development studies or human geography with an 
enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research.

Future climate change poses significant challenges for 
society, not least in terms of how best to adapt to the 
potential impacts to which the world is already committed. 
It serves as a threat to the successful transition to 
sustainable development in all societal contexts throughout 
the world.  Adaptation is a dynamic social process and the 
ability of societies to adapt is determined in part by the 
ability to act collectively. The PhD research will utilise 
emerging perspectives on social capital and collective 
action to gain insights from these areas inform the nature 
of future adaptation capacity and direction. The research 
will use analysis of national level data to illuminate 
questions on the contested role of the state and 
individuals in adaptation at a national scale and a case 
study of local level autonomous adaptation and present day 
collective action for coping with weather extremes in 
dryland areas in southern Africa. It thus links with 
ongoing research within the Tyndall Centre in its 
Adaptation to Climate Change theme and will provide an 
excellent training for a prospective interdisciplinary 
social science researcher with a background in resource 
economics, development studies or human geography.

The first part of the project will utilise the Tyndall 
Centre database on national level indicators of adaptive 
capacity and develop further insights into the nature of 
vulnerability and the role of the state in facilitating 
adaptation. In particular the student will focus on the 
countries of the southern Africa region, where another 
proposed Tyndall project will be examining local level 
adaptation to the threats to livelihoods caused by recent 
climate variability. In this first part of the project the 
student will utilise documentary sources and archive 
material as well as the database of indicators to construct 
an historical narrative account of the policies and 
measures by the countries in the region which have been 
promoted security of livelihoods in the face of drought and 
other risks, or produced maladaptation. This research will 
therefore engage with the economic and political history of 
coercion, food security and land tenure.

The second part of the research will establish and observe 
actual processes and patterns of response to climate 
changes. This part of the project will utilise the same 
research resources (infrastructure and local contacts) as a 
proposed Tyndall project to examine present day adaptation 
within the context of specific natural resource-reliant 
communities across the E-W climate gradient in southern 
Africa, currently subject to irregular climate changes 
differing in nature and magnitude. It will develop insights 
on adaptation from present and recent historical 
experience. This fieldwork-based component of the project 
will illuminate the historical analysis and allow the 
student to place local level insights in the contexts of 
geographical and emerging social theories of collective 
action as well as providing connections with the proposed 
Tyndall strategic assessment of equity and justice issues 
in adaptation.

__________________________________________________________

Dr. Andrew J. Jordan
Lecturer in Environmental Politics;
and Co-Editor, Environment and Planning C (EPC)
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia (UEA)
Norwich
NR4 7TJ
United Kingdom (UK)

Tel: (00)(44) (0)1603 592552/593176
Fax: (00)(44) (0)1603 593739/250588

School Webpage: http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/
CSERGE Webpage: http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/
EPC (Government and Policy) Webpage: http://www.pion.co.uk/ep/
___________________________________________________________

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