Postdoctoral position in Urban Economy

Chalmers Architecture has a strong profile on sustainability working with central societal challenges in the built environment with explorative and practice-based approaches. The department’s teaching and research in architecture, urbanism and design processes integrate practice-based, artistic and scientific methods to explore the broad aspects of architecture – from building technology, physical design, and spatial structures to design methods, transformation of built environments and its role in sustainable development.

The Department of Architecture has roughly 90 employees. The department has approximately sixty researchers/teachers, twenty doctoral students and ten in the division for administration.

The department include four divisions: Building Design, Urban Design and Planning, Architectural Theory and Method and the Administration.


Information about the project
A postdoctoral position is available at the division Urban Design and Planning at the department of Architecture, and more specifically within the interdisciplinary research group investigating potential and challenges linked to urban densification, based on emerging notions of regenerative urban sustainability as well as from both local and global (equity) perspectives.

The Postdoctoral position is linked to an ongoing research project: "Compact Cities? - Exploring qualities, drivers and strategies for promoting mixed-use urban development". Research and policy argue for more compact cities - referring to higher urban densities and mixed use - but there is little clarity on what actually needs to be made more compact to achieve all the purported benefits. There is also poor understanding of how different development drivers co-produce or counteract compact cities, where such drivers are active within multiple sectors and at multiple governance levels. Additionally, knowledge is lacking regarding how compact cities could best be achieved through strategy-making and transition processes taking place within the different sectors and at different levels. The aim of the project is to contribute to a more precise and operational understanding of which qualities a compact city actually needs to include and how they can be promoted and realized. Urban densification will be studied in Barcelona, Rotterdam and Gothenburg, and developed knowledge will be applied to the Gothenburg context.

Within the broader research project, the recruited researcher will focus on urban development drivers from an urban economics perspective, linking economic driving forces to land use policy and land use change. Other researchers in the team will approach drivers from other perspectives, such as demography, lifestyles, worldviews, social aspects, environmental factors, urban form, infrastructure, technology, policies, regulations, and institutional settings. Key questions are: Which are the drivers that produce or counteract beneficial compact urban patterns and within what sectors and at what levels are they active? How do different drivers co-produce or co-counteract beneficial urban patterns?

Major responsibilities
• To independently review and develop the field of urban economy as it links to development of compact cities
• To contribute to developing an analytical framework for an integrated understanding of urban development drivers
• To independently carry out field studies in three cities based on this framework, including interviews, with a focus on economic drivers
• To analyze and write up results from field work with a quality and format suitable for publication in academic journals
• To integrate results with other components of the research project

Position summary
We are inviting applications for a postdoctoral position at Chalmers Architecture, involving a study of urban development drivers from an urban economics perspective. The objectives is to link such economic driving forces to patterns of land use change in the context of compact cities in three European cities: Barcelona, Gothenburg and Rotterdam. The appointed applicant will be part of a interdisciplinary research group investigating potential and challenges linked to urban densification, based on emerging notions of regenerative urban sustainability. 

Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to one year with no teaching obligations, with 1st November 2015 as preferable starting date.

Qualifications
• A PhD degree in geography, urban economics, or similar; the degree should generally not be older than three years. 
• Capacity for independent field work in the three cities, including interviews and document studies, as well as for analysis and integration with other components of the research project.
• Ability to represent and work with your area of expertise in an interdisciplinary setting.
• Additional research experience is a merit.
• Knowledge of Swedish, Catalan, Dutch and/or Spanish is a merit. 

Chalmers continuously strives to be an attractive employer. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.


Application deadline: July 31, 2015

For questions, please contact:
Jaan-Henrik Kain,
Urban Design and Planning,
Dept. of Architecture,
kain@chalmers.se,
+46 730 387060

*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***