Dr G Verdini
Applications accepted all year round
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
The Department of Urban Planning and Design of Xi’An Jiatong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) based in Suzhou, China, is looking for one +3 PhD candidate to undertake a comparative research regarding the issues of urban growth containment policies and urban-rural fringe planning with a specific focus on China to start approximately from September-October 2012.
Student doctoral research will primarily be based at XJTLU but the research will also be mentored by supervisors at the University of Liverpool (UoL)and at the South China University of Technology. The PhD degree will be awarded on satisfactory completion by the UoL.
The student is expected to complete his/her PhD thesis publishing regularly in scientific academic journals and taking part in international conferences. Moreover he/she is expected to participate directly in on-going research, and especially at XJTLU giving a contribution in the teaching activities of the department (especially for the research-based modules).
In the long-lasting literature on urban growth management in Western Countries urban containment policies have for a long time been at the centre of the attention. This is due to the widely recognised negative impact of urban growth on farmland reduction, unsustainable urban sprawl, loss of environmental quality and rural landscape transformations.
Nowadays this has apparently emerged as a new concern of the China public agenda of sustainability, producing, among the other things, a huge reform of the national land management law by the end of the ‘90s with the clear purpose of reducing drastically urban growth.
In spite of this the conversion from rural to urban land use in the Eastern Coastal Area of China seems to continue unabated due, in particular, to the dangerous combination of a land-consuming economic growth, more evident in areas like the Yangtze River Delta in Jiangsu or the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong, and the peculiar urban policy structure that encourages local governments in transforming land.
Considering the current high rate of economic growth of China and the forecast of growing countryside-city migration this will be clearly one of the most critical side effects of urbanization process for coastal China.
The future of fringe rural areas lies at the crossing of different but interrelated strategic questions which are still open: the challenge of urban-rural governance in China inside a land management system which is still strongly centralized; the raising of a still timid local demand for inclusion in the decision-making process, especially in the rural villages or peri-urban settlements around the cities; the weight of the political discourse on urban-rural integration and countryside modernization that is still affecting strongly the policies for rural areas but is today unable to distinguish between undeveloped areas in the west, and more complex transitional rural areas in the urbanized east of the country.
Precise details of the focus of the research will be developed during year one by the student with support from their supervisors. At this stage we are seeking outline proposals (750 words) and an indicative bibliography (6-10 references) indicating a preferred research focus based on the research background outlined.
Funding Notes
Candidates would normally be expected to have a Masters in a relevant discipline of social sciences or humanities e.g. urban planning, geography, economics, architecture, social or/and cultural studies (minimum 60% or international equivalent). However first degree holders with a first class honours will also be considered. Candidates must be fluent in English (IELTS 6.5 or equivalent) and Mandarin will be regarded as an asset.