Exploring the value of coastal heritage to different sectors of society using discrete choice experiments

Fully-funded PhD studentship at the University of Stirling and Historic England under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Scheme

Background

The University of Stirling and Historic England are pleased to announce the opportunity for a fully funded collaborative doctoral partnership student to undertake a project focusing on the economic valuation of coastal heritage in South West England. This PhD project will focus on the economic valuation of coastal heritage in South West England. It will explore the applicability of economic valuation to coastal heritage and apply discrete choice modelling to value maritime heritage sites. The project will be jointly supervised by Dr Tobias Börger (Economics Division at The University of Stirling Management School) and Adala Leeson (Historic England) in collaboration with the Heritage subject area at the University of Stirling, the University of Plymouth and Fjordr Ltd.

The research will seek to capture intangible, non-use values of the conservation of coastal heritage sites that go beyond narrow notions of economic value of heritage sites (e.g. tourism revenue or employment effects). The valuation study will explore values for coastal heritage sites held by different user groups (e.g. locals and tourists). While economic valuation is at the heart of this project, the use of focus groups, interviews and surveys within this approach allows for a deeper exploration of the factors that shape people’s relationships with coastal heritage. The project will use state-of-the-art methods to analyse discrete choice experiment (DCE) data to examine the relationships between (economic) values for coastal heritage and concepts such as social and contested values and place identity.

The student will work with Dr Tobias Börger (Economics), Prof Danny Campbell (Economics) and Dr Chiara Bonacchi (Heritage) at Stirling, Adala Leeson at Historic England, Dr Tara Hooper at Plymouth and Dr Antony Firth at Fjordr Ltd.

The successful student will benefit from being part of the Applied Choice Research Group (https://www.acrg.site), which is a new and exciting research group established to provide a focal point for the research interests of staff within the Economics Division who work in various applied fields of choice modelling. The student will also be part of and contribute to the Centre for Environment, Heritage and Policy and the inter-faculty Cultural Heritage Programme at the University of Stirling (https://bit.ly/2yEUVIh).

The Economics Division at The University of Stirling Management School is a vibrant community with world-leading academic credentials and strong professional links with interdisciplinary researchers, policy institutions and the business community. Our research programmes and collaborative research environment, together with the expertise from the Heritage subject area, makes Stirling the ideal place for your PhD.

Historic England is the Government’s statutory advisor on the historic environment in England. It is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England’s spectacular historic environment.

Details of the award

CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 45 months (3.75 years) or part-time equivalent. The studentship has the possibility of being extended for an additional 3 months to provide professional development opportunities, or up to 3 months of funding may be used to pay for the costs the student might incur in taking up professional development opportunities.
More details can be found here: http://stir.ac.uk/38k

Requirements

The successful candidate should have, or expect to obtain, an undergraduate degree in Economics (or related social science) and a postgraduate degree in Economics (or related social science). The successful candidate must have completed training in statistics and quantitative data analysis. The candidate is further expected to have an interest in working with heritage. Prior experience of working with heritage is desirable.

The successful candidate will be expected to conduct fieldwork and spend time at the different partner institutions. Therefore, the successful candidate must have strong communication skills. Basic programming skills in R are desirable.
The start date of the project is October 2020 (or as soon as possible thereafter).

Further information and application procedure

More details can be found here: http://stir.ac.uk/38k