Managing Agglomeration: City-Region Dynamics in Wales

The urban condition is a constant and now-pressing challenge to social science (Amin 2013). According to Storper (2013: 4) in Keys to the City, “city-regions are the principal scale at which people experience lived reality”. The geographical churn, turbulence, and unevenness of development, combined with the sheer scale or urbanization, will make city-region development more important than ever—to economics, politics, our mood and our welfare. And managing it will pose one of the most critical challenges to humanity. The Welsh Government is seeking to do this through the designation of the Swansea Bay and Cardiff Capital City-Regions.

Such management though requires “insights into the drivers of changes in the geography of economic development” (Storper, 2013: 4). This PhD will consider the dynamics of city-regions in Wales and make comparisons with City Regions in England. By using the insights of cultural political economy (see Sum and Jessop 2014), and in turn developing this important approach to policy, discourse and economic development management, it will shed light on the following research questions:

•Why have, and which, city-regions been introduced in Wales and how do they operate?
•Can city-regions create and sustain growth in Wales?
•What is the relationship between city-regions and their hinterland geographies and is uneven development increasing or decreasing?
•What is the relationship of a cities material-physical structure to its economic performance?

Applicants are strongly advised to contact the primary supervisor Prof Calvin Jones prior to completing an application. The PhD will be co-supervised by Prof Martin Jones, Professor of Urban and Regional Political Economy at the University of Sheffield.

The award is available on either a 1+3 or +3 basis. A 1+3 studentship provides funding for four years, completing the MSc Social Science Research Methods in year one, followed by the three-year PhD phase. A +3 studentship provides funding for three years only, and assumes that the applicant will already have successfully completed research training via, or equivalent to, an ESRC-recognised MSc degree (please see ESRC guidance on this).

Start date: Late September 2016