This PhD project’s central aim is to shed light on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the police, the public and their relationship in several contrasting places. It will do so by examining the perspectives and experiences of two groups; police organisations tasked with developing and implementing the national response and emergency powers on the one hand, and the communities being policed on the other. Therefore, the project will be divided into two workstreams. The first focuses on generating senior officer accounts of the pandemic to examine the logic, politics, and policy underpinning the police response (e.g., practical challenges, ethical issues, centralisation of decision making, localism and community empowerment, historical, social, and cultural community-contexts) in three distinctive case study areas. The second workstream will take the same communities and build on the findings of the first section of fieldwork by exploring how these policing strategies and challenges were experienced by those being policed. The successful candidate will design and carry out a research project to generate answers to the following research questions:
RQ1. How did the police navigate the political, social, cultural, and economic challenges of policing three different contexts during the COVID-19 Pandemic?
RQ2. How did the pandemic shape police-public encounters (e.g., expanding police role), and how did officers negotiate the practical, ethical challenges that arose in three contrasting contexts?
RQ3 How did the policing response in different contexts shape or reconfigure trust and legitimacy in the public police? What does this suggest about the impact of distinctive social contexts on police community relationships?
RQ4. What do these impacts and implications mean for planning policing responses to other major crises we are likely to face in the future, and maintaining public confidence, trust, and organisational legitimacy? What lessons can be learned from different policing contexts?
Three contrasting case-study areas will be selected to allow the research to explore the extent to which pandemic policing reconfigured police-public relationships with groups that routinely experience more and less policing, and policing activities of different kinds. The student will be expected to take a central role in shaping the nature and direction of the project, and to engage and work collaboratively with Police Scotland who will provide support to the successful candidate.
It should be noted that the coverage of policing research related to the Pandemic is dynamic. Both empirical and theoretical work continues to emerge. Thinking through the longer-term timescales of the project and when the fieldwork will take place, discussion with both Local Policing in agreed field sites and Police Scotland’s Business Area of Strategy, Insight and Innovation, will be essential. Furthermore, the focus of the project and methods will be refined to reflect government and research ethics demands related to co-present research activities, social distancing, and wider constraints on face-to-face fieldwork that emerge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The student will be a member of strong and rapidly growing institutional PhD community and encouraged to engage with the multi-disciplinary research and practitioner collaborations currently housed at Edinburgh Napier University. These include but are not limited to the Scottish Institute for Policing Research and the Scottish Collaboration for Law Enforcement and Public Health. As a member of the Postgraduate Community of SIPR, the successful student will also be a member of a vibrant national doctoral researcher community with excellent international links and partners.
Academic qualifications
A first degree (at least a 2.1) ideally in criminology, sociology, human geography, or allied subject with a good fundamental knowledge of policing and qualitative research.
English language requirement
IELTS score must be at least 6.5 (with not less than 6.0 in each of the four components). Other, equivalent qualifications will be accepted. Full details of the University’s policy are available online
Essential attributes:
· Experience of fundamental social research skills, with experience of qualitative research
· Demonstrable competency in independent research, project management, and critical analysis skills with evidence of independent research relevant to the project
· Knowledge of core policing and criminology literatures
· Excellent written and oral communication skills
· Excellent time management skills with the ability to self-motivate
· A demonstrable ability to work both independently and as part of a team
Desirable attributes:
· A completed (or nearing completion) MSc in a relevant subject area, with an empirical research component
· Experience of communicating academic research evidence to non-academic and practitioner audiences
TO APPLY PLEASE CLICK ON THE 'INSTITUTION WEBSITE' LINK ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THIS PAGE.
When applying (PhD APPLIED SCIENCES full-time), please quote the application reference SAS0165 on your form.
**PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NOT ABLE TO ACCEPT PART-TIME APPLICANTS FOR THIS STUDENTSHIP**
Interviews are expected to take place in early July 2022, and we expect to get the successful candidate in post by October 2022
APPLICATION CHECKLIST
· Completed application form
· Curriculum Vitae
· 2 academic references, using the Postgraduate Educational Reference Form (Found on the application process page)
· Personal research statement. This should include (a) a brief description of your relevant experience and skills, (b) an indication of what you would uniquely bring to the project and (c) a statement of how this project fits with your future direction. (800 word maximum).
· Evidence of proficiency in English (if appropriate)
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