The Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development is looking for a PhD in the project ‘Homescapes make the world we live in?: A multi-sited study to unpack other-than-human homes in the urban South’. HOMESCAPES is a multi-sited collaborative research project led by Dr Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero.

Your job
By focusing on the everyday life inside and around homes in low-income neighborhoods of Semarang (Indonesia), San Andrés (Colombia), and Maputo (Mozambique), HOMESCAPES studies the interconnected infrastructural histories and arrangements, ecological changes, and social power relations that constitute homescapes. The concept of homescape is originally proposed to denote a produced place in which interdependent social, material and ecological processes unfold in and around the domestic, but are not independent of broader socio-economic power relations and ecological dynamics. HOMESCAPES casts a spotlight on the domestic scale as a critical, yet overlooked, vantage point for understanding urban socio-ecological relations in a context of inequality and climate change.

The research is carried out by a project team consisting of forty-two researchers: 2 PhD candidates, 3 Master's students, 36 Community Research Assistants and the Principal Investigator (PI), Dr Acevedo Guerrero. The team will work together to gather and analyse the data, participate in conferences, and (co-)author publications.

You will be based at Utrecht University and conduct twelve months of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in low-income neighborhoods in Semarang. You will work collaboratively with community research assistants and a grassroots association. The focus of your research will be on how low-income residents make homescapes in Semarang, by accessing groundwater. During the first phase, you will carry out preparatory archival/literature reviews to analyse the historical processes and political transformations that have shaped water service configurations and power relations at the city level. During the second phase, you will coordinate multi-modal ethnographic work in the city. You will investigate urban life in the Global South from the perspective of the home as a place of social and ecological processes.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• setting up and carrying out ethnographic fieldwork in collaboration with community research assistants;
• completing a PhD dissertation within four years;
• authoring and co-authoring publications with other team members;
• participating in conferences, workshops, seminars and other scholarly activities;
• being part of the research team and help organise the overall work and strategy of the team;
• being an active member of the Environmental Governance Group (participating in group activities, meetings, and seminars).

You are:

• a dedicated researcher who wishes to build a deeper understanding of issues of water-access, social injustice and inequality, while generating knowledge that may help bring about a fairer, more sustainable world;
• a team player who contributes to making a collaborative research project a success, but you also have the creativity, aptitude and qualities needed to do individual work when needed, especially when it comes to 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork;
• willing to nurture these qualities further over the course of the project, including how these could serve you in a further career in academia or beyond after the PhD.

You possess:

• completed (Research) Master’s degree in Social Sciences, preferably with a focus on one or more of the following areas: human geography, urban studies, feminist studies, political ecology, social studies of science and technology, development studies, anthropology;
• demonstrated passion and aptitude for research;
• proven experience with ethnographic and other qualitative research methods, ideally in urban Indonesia and/or on topics related to political ecology, urban development, health, and gender relations;
• an excellent command of written and spoken English and Indonesian (proficiency of Javanese is a plus);
• good skills in planning, taking initiatives, organising events, and presenting your work to a wider audience;
• proven skills in academic writing;
• interest in being part of and contributing to a caring, spirited, and engaging academic environment.

Since you are to become an active member of the department’s intellectual community and work closely together with the project team, you are expected to live in the Netherlands.

For this position you are expected to have a command of English at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language.

We offer:

• a position for one year, with an extension to a total of four years upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period;
• A working week of 36 hours and a gross monthly salary between €2,770 and €3,539 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU);
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

Universiteit Utrecht

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Shaping science, sharing tomorrow.

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.

You will be part of the HOMESCAPES research team, led by the PI Dr Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero. This team is embedded in the chair group of Environmental Governance led by Professor Peter Driessen. Your supervisor will be Dr Tatiana Acevedo Guerrero and co-supervisor will be Dr Diana Vela Almeida. The promotor will be Dr Giuseppe Feola.