Are you inspired by regenerative and commons based approaches to urban biodiversity and nature stewardship? In this 3-year post-doctoral position you will co‑design and evaluate citizen‑led models for maintaining biodiverse public spaces in residential urban areas in the Netherlands. You’ll combine research, facilitation, and studio pedagogy to advance more‑than‑human urban planning and circular community economies in collaboration with research partners in 5 other European countries.
EcoCARE – Ecologies of Care: Multispecies Design and Circular Community Economies in Peri‑Urban Settings is a
DUT (Driving Urban Transitions) Partnership project engaging a cross-European consortium with partners in France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the Netherlnds. It addresses biodiversity loss, fragmented urban planning, and climate risks by advancing more‑than‑human approaches to urban design and circular community economies. Across a network of living labs in post‑industrial, suburban, and peri‑urban neighbourhoods in five countries, EcoCARE combines commons‑based ecological stewardship, multispecies design, and transformative pedagogies to diversify local biotopes, enhance socio‑ecological resilience, and build capacity through communities of practice. This post‑doc will anchor the nature stewardship strand of EcoCARE, focusing on citizen‑driven models for maintaining biodiverse public spaces and multi‑species placemaking in residential urban areas.
Embedded in the
Urbanism and Urban Architecture research group and our practice oriented studio environment
‘Urban Labs’ you will conduct cutting‑edge research and co‑produce practice with residents and practitioners to design, test, and evaluate models for citizen‑led biodiversity maintenance in residential urban contexts (e.g., pocket parks, green streets, wetlands/rewilded areas, shared courtyards). The post‑doc bridges research, pedagogy, and practice, contributing to the project’s scientific outputs, living lab programming, and the communities of practice.
Specifically you will have the following tasks:
- Map current practices, governance arrangements, and regulatory bottlenecks related to citizen‑driven nature stewardship in residential urban areas.
- Conduct comparative case analysis identify enabling/limiting factors (policy, maintenance regimes, liability, funding, equity).
- Co‑design and run deliberative activities with residents, municipal staff, and practitioners on biodiversity maintenance and multispecies placemaking. Pilot stewardship models and evaluate impacts.
- Produce scholarly and practice oriented outputs including 2-3 journal publications, policy briefs, podcast and newsletter entries.
- Develop place‑based studio/lab pedagogies for urban design/planning students that plug into the living labs. Co‑create pedagogical materials and open resources.
- Maintain open lines of communication with the transnational community of practice, contributing to newsletters, podcasts, tool/library entries, and events.
- Support the PI in stakeholder engagement and cross‑partner coordination. Contribute to planning, documentation, monitoring, ethics/data management, and reporting to funding bodies.