PhD student in Sustainability Science

Ref. No. SU FV-4777-23

at Stockholm Resilience Centre . Closing date: 4 February 2024.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Founded in 2007, the Centre is part of the Faculty of Science at Stockholm University.

The mission of the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) is to advance research for biosphere stewardship and innovation. Research at the SRC applies a social-ecological systems perspective and resilience thinking to generate knowledge and understanding to enable social-ecological transformations towards sustainable futures. Research is advanced through transdisciplinary collaboration with international leading researchers, research environments worldwide, and environmental actors.

The SRC aims to foster new generations of researchers and academic leaders through our Resilience Research School. The school equips students with a theoretical and practical foundation in Sustainability Science with a focus on resilience in social-ecological systems. Students are encouraged to develop new approaches that integrate methods and concepts from the social, natural and applied sciences. Emphasis is placed on developing student ability to define a problem, develop research methods, and communicate research findings within international scientific and science-policy discussions.

Project description
We seek an enthusiastic and committed PhD student to join a transdisciplinary team of researchers working in the Powering Change project, funded by FORMAS. The transdisciplinary project aims to explore whether and how renewable energy transitions in one place could have unintended consequences in other places and at multiple scales. Specifically, the project will examine spillover effects of wind energy projects on the territorial rights, sovereignty and ways of life of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) and aims to surface new transformative visions for just energy transitions.

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a critical strategy for the societal transformation needed to combat climate change. However, expansion of ‘green’ energy projects such as wind energy parks are not without impacts. If renewable energy projects are done in the same way that energy projects have been done in the past, they will have multiple negative local and cross-border effects on societies and ecosystems. So, the energy transition risks keeping us on a similar trajectory of environmental degradation and deepening inequalities rather than being part of transformative change. There is a need to both problematise current trajectories, and to open up the space to reimagine alternative futures from multiple perspectives and knowledge systems.

The Powering Change project focuses on two cases of affected IPLCs: Sweden and Brazil. In these countries the expansion of wind energy is contentious and complex due to projects being established on the territories of Indigenous groups. Thus, human rights and environmental justice issues related to wind power development are tightly intertwined in these cases.

The PhD student is expected to contribute to two main aims of the project. Firstly, the PhD research will help conduct a telecoupling analysis to trace the distal social-ecological effects of wind energy expansion in Sweden and Brazil. By conceptualizing wind energy expansion in the context of social-ecological transformations, the PhD candidate will help assess the cross-scale direct and indirect causes and effects of wind energy expansion. The planned PhD work may examine regional institutional arrangements and policies encouraging green energy investment and the cascading effects of these, which could include a focus on discourses, investments, and ecosystems. Secondly, the PhD research will help examine inclusion and representation of Indigenous rights in regional, national and state levels policies and regulations relevant to wind-energy expansion.

The Powering Change Project is framed within the broad transdisciplinary literature of knowledge co-production in sustainability science and seeks to bring together multiple ‘ways of knowing’ as important, complementary expertise for action into a collaborative Multiple Evidence Base. The PhD candidate will need to work within the broader project, in collaboration with SRC colleagues, international academic collaborators, IPLC leaders and governments, and civil society organizations, to assist in the process of knowledge integration and synthesis of their work with other complementary knowledges.

The PhD student will be an active participant of the Powering Change project team and collaborate with project members: Dr. Vanessa Masterson, Dr. Michele-Lee Moore, Dr. Hanna Sinare, Dr Amanda Jiménez Aceituno, Assis. Prof. May-Britt Öhman, Prof Maria Tengö, Dr Ana Paula Aguiar, and Prof Andrés Rivarola Puntigliano, among others. The candidate will also be part of one or several of SRC’s research themes that best align with the student’s interests, for example: Stewardship and Transformative Futures, and/or Resilience and Development. As part of the interdisciplinary research environment of Stockholm’s Resilience Centre, the student will have opportunities to collaborate with and benefit from other students and researchers with diverse research interests and perspectives. 

Qualification requirements
In order to meet the general entry requirements, the applicant must have completed a second-cycle degree, completed courses equivalent to at least 240 higher education credits, of which 60 credits must be in the second cycle, or have otherwise acquired equivalent knowledge in Sweden or elsewhere.

Specific entry requirements for admission to postgraduate studies in Sustainability Science are that the applicant has a total of at least 30 credits, or equivalent, at advanced level in Natural Science, as well as a thesis of at least 30 credits at advanced level in a relevant subject, or equivalent knowledge.

The qualification requirements must be met by the deadline for applications.

Selection
The selection among the eligible candidates will be based on:

• Subject knowledge and interests relevant to the research task, including, but not limited to: place-based case study research with an orientation towards the local-global interface (i.e. how global dynamics and processes shape local energy developments and vice versa), political science, Indigenous governance, the intertwined nature of social-ecological systems resilience and justice, sustainability science, sustainable development, and energy policy development at multiple scales.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis relevant to the described study.
• Familiarity or experience in working with Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities involved in or affected by renewable energy expansion in Europe and/or Latin America.
• Familiarity with and experience in applying:
  i) social-ecological systems resilience and complex adaptive systems theory in research, and particularly telecoupling approaches to analysing distal impacts within social-ecological systems,
  ii) environmental policy analyses,
  iii) human rights-based approaches, environmental justice perspectives, or Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and
  iv) transformations to sustainability research
• Analytical ability as demonstrated by e.g. a scientific report, research articles, or degree project thesis.
• Demonstrated ability to work in teams and in an interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary settings and experience in applying empirical field methods/approaches that are compatible with careful coproduction of knowledge with non-academic actors.
• Skills in written and oral communication in English, Swedish and Portuguese as needed for the data collection, analysis, and transdisciplinary engagements.
• The applicant’s personal references.

Admission Regulations for Doctoral Studies at Stockholm University are available at: www.su.se/rules and regulations .

Terms of employment
Only a person who will be or has already been admitted to a third-cycle programme may be appointed to a doctoral studentship.

The term of the initial contract may not exceed one year. The employment may be extended for a maximum of two years at a time. However, the total period of employment may not exceed the equivalent of four years of full-time study.

Doctoral students should primarily devote themselves to their own education, but may engage in teaching, research, and administration corresponding to a maximum of 20 % of a full-time position.

Please note that admission decisions cannot be appealed.

Stockholm University strives to be a workplace free from discrimination and with equal opportunities for all.

Contact
For more information and questions regarding the project, please contact the main supervisor Dr. Vanessa Masterson, [email protected] .

For more information about the Resilience Research School or Sustainability Science at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, please contact the Director of PhD programme Victor Galaz, [email protected] , telephone: +46 8 674 70 83 or Head of Subject, Prof Örjan Bodin, [email protected] , telephone: +46 8 674 76 71.

Union representatives
Ingrid Lander (Saco-S), telephone: +46 708 16 26 64, [email protected] , Alejandra Pizarro Carrasco (Fackförbundet ST/Lärarförbundet), telephone: +46 8 16 34 89, [email protected] , [email protected]  (SEKO), and PhD student representative, [email protected] .

Application
Apply for the PhD student position through Stockholm University's recruitment system. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement, and that it is submitted before the deadline.

Please include the following information with your application

• Your contact details and personal data
• Your highest degree
• Your language skills
• Contact details for 2 – 3 references. Only candidates invited to interview will be asked to provide reference letters.

and, in addition, please include the following documents

• Cover letter motivating your interest in this position (1 page maximum).
• CV – that shows degrees and other completed courses, work experience and a list of degree projects/theses (2 pages max.).
• Degree certificates and grades confirming that you meet the general and specific entry requirements (please combine into 1 file)
• Most relevant degree projects/theses and publications to illustrate writing skills (max. 2, please combine into one file).

The instructions for applicants are available at: How to apply for a position .

You are welcome to apply!

Stockholm University contributes to the development of sustainable democratic society through knowledge, enlightenment and the pursuit of truth.

URL to this page
https://www.su.se/english/about-the-university/work-at-su/available-jobs/phd-student-positions-1.507588?rmpage=job&rmjob=22701&rmlang=UK