ESR10: Everyday practices of adaptation and resistance to peripheralisation at household scale (Békéscsaba, Hungary)

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Host: Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Békéscsaba/Hungary

1 PhD position, full-time

Duration: September 2014 – August 2017

The project investigates changing everyday practices of adaptation and resistance to peripheralisation on a household-level in peripheralised areas in Hungary and Romania. Key task is firstly to analyse the households’ changing experiences and perceptions of socio-spatial polarisation in order to understand the socio-spatial peculiarities and commonalities of everyday practices of adaptation and resistance to peripheralisation at a household-scale. Secondly, it should be explored how the households’ practices of overcoming existing core–periphery disparities can be strengthened by and developed into alternative strategies and praxis of local communities, social movements and new policies.

The fellow will be integrated in the PhD programme “Spatial patterns and changes of social and economic processes” at the University of Szeged.

Secondments are foreseen at the Babeş-Bolyai-University in Cluj-Napoca/Romania and at Social Impact in Potsdam/Germany.

Tasks:

–          Transdisciplinary and transnational review and critical analysis of related concepts and theories

–          Comparative study (HU/RO) on the socio-economic background of polarisation and peripheralisation at                     national and regional scale (discourse analysis, expert interviews, statistical analysis)

–          Regional case study (HU) of households’ everyday practices/experiences/perceptions and the                                      socio-economic conditions of their communities

–          Study of “best practices” in developing innovative strategies with private and public actors in Germany                      (interviews, focus groups, participant observation, community studies)

–          In the first year, improvement Hungarian language skills to support empirical study.

Requirements:

–          Masters’ degree in social sciences, geography or another discipline corresponding to the topic of the                         project

–          good knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods

–          fluent in English and basic knowledge of Hungarian

–          Romanian and/or German language skills will be an asset

–          good knowledge of IT-based communication tools

–          readiness to participate in secondments, conferences and workshops

–          excellent communication skills, capacity for teamwork, flexibility and an interest in interdisciplinary                            research

The fellow should contribute to the outreach of the project, especially by:

–          elaboration of a PhD thesis

–          participation in project and WP monographs, joint publications in high ranked journals

–          active participation at scientific conferences, policy workshops etc. at national and EU level

–          participation in media communication, in development of a web-based glossary, in creation of video clips                and podcasts and in spreading project information on EU level using European Commissions’                                       communication tools