The Graduate School at Arts, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, invites applications for a joint 3-year PhD scholarship in Building Futures: The Making of African Cities starting on 1 September 2014. The candidate who is awarded the scholarship must commence his/her PhD degree programme on 1 September 2014.

‘Building Futures: The Making of African Cities
More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities and it is estimated that this proportion will rise to three-quarters by 2050. With a rapid urban population growth, a number of critical issues have emerged that pressure the cohesion and stability of cities throughout the world, spanning ecological degradation, uncontrolled urban expansion, lack of access to basic services, growing poverty rates, wider spread of poor housing conditions and intensified ethnic and political conflicts. Currently, one billion people live in fragile urban areas, the majority of which in the global south, facing serious problems such as limited infrastructure, low standard housing and insecure forms of property rights.

This project focus in particular on global cities – including port and border cities – in sub-Saharan Africa, the region where urban growth is proceeding most rapidly and where social transformations often the most strikingly apparent. This project will investigate the actual coming into being of African cities: that is, the multiple and variegated ways in which urban spaces emerge, take effect and possibly disintegrate. Based on empirical research carried out in strategically selected urban areas, the project will contribute with significant qualitative and quantitative data on the intricate interplay between historical, social, political, ecological and cosmological factors in shaping contemporary global cities in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project will be supervised by Paul Nugent (Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh) and Morten Nielsen (Aarhus University). The student will be based at Aarhus University but will spend significant time (at least one year) at the University of Edinburgh.’

Read more about the PhD scholarship here.