Applications are invited to join the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona under the supervision of Pr. Jason Hickel and Pr. Giorgos Kallis as part of the 10 Million Euros ERC-funded project REAL: A Post-growth Deal. Successful applicants will become core members of the REAL team, which includes Pr Julia Steinberger and her research group at the University of Lausanne. We welcome and support applications from researchers from disadvantaged backgrounds and from groups under-represented in academia.
Positions and conditions:
- 4-5 PhD Studentships: Payment of academic tuition and 4-year stipend (2167 Euros per month pre-tax)
- 4-5 Postdoctoral research grants: 3-year stipend (2917 Euros per month pre-tax for up to three years of post-PhD research experience or 3503 Euros per month otherwise)
- Deadline: May 15, 2023.
- Start date: October 2023 with some flexibility for later start for post-doc positions only.
Topics:
Candidates’ profiles and proposals should fit in one or more of the following topics:
- T1. ‘Post-growth Deals’: develop post-growth and degrowth policy programmes that can be implemented in the Global North, integrating social, economic and monetary policy. Familiarity with national accounts frameworks and economic planning debates is desirable.
- T2. Decolonization strategy: develop industrial, fiscal and monetary policies that Global South governments can use to improve economic sovereignty, reduce outward value-transfer through unequal exchange etc, and mobilize productive capacities to meet human needs and achieve development within ecological limits.
- T3. ‘Managing without growth’: explore what lessons for post-growth can be derived from historical or contemporary experiences of managing economic stagnation – from the special period in Cuba or low-growth dynamics in Japan to the pandemic lockdowns.
- T4. ‘Material and labour requirements of decent living’: develop/use bottom-up models and environmentally- and socially- extended multi-regional input-output models to determine material and labour requirements for satisfying decent-living needs. Expertise in these modelling techniques is necessary.
- T5. ‘North-South convergence scenarios’: develop alternative climate mitigation narratives (SSPs) and scenarios that achieve convergence between North and South, at a level of energy/resource use that is compatible with Paris climate objectives as well as decent living standards.
- T6. ‘Movement politics for post-growth’: develop scenarios of mass social/political movement organizing in post-growth directions, learning from existing social movements – such as radical municipalist, trade-union/workers’, food sovereignty or environmental justice mobilizations and networks.
- T7. ‘National-level politics and post-growth’: explore the role of organizing at the national political sphere, learning from political parties or governments that have entertained post-growth related ideas.
- T8. ‘Geopolitics of post-growth’: rethinking opportunities and obstacles for post-growth transitions in an interconnected world and in the context of shifts in international relations; what would a post-growth internationalism look like?
Requirements:
- For the PhD positions, a master’s degree completed and awarded before the 1st of September 2023.
- For the Post-doc positions, a PhD awarded before the start of the contract.
- Relocation and full-time residence in Barcelona is required and non-negotiable.
Skills
Open to different backgrounds and expertises from the social and natural sciences as relevant for the topic(s) under which the application fits. We are welcoming applications from candidates with backgrounds in economics (heterodox, ecological or mainstream), political science, international relations, political ecology, human geography, anthropology, environmental studies, and related fields of research. Rigorous quantitative or qualitative methodological skills and proven ability to conduct empirical work will be highly valued.
Applications
Please email expression of interest to pr.real.icta@uab.cat by May 15, 2023, including the following.
Email subject line should include the surname of the candidate followed by PhD (or Post-Doc) depending on the position applying (e.g. ‘Pappas PhD’, ‘Pappas Post-Doc’).
The body of the email should address Mrs Vanessa del Pino and indicate to which topic(s) from the list above the application relates.
Attachments should include the following:
- A cover letter up to 500 words max explaining the motivation of the applicant to study post-growth and join our group in Barcelona, including a hyperlink to the best writing sample in English, and finishing with the name, affiliation and email address of one referee that might be contacted if necessary.
- A 1(min)-3(max) pages indicative research proposal stating in the first line which topic(s) from the list above it relates to, and proposing research questions, methods, and data/fieldwork foreseen. (This proposal is indicative and for the sake of application; contracted researchers may be asked to adapt their research to the needs of the REAL project.)
- A CV.
Please submit attachments in pdf, and name files with surname and type of document (e.g. ‘Pappas_Coverletter’, ‘Pappas_Proposal’, ‘Pappas_CV’).
For inquiries please email pr.real.icta@uab.cat
About REAL
How can we sustain human well-being within planetary boundaries? What policies and provisioning systems could enable societies to prosper without growth? What politics and alliances are necessary for seeing post-growth policies through, and how can the public be engaged in them? What new scientific paradigm could answer such questions?
Our societies face multiple intertwined crises. Bold alternatives are sorely needed. This project develops frameworks for ‘Post-Growth Deals’, from empirical research through to practical applications. First, we develop equitable North-South convergence scenarios, modelling human well-being achievement in all countries within planetary boundaries. Second, we articulate post-growth policy packages for the Global North and South, assessing their political acceptability and modelling their effects. Third, we develop models of provisioning systems to ensure future populations have adequate energy, food, shelter, health and social security. Fourth, we learn from political movements, studying politics and alliances – at local, national and international levels - that could bring post-growth transitions forward. Fifth, we identify practical steps to bring Post-Growth Deals to life, working with communities, political parties and policy stakeholders to co-produce knowledge and action on the ground.