PhD Studentship: Community Resilience and Cascading Climate Impacts

3.5-year PhD fully funded project for ‘Home’ students (For details and eligibility check here). We recommend that you apply early as the advert may be removed before the deadline.

Critical infrastructures are central to the function of society, with interdependencies between systems which brings risks of disruption in one sector impacting on another. The UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCC, 2021) CCRA3, shows climate impacts will affect power, ICT, water and transport networks, with interdependencies between these and other systems. Impacts on electricity or water networks, for example, will cascade and disrupt sectors which rely on these networks for their functioning. Power cuts will affect rail and tram networks which in turn make it harder for people to get to work. Except for the healthcare system (see for example Curtis et al, 2017) much of the research on cascading or interconnected risks has focused on the infrastructure systems themselves, with less known about the disruption to the essential services that these systems enable (e.g. education, social care, food, sanitation), and how the people providing these services, and the communities where they are happening, change their practices to adapt and cope with the disruptions.

This PhD is undertaken as part of the work programme on People Centered Resilience undertaken within the ESRC Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation. In line with the ambitions of this programme, the focus is on the adaptation and resilience practices of people providing the services. Although everyone is at risk, we know that some are more vulnerable than others. Our desire is for this PhD project to foreground the impacts, and actions, of those often under-represented in adaptation policy, with the ambition to influence policy-making by amplifying their stories.

Objectives:

• Understand how climate impacts on one infrastructure system/sector impact on risks within interdependent sectors as experienced at household and community scales.
• Understand how UK communities are affected by cascading impacts, and how people and communities respond in the short- and longer-term.
• Develop scenarios that articulate alternative examples of cascading events, and develop storylines that describe the impacts on diverse (including underrepresented) people.
• Co-develop policies and activities to support community resilience to cascading climate events.

The project will combine literature review and policy analysis with qualitative research methods (e.g. interviews or participative social network mapping), with co-development workshops with communities and decision makers. Outputs will include 2-3 academic papers, and policy relevant outputs that use creative methods to tell the stories of everyday adaptations.

We are looking for a motivated, intellectually curious researcher with a strong interest in climate change, social policy, and everyday sustainability. You should be comfortable reading across disciplines and using mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods. A background in geography, sociology, environmental studies, environmental policy, or a related field is desirable.

Essential: a 2:1 or above (or international equivalent) in a relevant undergraduate or postgraduate degree; enthusiasm for socially engaged, policy-relevant research; and a willingness to work independently, collaboratively, within communities and with people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Desirable: experience with qualitative methods, familiarity with climate adaptation and resilience literature, and an interest in participatory approaches and policy engagement.

To apply please contact Dr Sarah Mander s.mander@manchester.ac.uk and Dr Wood Ruth.Wood@manchester.ac.uk, explaining your motivation toward this PhD, b) academic background, and c) how you would approach the research questions.

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