Research Associate (TRUCIT)

Fixed-term for 30 months

Summary:

We are seeking to recruit a Research Associate (PDRA) for the project ‘Transcontinental Urban Citizenship (TRUCIT): Crisis & Connection in Britain and Somalia.’ This is part of a 3-year ESRC-funded research project focusing on the experiences of multigenerational Somali communities in Bristol, Sheffield and London. It examines how their experience of urban life in the UK relates to changing transcontinental networks and developments within Somalia itself. If successful in applying for this position, you will play a crucial role in the project in terms of data collection, analysis and writing-up, managing relationships with Somali community organisations in the three cities and delivering the wider societal and policy impact of the research.

Recent years have revealed the depth of inequality in UK cities, including in relation to race and unequal access to the elusive identity of ‘Britishness’ in the context of polarized attitudes towards migration, asylum and the UK’s imperial past. The experience of Somali diaspora throws these issues into sharp relief. The UK Somali experience sits at the intersection of local and global challenges, reflecting contemporary questions of race, refuge and unequal citizenship in the context of problematic ideas of ‘integration’. The lives of UK Somali communities are also often highly transcontinental, with patterns of investment and political engagement in the ‘homeland’, and the idea of ‘return’, shaping their relationship with the UK and the British state. The Somali experience of life in UK cities is thus intimately connected to development processes in Somalia, and vice versa. This project will analyse these intersections. It frames the British Somali experience of urban citizenship in relation to the varying ‘faces’ of Britain both locally and globally, through research in three very different cities that illustrate diverse aspects of the UK’s urban political geography and have different roles in Somali migration histories: Sheffield, Bristol and London borough of Camden.

This position is a full time, fixed-term position for 2.5 years (30 months). They will play a crucial role in the project, in terms of data collection, managing relationships with Somali community organisations in the three cities, analysis and writing-up. We are looking for someone with a PhD in Urban Studies, Geography, Migration Studies, Anthropology, Sociology or related fields, and with experience in qualitative research methods and qualitative analysis. The key research methods will be life history interviews and other forms of semi-structured interviews, inter-generational focus group discussions, and the use of solicited diaries (including audio diaries) to generate rich data on everyday life.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (www.sheffield.ac.uk/usp ) is one of the largest and most thriving urban studies and planning schools, not only in the UK but globally, recognized in the latest UK Government Research Excellence Framework in 2014 as the top planning school in the country.