| Research Studentships |
|
The key criteria for UKTRC funded studentships are to:
One of the roles of the Director of Research Capacity is to identify academic departments within institutions that add value to the UKTRC research goals and build further critical mass around funded areas. The Director also works with departments to facilitate the application process. The studentships are awarded on one of two models. The first is a standard fully supported studentship open to any department with ESRC recognition, and the second is a maintenance only award to institutions within the UKTRC. Four studentships commenced on 01 October 2010 from the 2009-2010 competition. It is anticipated that a second competition will be held in 2011. The research topics currently supported by the UKTRC are: Urban containment, polycentricity and travel patterns: investigating the development and persistence of “planning doctrine” in a European context David Church, London School of Economics and Political Science, Cities Programme The research focuses on whether, and to what extent, sytems of urban containment affect travel patterns in Europe, with a particular focus on the wider South East (England), the Randstad (the Netherlands) and the Copenhagen metropolitan area (Denmark). These three city-regions have been shaped by contrasting systems of urban containment so it will be interesting to examine how these different morphological and political frameworks create particular travel patterns. The work will employ a mixed qualitative/quantitative approach, combining evaluation of approximately 25 elite/practitioner interviews with quantitative analysis of travel patterns and choices across the three case-study areas. The central research aim is to establish whether a causal chain can be established between policies of urban containment and travel patterns and choices. Is cycling the new cycling? The re-emergence, re-positioning and representation of cycling in London, Paris & New York Laura Golbuff, University of East London, Sociology and Innovation Studies Cycling as a mode of urban transportation has undergone a radical shift in the way it is discussed in and across cities. Re-emerging from near obscurity, cycling has been repositioned as a policy-promoted use of urban space, a selling point for competitive global cities and a solution to multiple modern ills. This research will examine policy and practitioner discourses and representations - and the potential for connection and disconnection between them - as they relate to the mobility patterns of 'born again' and would-be cyclists in and across London, New York and Paris. It will develop theoretical insight by considering the role of the branded global city as a focus for (sustainable) transport policies, the emergence of city regimes which promote cycling and the politics behind notions of a 'cycling revolution'. For despite increasing levels of cycling and policy intervention in some cities, there is actually little evidence of a widespread growth in urban cycling. Quality of Life and Transport Policy under New Labour Louise Reardon, University of Sheffield, Department of Politics New Labour's 2007 white paper 'Towards a sustainable Transport System' provided the first concerted effort by the DfT to ensure that 'quality of life' was at the forefront of transport policy throughout the various governance levels. The purpose of this research is to explain the rise of the quality of life dimension within the transport domain and to investigate its effects at the local level through a study of the development and implementation of local transport plans in South Yorkshire and York. Through the use of empirical research and political science tools and concepts this study also hopes to provide an understanding of the processes through which such quality of life concerns might be advanced or obstructed in policy terms. Conceptually, this research combines the insights of the multi-level governance frameworks and the tools of policy networks approach. This literature highlights the importance of state and non-state relations in policy-making and focuses on understanding both sectoral dynamics and the linkages between policy networks across related sectors and levels of governance in shaping effective policies. Methodologically this research is in the tradition of institutionalist and constructivist political analysis; requiring the piecing together of a detailed narrative to identify causation from the assumption of complexity. The Economics of Commuting Behaviour: Studies Using the British Household Panel Survey Luke Munford, University of Sheffield, Department of Economics The analysis of the economics of commuting is broken down into three studies: (i) what are the determinants of commuting times in dual earner households; (ii) the role of commuting time in household utility; and (iii) the impact commuting has on social capital and subjective well-being. All three studies aim to utilise the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) which is a rich data set containing, inter alia, source of socio-economic information, labour market status and health/well-being variables. Importantly the BHPS contains a question on daily commuting time. All three studies are based on micro-econometric data analysis techniques such as simultaneous equation estimators using maximum likelihood, and household level aggregation models, amongst others. All three studies are likely to face problems of endogeneity and it is aimed to overcome these problem by using a number of econometric techniques (including: instrumental variables; simplifying the modeling framework by employing lagged effects; and exploiting exogenous variation in commuting time (e.g. by looking for a subset of people whose home and job location and mode of commuting hasn't changed therefore changes in commuting time are exogenous) amongst other techniques). The exact model specifications will depend on the choice of variables used as dependent variables (e.g. continuous, discrete, ordered categorical etc.). |