I’m advertising two fully-funded 4-year PhD positions in Brussels: “Governing just transitions from the top: Barriers and levers to align urban polluter elites with sufficiency corridors”. Interested in doing a PhD on urban elites and just transitions, then get in touch! For one of the two PhDs, I would be particularly interested in seeing research on polluter elites in the arts and cultural industries, but am also open to supervising other topics.
The project is hosted by the Université libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel as part of the larger SWIFFT program and its Just Transitions chair: https://www.swifft.be. The successful candidates will be co-supervised by an interdisciplinary team: Chair holder Aurore Fransolet, and co-coordinators Tom Bauler and Bas van Heur. For more information on us and our research units, see: https://urbanstudies.brussels and https://sonya.sciences.ulb.be.
The Just Transitions Chair seeks to contribute to the emerging research agenda on polluter elites and sufficiency by investigating who urban polluter elites are, how they relate to other (social-)ecological classes, and what institutional, political, spatial, infrastructural, and cultural factors shape their engagement with sufficiency. This transdisciplinary project also explores governance pathways to advance sufficiency for a just transition.
Each PhD student will develop their own thesis project within this broader research agenda. We welcome applications from candidates with diverse disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in contributing to a cutting-edge topic of strong academic and societal importance.
⏳Application deadline: 15 August 2025
📅 Start date: November 2025 (flexible)
📍Location: Brussels, ULB-VUB USQUARE Campus
👉 Full call available here: https://www.swifft.be/job/phd-in-decarbonization-and-justice-i/