PhD position

Economic resources are distributed very unevenly among people (inequality), and people with a similar socioeconomic status tend to concentrate spatially (spatial segregation). Economic inequality and urban segregation are considered top challenges by international institutions, because they restrict the ability of the poorest individuals to get by in life, and because they affect life expectancy, social justice and cohesion for everyone. Socio-economic inequality and urban segregation phenomena are linked functionally – there could not be economic segregation in a population of identical individuals – and temporally: changes in economic inequality translate into changes in urban economic segregation, although this is delayed with a couple of decades within cities. However, despite the acknowledged link between economic inequality and economic segregation, the two phenomena are studied mostly in isolation and at different scales: inequality tends to be analysed at the national scale, whereas segregation is approached at the urban and regional scale. Consequently, there is a lack of understanding of both the spatial translation of inequality mechanisms, and of the interdependency between the economic composition of cities of the same country.

This PhD aims at bridging this gap theoretically and empirically, using the Netherlands as a case study. From the pool of existing explanations of economic inequality and urban segregation (such as: assortative mating, selective migration, urban form, contextual effects etc.), which are the most relevant ones to explain economic segregation in cities in general, and in Dutch cities in particular? How do they interact, theoretically and empirically? The idea is to integrate existing multidisciplinary knowledge about economic inequality and urban segregation at three geographical scales: national, urban and individual. More specifically, the first objective of the PhD is to identify the mechanisms which explain the evolution of urban economic segregation in general (through an extensive and multidisciplinary literature review), to select and prioritise them, to analyse their compatibility and their potential interactions (for instance: how different urban forms influence the magnitude of contextual effects). The second objective is to test these drivers of urban economic segregation empirically on the case of the Netherlands, using innovative statistical techniques and longitudinal Dutch register microdata.The candidate will consider the diversity of processes (residential, professional, social, etc.) and actors (families, schools, firms, neighbours, etc.) involved and analyse the exceptionally rich material of CBS microdata (which records individual, spatial and relational characteristics, longitudinally and exhaustively) in search for empirical evidence. The results of the PhD should increase our understanding of urban inequality and contribute to the design of efficient solutions.

The successful candidate will be funded by the ERC Starting Grant SEGUE and be supervised by Dr. Clémentine Cottineau (PI and co-promotor) and Prof. Maarten van Ham (Promotor).

Requirements
Need to have:

Completed* Masters degree in urban studies, spatial economics, economic geography, analytical sociology or other relevant fields linked to spatially orientated quantitative social science
Ability to handle and combine the abstract concepts and theories of inequality and segregation
Knowledge of advanced statistical methods and data analysis
Knowledge and experience of statistical programming (ex: R/Python/Stata)
Interest in multidisciplinarity research
Ability to work in a team, take initiative, be creative
Good command of verbal and written English
Nice to have:

Knowledge of the Dutch language or the willingness to learn as soon as possible
Experience of working with large empirical datasets (for instance for the Masters thesis)
Interest in open source software and scientific reproducibility
*at the time of the final interview on 1st July 2022

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Conditions of employment

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2443 per month in the first year to € 3122 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. For international applicants we offer the Coming to Delft Service and Partner Career Advice to assist you with your relocation.