Developing Research Capacity for Inclusive Urban Governance: a Sheffield-Witwatersrand PhD training partnership

拟议的伙伴关系将在南非和英国发展一支国际研究人员队伍，他们拥有在快速变化的城市环境中进行治理和社会包容方面的高质量研究的技能和能力。自种族隔离以来，这个南非政府在住房和城市基础设施方面进行了大量投资，但仍面临着针对住房和城市服务提供以及持续存在的非正式住房和就业的抗议活动。这些情况在其他国际环境中得到了呼应，表明迫切需要进行批判性研究，审查城市政策目标、日常国家实践和预期投保人的生活世界之间的差距。这一交流计划汇集了一组研究人员(来自威特沃特斯兰德大学建筑与规划学院和谢菲尔德大学城市与区域规划系)，他们在当地“实际存在的”治理实践以及城市政策对贫困城市公民生活的影响方面开展了国际领先的工作，以建设这一挑战领域的研究能力。它通过合作来实现这一点，这利用了各自机构的互补优势：谢菲尔德对ESRC白玫瑰博士培训中心的领导以及谢菲尔德国际发展研究所及其新成立的城市研究所内的跨学科研究，以及威特沃特斯兰德在联合编制城市规划研究方面的专业知识。它利用这一伙伴关系，围绕博士发展的关键阶段，从研究设计到撰写和传播，提供高质量的博士培训。定制“培训包”的交付将集中在短期、密集的交流访问中，并辅之以在线交流和后续活动，这是一种促进兼职和职业生涯中期博士生参与的结构。在整个博士过程中对这些交流进行排序，将发展研究人员的技能基础，并在谢菲尔德和威茨的学生之间建立强大的群体认同感和智力一致性，在整个项目过程中共同工作。除了直接增强参与者本身的研究能力外，交流项目将有两个主要好处。首先是关于博士培养的跨机构学习。核心团队内的工作人员互访将用于协作编写高质量的培训材料，并将最佳做法纳入每个机构的博士课程发展。这次交流的时机是理想的，恰逢Wits推动博士培训正规化，并对谢菲尔德为准备DTP竞标而提供的条款进行重大审查(2016年3月)。核心团队的成员领导谢菲尔德社会科学学院的博士项目和威茨规划学院的博士培训，因此处于独特的地位，可以确保在交换项目过程中的教学学习反映在机构层面的持久变化中。第二是制定持续的学术研究议程，从研究人员本身的群体身份出发，以及他们将在项目过程中开展的集体出版和知识交流活动。这两个机构的核心项目团队都致力于通过集体竞标获得更多的博士生名额和联合研究项目，在牛顿资助的时期内推进这一进程。

The proposed partnership will develop an international cohort of researchers in South Africa and the UK with the skills and capacities to conduct high-quality research on governance and social inclusion in rapidly-changing urban environments. Since Apartheid, the South African state has made major investments in housing and urban infrastructure, and yet faces ongoing protest over housing and urban service delivery, and the persistence of 'informal' housing and employment. These conditions, which are echoed in other international contexts, indicate the pressing need for critical research that examines the gaps between urban policy goals, everyday state practices, and the life-worlds of intended policy recipients. This exchange programme draws together a team of researchers (from School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, and Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield) who are undertaking internationally-leading work on 'actually existing' governance practices in the local state, and the impacts of urban policy on the lives of poor urban citizens, to build research capacity in this challenge area. It does so through collaboration which draws on the complementary strengths of their respective institutions: Sheffield's leadership of the ESRC's White Rose Doctoral Training Centre and interdisciplinary research within Sheffield Institute for International Development and its new Urban Institute, and the Witwatersrand's expertise in co-produced research in urban planning. It uses this partnership to deliver high-quality doctoral training structured around key stages of PhD progression, from research design to write-up and dissemination. Delivery of bespoke 'training packages' will be concentrated in short, intensive exchange visits, supported by on-line communication and follow-up activities, a structure that facilitates participation of part-time, and mid-career PhD students. Sequencing these exchanges throughout the PhD process will develop researchers' skills base, and also develop a strong cohort identity and intellectual coherence among the Sheffield and Wits students working together over the course of the programme.Beyond directly enhancing the research capacities of the participants themselves, the exchange programme will have two major benefits. The first is cross-institutional learning about doctoral training. Staff exchange visits within the core team will be used to collaboratively develop high-quality training materials, and embed best practice within doctoral programme development in each institution. The timing of this exchange is ideal, coinciding with a push to formalise doctoral training within Wits, and a significant review of Sheffield's provision in preparation for a DTP bid (March 2016). Members of the core team lead Sheffield's Faculty of Social Sciences Doctoral Programme, and PhD training in the Planning school in Wits, and so are uniquely placed to ensure that pedagogical learning over the course of the exchange programme is reflected in lasting institution-level change.The second is the development of a sustained academic research agenda, emerging from the cohort identity of the researchers themselves, and collective publication and knowledge-exchange activities they will undertake over the course of the programme. The core project teams in both institutions are committed to taking this forward beyond the period of Newton funding through collective bids for further PhD studentships and joint research projects.