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

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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.