An Agent-Based Model approach to understanding changes in ethnic relations: applications to neighbourhood ethnic composition
and health.
Applications are invited for a 3-year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD Studentship based at CoDE under
the supervision of Professor James Nazroo, Dr Laia Bécares, and Dr
Nick Shryane. The
project provides a studentship covering UK/EU tuition fees, an annual
tax-free stipend at Research Council rates (£13,590 in 2012/13), plus
the Advanced
Quantitative Methods supplement (£3,000 per year) for a total of £16,590. Funding will be for three years of full-time study (+3 Scheme), starting in October 2013 with
an expected submission date of September 2016.
Background
Ethnic
minority people living in areas with higher concentrations of other
ethnic minority residents tend to be healthier, to report
higher social cohesion and decreased experiences of racism. Neighbourhood
effects on health consist of complex mutually dependent processes in
which individuals interact with
each other and with their neighbourhoods, and where both individuals
and areas adapt and change over time. Incorporating the exploration of
the role of ethnicity in the association between place and health adds
an extra layer of complexity, involving the interaction
between place and ethnicity in the racialisation of both areas and
individuals. Recent years have seen a surge of national and
international studies examining the association between neighbourhood
ethnic composition and health, with a view of understanding
the mechanisms by which residential composition impacts on health;
however, work to date has been limited to statistical analyses of
cross-sectional datasets which aim to isolate area-level from
individual-level effects on health, failing to model the dynamic
mechanisms by which individuals and areas interact with each other and
change over time. Agent-based models provide an innovative way of
understanding neighbourhood effects, as they can be used to model the
dynamic process related to place and health by examining
mechanisms that involve interactions between diverse individuals, and
interactions between individuals and environments. Agent-based models
also allow for the specification of agents at several levels
(individuals, neighbourhoods, and higher-level organisms),
providing additional information on how macro-level characteristics
influence interactions occurring at the micro-level, and vice versa.
Research Objectives
This
PhD project aims to model the dynamic processes related to changes in
ethnic relations, and how these play out in terms of area
effects on health.
The
work is an independent course of enquiry that will add great value to
the main aim of the project of understanding of the contemporary
patterning of ethnic inequalities and how this relates to the ways in
which ethnic identities are perceived, acted upon and experienced.
Location and Supervision
The
PhD will be hosted at the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey
Research (CCSR), University of Manchester. The University
of Manchester is part of the ESRC North West Doctoral Training Centre
(NWDTC), and the student will be based in the Social Statistics
accredited pathway. The student will be embedded within the research
team at the University of Manchester, and will be supervised
by Professor James Nazroo, Dr Laia Bécares and Dr Nick Shryane.
Admissions Criteria
Applicants
should hold a minimum upper-second honours degree (or equivalent) in
sociology, geography, epidemiology, computational
social science, or related area and a Masters-level degree in a
relevant discipline. Experience of programming and/or simulation is a
plus.
How to apply
Applicants
are required to provide: (i) an academic CV; (ii) official academic
transcripts; (iii) contact details of two suitable
referees; and (iv) a cover letteroutlining your suitability for the study and your research experience to date.
Applications should be emailed to: laia.becares@manchester.
Any enquiries relating to the project and/or suitability should be directed to Dr Bécares at the address above.
Deadline
The deadline for applications is April 30th 2013.
Candidates may be called for interview in early May 2013.
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