Welcome to our Spring PhD Colloquia Series, where we present the innovative research of our PhD students in the field of urban development. Each session explores a wide variety of topics, providing deeper insights into their academic research.
Tobias Held
Tobias' PhD research titled "On Emergent Trajectories of Electrification: A Complexity-Informed Approach to Understanding and Governing Urban Electric Vehicle Transitions" explores the policy configurations that promote successful transitions to electric vehicles (EV) in various cities across The United States of America and Europe.
More about his research
With his research, Tobias aims to make a contribution to ongoing research on the governance of urban EV transitions. Consequently, empirical studies as part of this thesis will apply various forms of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to compare the different combinations of policies that may contribute successfully to EV transitions in cities.
Highlights of the research are:
- Remote (national) and proximate (urban) policy conditions: In his research, the models applied focus on the dynamics of remote (national) and proximate (urban) policy conditions to help understand their effects on EV uptake.
- Comparative analysis using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): The research deploys fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of BEV policies in 16 cities in the U.S. to identify policy configurations that successfully promote the urban adoption of BEVs. By utilising a unique dataset, this research is a first-ever study to systematically investigate and evaluate BEV policy bundles across U.S. state and city policy levels.
Jie Liu
Jie holds a Master's in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems from Wuhan University. Her research, titled Transportation Resilience in the Context of Disaster Management: A Case Study of Heavy Rainstorms in Zhengzhou, China, examines how the functionality of transportation systems changes during disaster management and identifies key influencing factors.
More about her research
Through her research, Jie dives deeper into disaster management, community and transport resilience and disaster risk, focusing on the 7.20 heavy rainstorms in Zhengzhou. She aims to enhance community resilience by improving adaptive capacity and response strategies for future disasters.
The main focuses of the research are:
- Natural disaster impacts on transportation systems: Jie’s research highlights the direct and cascading disaster impacts on the transportation system and its critical role during disaster relief.
- Assessment of system functionality: Jie uses multiple indicators to assess the functionality of different transportation sub-systems, such as airports, highways, public transport, and car-hailing vehicles. To obtain functionality recovery curves of these sub-systems, Jie evaluated their performance during and after the disaster.
- Influencing factors: By analysing the bus system as an example, we can explore how disaster management meta-networks (DMMN), dependencies on other infrastructure systems, and hazard evolution influence changes in functionality.
Dasup Lim
Join us in welcoming Dasup Lim to the Spring PhD Colloquia Series. After finishing the Strategic Urban Planning & Policies Master track at IHS, Dasup soon joined the PhD programme in Urban Development & Governance. Her PhD research, "Social Well-being of the Elderly and Public Space Quality in East Asian Neighborhoods", explores how public space quality can improve the social well-being of the elderly in urban environments.
More about her research
Dasup's presentation delves into the critical relationship between the quality of public spaces and the social well-being of the elderly, particularly in East Asian metropolitan areas. Her research seeks to understand how urban environments can be optimized to support the ageing population.
The main focuses of the research are:
- Theoretical framework: Dasup's research is grounded in Wiles and her colleagues’ Aging in Place (AIP) definition and Wahl and Oswald’s Person-Environment (P-E) fit model. The framework integrates perspectives from urban studies, psychology, sociology, and nursing.
- Neighbourhood analysis: Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), Dasup can evaluate how the physical conditions of public spaces (accessibility, safety, user diversity, land use diversity, and connection to nature) contribute to the social well-being of the elderly.
- Daily life analysis: By conducting case studies with qualitative GIS, Dasup can analyse how elderly individuals interact with others in public spaces during their daily lives and how these interactions influence their social well-being over time and across different locations.
Emanuel Schuller
Emanuel's PhD research, "Conflicts over Inclusive Labor Markets in the Knowledge Economy", investigates how various conditions lead to inclusive labor market reforms. His study focuses on the interplay between technological advancements, globalization, and labor market policies in different industrialized nations.
More about his research
Emanuel's presentation looked into the complex dynamics of labor market policies amid the challenges of globalization and the rapid spread of information and communication technology. Through his research, Emanuel seeks to understand the varying outcomes of labor market reforms in countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.
The main focuses of the research are:
- Examining policy efficacy: Investigating how different countries successfully implement labor market reforms to enhance labor protections and welfare systems despite global economic challenges.
- Analyzing institutional change: Understanding the role of policy in shaping inclusive and adaptable labor markets, especially in contexts where union power and collective bargaining are in decline.
- Comparative insights: Drawing comparisons to identify effective policy frameworks that promote equity and resilience in labor markets across various national settings.
