PhD Scholarship - Green Participation. The Sociopolitics of Ecological Landscape Design

The project ‘Green Participation', financed by The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)  explores the possibilities and challenges of participation and collaboration in green design from both a historical and theoretical perspective (e.g. engaging with posthumanism and environmental humanities, political ecology and science and technology studies).  

The project departs from the work of Louis Le Roy (1924-2012), who at the end of the 1960s put participatory processes into practice in landscape design. Le Roy's field of work was mainly situated in the Netherlands, supplemented by assignments in Belgium, France and Germany. The resonance within the professional world, however, extended far beyond this geographical scope. The work of Le Roy serves as a starting point to study the broader development and dissemination of ideas, practices, and actors involved in an inclusive conception of ecological landscape design. 

‘Green participation’ places the analysis of publications, archival collections, oral testimonies and realized works in dialogue with theoretical fields, such as posthumanism. The project aims at revisiting the history of green infrastructure from a perspective that introduces citizens’ actions and agency of non-humans (and the relationship between them) in an otherwise often human-centered urban planning and policy narrative. A critical reflection on social and spatial inequalities, and a “situated” perspective are at the core of the research: revisiting specific historical cases, and thus gaining insight in the meeting of ambitions in the fields of (landscape) design as well as ecological, social and political sciences will be placed in the context of current debates on post-human ecologies and related discussions, for example on re-wilding.  

The research is supervised by prof. Bruno Notteboom and dr. Koenraad Danneels of KULeuven, and prof. Isabelle Doucet of Chalmers University of Technology. The PhD student will be geographically based predominantly at KULeuven, but the project includes research and training stays in Sweden and also elsewhere (for case study analysis). The PhD student will be involved in the organization of and a conference, and take part in an international network of research institutions. 

We offer a full-time appointment in a doctoral fellowship (net wage equals net wage scale 43) in a creative and dynamic work environment. Apart from some limited teaching duties and general services for the department, your main assignment consists in carrying out part of the research project – including writing a PhD dissertation – in close interaction with your supervisor prof. Bruno Notteboom and co-supervisors prof. Isabelle Doucet and dr. Koenraad Danneels. 

You will be appointed for the duration of 1 year, extendable to a maximum of 4 years in total (depending on positive interim evaluations). 

In principle, you will be based at the Sint-Lucas Ghent campus of the Faculty of Architecture; part of the research and PhD training will take place abroad (including at Chalmers University of Technology). Next to that KU Leuven opts for hybrid working, where a combination of on campus and working from home is possible. Other benefits include: eco vouchers, end of year bonus and holiday pay (for scholarship holders subject to full social security), hospital insurance, reimbursement of commuting costs... 

Within this position, you will be part of KU Leuven, a university where 13,000 colleagues together make top-level teaching and research possible. This includes an exciting work environment that offers opportunities to build your experience and develop your skills. In addition, various initiatives are taken, locally and centrally, to ensure the well-being and satisfaction of colleagues in this work environment.