PhD How Rural Youth

Applications are invited for a fully-funded four-year PhD position that will explore how rural youth (ages 18–30) use both online and offline methods to make sense of sustainable development and the future of their village communities. It will do so through an interdisciplinary framework that builds upon theories and methods from cultural and rural geography and media literacy education. The project will use a participatory and longitudinal approach to (digital) ethnography in three regions: two in the Netherlands (the coastal region of Groningen and the deltas of Overijssel) and one in Belgium (Intercommunale Leiedal in Flanders).

This PhD project offers a unique opportunity to work in an international environment and to acquire valuable research experience.

The PhD Project
For too long, discussions about sustainable development have been led top-down by different stakeholders, from governmental officials to local policy-makers, hardly including the voices of (young) citizens. Moreover, while rural areas will play a key role in sustainability transitions, most research on young people’s participation in sustainability causes has been done in urban contexts (e.g. Amponsem et al., 2021; Murphy, 2021). This is concerning, as rural areas face significant challenges in achieving democratic and sustainable development governance.

The Content at the Margins project argues that democratic legitimacy in sustainable development can only be achieved if alternative solutions are informed by the views of young citizens, particularly those from rural, often marginalised areas, most affected by sustainability transitions.

The project aims to investigate if rural youth are content with the sustainability of their living environment, and what the content of their discussions about sustainable development is. By taking an interdisciplinary and ethnographic approach, the project will delve into understanding young people’s lived experiences of sustainable development. The project will also unearth the necessary skills (e.g. critical media use; persuasive communication) to be able to participate in these (online) debates.

Under the joint supervision of Dr Annamária Neag from the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies (Faculty of Arts) and Dr Koen Salemink from the Department of Cultural Geography, the successful candidate will develop their own specific focus within these broad parameters, depending on the candidate’s disciplinary background, interests, and research experience.

You will be asked to:

• Engage in regular meetings with supervisors to discuss the PhD project development.
• Carry out longitudinal ethnographic research in the three selected regions.
• Write four publishable articles/chapters, with supervisory guidance and open-access agreements with the University of Groningen.
• Organize participatory workshops for co-creating policy recommendations together with stakeholders and the supervisors.
• Participate in the activities of The Netherlands Research school for Media Studies (RMeS) and the Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research (NETHUR).
• Attend and present ongoing research at conferences, colloquia, summer/winter schools.
• Provide education to students of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (up to a maximum of 15% of the appointment.
• Move to Groningen or its immediate environs.
• Complete the PhD in the specified timeframe (4 years).

Organisation
Since its foundation in 1614, the University of Groningen has established an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative university offering high-quality teaching and research. Its 34,000 students are encouraged to develop their talents through challenging study and career paths. The University of Groningen is an international centre of knowledge: It belongs to the best research universities in Europe and is allied with prestigious partner universities and networks worldwide.

You will work across the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, but you will be officially appointed at the latter.

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen is a dynamic faculty with an open character. With approximately 100 employees and over 100 PhDs, we focus on highly qualified education and research in the field of planning, demography and geography. With two bachelor's degrees and seven master's programmes, the faculty offers broad training opportunities to around 1100 students from all over the world. We are a cohesive faculty, committed to internationally-oriented, interdisciplinary research of high societal relevance with our research programme TRACE (Transformations, Communities, and Environments). Our motto is: we are making places better together.

The Faculty of Arts is a large, dynamic faculty in the heart of the city of Groningen. It has more than 5000 students and 700 staff members, who are working at the frontiers of knowledge every day. The Faculty offers a wide range of degree programmes: 15 Bachelor's programmes and over 35 Master's specialisations. Our research, which is internationally widely acclaimed, covers Archaeology, Cultural Studies, History, International Relations, Language and Literary Studies, Linguistics and Media and Journalism Studies.

• A Research Master’s or Master’s degree in Media Studies, Communication, Geography, or related SSH disciplines with a documented record of previous ethnographic research experience.
• Excellent command of English and a very good command of Dutch.
• Affinity with ethnographic research and qualitative methods (candidates with experience in conducting ethnographic observations and interviews/focus groups are preferred).
• Excellent analytical skills and the capacity to do innovative interdisciplinary research.
• A clear and well-articulated motivation for pursuing PhD research.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work with vulnerable groups with empathy and care

In accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, the University of Groningen offers you:

• A salary of € 2,901 gross per month in the first year, up to a maximum of € 3,707 gross per month in the final year, based on a full-time position.
• A holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income.
• An 8.3% end-of-the-year allowance.
• A temporary 1.0 FTE appointment for a specified period of four years. The candidate will first be appointed for twelve months. After nine months, an assessment will take place of the candidate’s results and the progress of the PhD project, in order to decide whether employment will be continued.
• Willingness to move and reside in the Netherlands.

The appointment will commence on 1 December 2025 at the very latest.

Applications should be made in English and contain the following materials:

• A short statement (1 page max), explaining your motivation for applying.
• An outline (c. 1000 words) of your research proposal within the wider framework of this project.
• A curriculum vitae of max. 2 pages.
• Copies of the master's diploma and a list of grades.
• A copy of one chapter of your master’s thesis, an article, a book chapter, or other academic text in English that you feel best represents your work.
• Contact details of two academic referees (no letters of recommendation are needed for the application process).
• In case your ReMA degree is not in English, please include a language certificate.

When submitting your application, please note: We appreciate the use of AI for improving language clarity and grammar, but we would like to see your own ideas and personality in the text.

Please send in your application as one PDF file. You may apply for this position until 14 September 23:59 Dutch local time (CEST) by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website).

Interviews with selected candidates will be held between 22 to 26 September 2025.

The University of Groningen strives to be a university in which students and staff are respected and feel at home, regardless of differences in background, experiences, perspectives, and identities. We believe that working on our core values of inclusion and equality are a joint responsibility and we are constructively working on creating a socially safe environment. Diversity among students and staff members enriches academic debate and contributes to the quality of our teaching and research. We therefore invite applicants from underrepresented groups in particular to apply. For more information, see also our diversity policy webpage: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/policy-and-strategy/diversity-and-inclusion/

Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP): https://www.nvp-hrnetwerk.nl/sollicitatiecode/ and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code

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