Postgraduate Research with DIRE

Postgraduate Research Case Studies

DIRE academics in the School of Geography are delighted to collaborate with postgraduate students to investigate some of the biggest challenges facing societies today. We are extremely proud of the ambitious projects our students have developed and actively work towards co-producing high-quality research outputs with them.

Postgraduate research with DIRE academics can set students along the path to academia as well as preparing students for careers including environmental management, big data analysis, and working with NGOs. We highly value the ethos of ‘student as producer’ and aspire to support our students to develop their own independent line of enquiry that captures their interests and upholds the values of our research group: the situation is DIRE. Our postgraduate students are actively working to address issues related to development, inequalities, building resilience, and sustainable environments.

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A tale of two cities: understanding the perceptions and barriers to tackling the UK Housing Crisis in Lincoln and Doncaster

For the best part of two decades, the UK has underdelivered on building new housing. The UK now needs an additional 345,000 new homes each year, to accommodate its growing population. Consequently, house prices have increased by 44% since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and are continuing to rise. Housing is a fundamental component of social mobility and economic security, yet the UK has persistently struggled to develop the required amount to new housing to support population growth.

NIMBYism (Not-In-My-Back-Yard-ism) is believed to have influenced political resistance to develop new housing in the regions that need it most. This research aims to identify the underlying factors that influence NIMBY attitudes in the UK, and how factors vary between groups by age, gender, education, income, and region.

Understanding NIMBY attitudes will allow planning specialists, urban developers, and government to address barriers to building new housing to help ease the national Housing Crisis. The research considers how attitudes might vary between two cities in both Lincoln, in the East Midlands and Doncaster, South Yorkshire, with the aim to identify factors that might vary spatially. Easing this crisis is necessary to improve social mobility, economic conditions and help lift a generation of young people out of the renting framework and into home ownership.

Supervisory team: Dr Harriet Moore Dr Julian Clifton

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