Position Tenure: Two years, which includes a performance review after a year.

Reporting to: Professor Darshini Mahadevia, Professor, School of Arts and Sciences To make a leading contribution to The Beneficiaries to Citizens project working with Professor Darshini Mahadevia (Project Co-PI) and collaborators in the research discipline/s of Urban Studies and Social Policy (details of the project can be found below). The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and related research outputs, as opportunities allow, as well as help manage and deliver on the aims of this international collaborative project. This job call is for the successful candidate to be located at Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad in person to coordinate and undertake the duties and responsibilities mentioned below.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Project Management and Coordination

- Support the project Co-PI in the planning and delivery of core project activities, including project team meetings, workshops, case study site visits, and stakeholder engagement and communication.
- Support the project administrator in performing administrative tasks related to the activities of the research team and School, including managing budgets and expenditure, and booking events.
- Have oversight of ethical procedures and their application across all study sites in Ahmedabad, ensuring effective submission, management, compliance, updating (where necessary), and storage of ethics documentation.
- Lead the maintenance of records and processes of data collection, establishing databases in order to store data safely and ensure appropriate data anonymisation processes are conducted.
- Take a leading role in developing and maintaining collaborations with colleagues across the project team and its wider community (e.g. academic and societal partners).

Knowledge Development and Dissemination

- Survey the research literature and policy setting, understand the research challenges associated with the project & subject area, sourcing suitable academic material for publications and also organise regular project ‘book club’ meetings where discussion of this literature supports the development of the project team
- Work collaboratively with the wider team to develop research outputs through: supporting the collection of data, analysis and interpretation of data, planning and delivery of online and in-person data analysis workshops; and co-writing of stakeholder reports and academic papers with members of the project team.
- Work with the Co-PI to lead the development of the project’s wider public profile via relevant social media outlets including LinkedIn and Instagram, and the timely upkeep of the project website. Use these to contribute to the enhancement of the University’s international profile in line with University strategy.





Professional Development and Wider Roles

- Presentation of work at international and national conferences, at internal and external seminars, and workshops to develop and enhance our research and impact profile and to enhance the wider knowledge, outputs and culture of the University.
- Where appropriate, take on the supervision and training of undergraduate and/or postgraduate students, and contribute as appropriate to other ad hoc teaching activities and associated administration, as may be assigned by the Project Co-PI.

Qualification: Possess professional qualifications and experience equivalent to PhD level plus the requisite experience. Knowledge, Skills and Experience

- A comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge of current issues and future directions within the relevant research disciplines as outlined in the Job Purpose
- Well-developed working knowledge of research methods, wider academic literature, and country knowledge relevant to the research project as outlined in the Job Purpose
- Ability to communicate material of a specialist nature to a range of audiences, and to be effective both orally and in writing at a level appropriate to the activity.
- Experience of planning and progressing work activities within professional guidelines or organisational policy, applying initiative and independent judgement.
- Proven commitment to supporting the career development of colleagues and to other forms of collegiality appropriate to the career stage, including some experience of research project supervision.

- Effective organisation skills to manage time, prioritise and deliver appropriate research, teaching and administrative responsibilities.

Project Description From Housing Beneficiaries to Urban Citizens? Governing state-supported housing for urban inclusion in the majority world

This Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) UK funded research addresses a challenge central to global commitments to providing adequate housing for all: ensuring the long-term sustainability of state-sponsored social housing projects. Across the world’s most rapidly-urbanising regions, these projects are unfolding quickly and at scale, but those people being rehoused often suffer lasting social disruption, sometimes compounded by physical decline of the housing they have moved into.

We see urban citizenship as central to a solution: can residents be transformed from passive housing beneficiaries to proactive urban citizens, and thereby shape these projects' futures?





The research focuses empirically on residents’ experiences after resettlement, and conceptually on how their new housing changes their relationships with the state. Social housing is a potential pathway to both dignified living conditions and socio-political inclusion in cities: how is this pathway being envisaged by key actors, and why is it often disrupted in practice? Through comparative work across cities in India, China and South Africa, the project will offer insights into how residents can be included within the governance of state-sponsored social housing, thereby allowing this housing to make a fuller contribution to addressing the linked challenges of a global housing crisis and sustainable urbanisation.

The research examines housing projects as key sites through which state-citizen relationships are envisaged, enacted and contested through everyday practices of governance, and that these practices are an important component of housing projects’ wider success. It moves beyond the extensive research in the global South focusing on the moment of displacement itself, addressing instead how residents’ experiences evolve after being rehoused. Accordingly, its analytical lens is used to examine two arenas in which state-citizen relationships continue to be reshaped through the process of resettlement within housing projects: the expectations placed on residents as 'beneficiaries' of these projects, and their struggles for access to core services and wider social infrastructure.

Finally, it will undertake context-rich international comparative work drawing on project team members’ deep familiarity with its four case study cities (Ahmedabad, Chengdu, Gauteng City Region and Mumbai), doing so to build theory of and from the Global South. It seeks to provide a deeper understanding of how active citizenship might reform housing delivery, informed by the contrasting experiences and understandings of urban governance present within the rich regional scholarship of South Africa, India and China.

The project team is as follows

Led by Paula Meth, University of Glasgow, the project will work in partnership with Co-Investigators Glyn Williams (University of Lund, Sweden), Sarah Charlton (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), Zheng Wang (Kings College, London), Darshini Mahadevia, (Ahmedabad University, India), Qinran Yang (Southwest Jiaotong University, China); Lalitha Kamath and Amite Bhide (Tata Institute of Social Sciences). Research assistants will be appointed in each of the four study contexts. The project starts in May 2026 and will run for 30 months, funded by the ESRC.

Project Starting Date: November 16, 2026

Apply to: Professor Darshini Mahadevia, Email: [email protected]

Application documents: (i) Latest CV, (ii) Statement of interest in the project, (iii) a copy of a publication, if any.

📌 Post Doctoral Research Associate, School of Arts and Sciences (Ahmedabad)
🏢 Ahmedabad University
📍 Ahmedabad