Research Title (working title):
Empowering partnerships. How innovative cross-sector collaborations provide renewable energy solutions to rural communities in emerging economies

Research Topic (keywords):
Sustainable development; cross-sector collaborations; alliance formation; renewable energy technologies; rural electrification; extended case method; agent-based modelling

Research Description:
The project investigates multi‐stakeholder partnerships that provide renewable energy systems to rural communities in emerging economies. It aims at exploring the collaborative and competitive practices, strategies, relationships, and institutions of such partnerships, and their engagement with local communities. This is to be achieved through a research programme which combines the in‐depth ethnographic exploration of 2‐3 partnerships with an analysis of their macro conditions (‘extended case study’). The results of the first part of the study will inform computer simulations (‘agent‐based models’) of the co‐creative processes and elementary dynamics of ‘empowering partnerships’, and their relations with the targeted communities. The resulting models will improve theory evaluation and (re)construction; it is envisioned to develop these as experimental learning tools for consultants and project leaders in the field.

Start date and Research form:
Full time PhD candidate, start date 1 October 2011. Research funded by the University of Leeds.

Research supervisor:
Professor Andy Gouldson (Sustainability Research Institure) & Dr Hinrich Voss (Centre for International Business)

Background and Experience:
- MRes with  Distinction in Sociology (Bielefeld University, Germany, 2010)
- MA with Distinction in International Relations (Keele University, UK, 2007)
- Work experience in academic research and administration (University of Leeds, Keele University, University College Dublin, Bielefeld University)

Presentations (project-related):
- School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, 21.11.2011

Awards:
-  ‘Prize for the Best Dissertation’ , Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, 2010
 - ‘Outstanding Dissertation Award’ , School of Politics, International Relations & Philosophy (SPIRE), Keele University, 2007

Publications:  
- ‘The UNreal world of human rights. An ethnography of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 186 pages, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8329-6643-0.
- ‘Politics of Difference and Activism at Intersections: Romani Women in Eastern and Central Europe’. In: Lee, Yoke-Lian (Ed.): The Politics of Gender. A Survey. Routledge, 25-45, 2010. (Ten glossary entries in the same book). 
- with A. Brandes and P. Ahrweiler: ‘R&D Governance Rules of the EU Framework Programmes: The EURuleD Archive’. NEMO Working Paper 6, 2008.