The French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) is pleased to announce that as part of the Urban Protected Areas (UPA) network, it will be offering one Master’s bursary of ZAR 20,000 (2000 euros) for the conduction of research on the history and policies of urban protected areas, with the Table Mountain National park in Cape Town as a case study. The bursary is intended to be allocated to one Master student registered at a European Union University.
– To apply, please send the following documents to [research@ifas.org.za->mailto:research@ifas.org.za] before the 15th of January 2011
* 1 CV of 2 pages maximum.
* A cover letter of 2 pages maximum explaining how the research topic would fit into the questionings and framework of analysis of the research programme.
* A reference letter from the research director.
* A proof of academic registration
– Scientific objectives
The UPA network is an international network created in 2009 that aims at bringing together research teams and practitioners to reflect on issues pertaining to the “nature-city” relationship and particularly to the protected areas that are confronted to urban dynamics.
The UPA network therefore carries out research on governance and management of national parks that are located in or nearby cities. It focuses in particular on the following urban protected areas: Tijuca National Park (Rio, Brasil), Sanjay National Park (Mumbai, India), Nairobi National Park (Nairobi, Kenya) and the Table Mountain National Park(Cape Town, South Africa).
The objective of the UPA network is to pool together knowledge, expertise and experience in management of different urban protected areas through the setup of a research network that associates researchers, managers and local authorities dealing with urban protected areas. It notably aims at supporting research focusing on management strategies and methodologies for urban protected areas in order to help policy makers make informed decisions towards greater sustainability. It also aims eventually to produce educational material about the management of urban protected areas.
This call is intended to elicit applications from Master’s students in Geography/Anthropology/History/Political Science willing to conduct research in line with the following themes:
* Practices, management and policies of urban protected areas.
* History of the “park-city” governance relationship.
The research must imperatively be done with the Table Mountain National Park as a case study.
For more information : http://calenda.revues.org/nouvelle18467.html
