Postdoctoral Researcher Position On Child-Friendly Mobility Transitions

Organisation/Company Universitat Ramon Llull Fundació Research Field Anthropology › Social anthropology Architecture › Other Sociology › Urban sociology Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Postdoc Positions Country Spain Application Deadline 7 Jan *********:00 (Europe/Madrid) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 30 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Other EU programme Reference Number F-DUT-********* Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Cities' mobility systems are often designed with working adults in mind.

But what if this compromises the safety and development of children and adolescents?

This research project explores safe and active everyday mobility among schoolchildren, adopting a cross-cultural approach across European and East Asian cities—and placing children at the centre.

Would you like to join us?

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher for the international project SafePathways: "Cross-cultural insights and co-designed concepts for safe everyday mobility of schoolchildren in European and East Asian cities", starting 1st January ****.

This 3-year project is funded by the European Driving Urban Transitions Partnership.

URL-Blanquerna collaborates with international academic partners, local administrations, schools, and NGOs.

While the project follows an established work plan, there will be ample opportunities to contribute your own ideas.

SafePathways sits at the intersection of urban mobility studies, health and physical activity research, and child-friendly cities.

Physical activity among children and adolescents is declining in many urban contexts.

Supporting safe walking and cycling could help reverse this trend, yet current social and transport environments often hinder safe, enjoyable everyday journeys such as school trips.

The project therefore uses the 15-Minute City (15mC) framework to promote healthy, sustainable living, reduce car dependency, and improve wellbeing in urban neighbourhoods.

Children's mobility experiences serve as a lens to reimagine urban mobility in more inclusive, participatory, and context-sensitive ways.The project takes a comparative, cross-cultural perspective, focusing on selected districts in Barcelona, Riga, Rotterdam, and Taipei, with formal collaborations with academic institutions and local stakeholders—including city governments and schools.

Beyond analysing the built environment, SafePathways examines social and cultural contexts, intergenerational relations, and participatory processes that contribute to safe mobility for school-aged children.Using a shared methodology developed across the consortium, the project engages directly with children, parents, teachers, and community stakeholders.

Methods include collaborative co-mapping, tracing everyday user journeys, and co-creation processes to design solutions for safe active mobility.

These solutions may involve physical interventions as well as new social connections between families, schools, communities, and institutions.

Ultimately, SafePathways will generate new academic insights into how urban physical and social environments function for young users across cultural contexts, develop practical solutions to make neighbourhoods safer, and create guidelines and policy recommendations for involving children and parents in urban mobility design.

Your Key Responsibilities Will Be
Leading the project's work package "Concepts and Policies around Safe Children's Mobility", which takes stock of local and (inter)national strategic frameworks, models, solutions, good practices, and prototypes on the topic of safe schoolchildren's mobility.

You will guide the development of a shared conceptual basis for the project's co-mapping and co-creation phases.

Designing and implementing a co-creative process with children, parents and teachers, policymakers, and urban design experts to generate solutions that promote more active independent everyday mobility among children, building on the built and social environment factors identified by the project.

This task is executed in collaboration with the Dutch project partner, TU Delft.

Organising and carrying out fieldwork activities (interviews, walk-alongs, focus groups, co-mapping, and co-design workshops with children and other stakeholders) and data analysis in the case study in Barcelona, located in La Dreta de l'Eixample, in collaboration with the Municipality of Barcelona and the regional Department of Education, and supported by the project partners.

Contributing to the theoretical and methodological development, as well as to the comparative analysis of results that generate inter-locational insights and reframe dominant urban models such as the 15-minute city.

Contributing to project deliverables, the formulation and dissemination of concepts, guidelines, and recommendations for urban design and policy.

Participating in in-person and online meetings and other knowledge exchange activities with the international consortium.

Publishing research findings in reputable peer-reviewed journals and presenting results at (inter)national conferences and workshops.

Supervising one or more student or research assistants.

Where to apply

E-mail ******

Requirements
Research Field Architecture › Other Education Level PhD or equivalent

Research Field Anthropology › Social anthropology Education Level PhD or equivalent

Research Field Sociology › Urban sociology Education Level PhD or equivalent

Specific Requirements

Job requirements

PhD degree in human geography, architecture, spatial/urban planning, urban design, public health, sport sciences, sociology, anthropology or another relevant discipline concerned with co-design and participation;

High proficiency in the written and spoken use of the English language, alongside high or native levels of Spanish and Catalan;

A proven thematic interest in the key concepts of the SafePathways project: sustainable urban mobility transitions, social inclusion, the 15-minute city, and/or child-friendly cities;

Relevant knowledge of and experience with co-design/co-creation, co-mapping, citizen engagement, urban design tools, citizen science, and/or urban design;

Experience with qualitative and co-creative fieldwork and analysis, including interviews, focus groups, participatory workshops, and co-design;

Experience with interdisciplinary research and/or transdisciplinary collaboration, e.g. with civil servants, educational organisations and citizen communities in research;

Very good presentation, writing, communication and networking skills, for instance demonstrated by peer-reviewed academic publications, participation in academic conferences and networks, and engagement with non-academic audiences.

Nice-to-haves
Relevant knowledge of and experience in working with younger age groups, e.g. children and adolescents, and/or harder-to-reach communities.

Experience with research on trust, social cohesion, and/or trans-cultural studies.

Knowledge of the Spanish and Catalan education and mobility policy contexts.

Experience with working in international research projects.

Curriculum Vitae and a maximum two-page motivation letter indicating your research interest and experience.

PhD degree obtained before the starting date of the contract (provide the certificate).

Contact information of two references (recommendation letters are not required at this stage).

Employment conditions

The duration of the contract is max.

36 months (depending on starting date as soon as possible after the start of the project).

The appointment is for 30 hours per week for the duration of the contract.

Gross annual salary: ******€ for a 30h/week appointment (subject to change).

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute Barcelona Research Institute for Sport, Health and Society (Re-Sport) Country Spain City Barcelona Postal Code ***** Geofield