About the Project
This collaborative doctoral project examines the changing relationship between places, local government and the public good in the UK at a moment of significant transformation. Its starting point is the long-term hollowing out of placemaking capacity within local authorities, and it asks what this loss has meant for the state's ability to act spatially, democratically and imaginatively in producing more just urban futures.
The project is developed in collaboration with Public Practice, the not-for-profit organisation founded in 2017 to build the public sector's capability to improve the quality, equality and sustainability of places. Through its Associate Programme, Public Practice has placed over 430 Associates in nearly 110 authorities. Approximately 80% of alumni are still working in the public sector two years after leaving the programme. Its work has both responded to and evidenced persistent recruitment and skills gaps within local authorities, particularly in design leadership and strategic spatial thinking. As Public Practice approaches its tenth anniversary, the project offers a timely opportunity to critically examine the impacts, limits and future potential of this model.
The doctoral researcher will be embedded within Public Practice and its team. This allows them to engage directly with its networks, its programmes and its emerging archive of practice. Those networks include alumni, local authority officers, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and allied practitioners.
The project is both historically grounded and urgent. Several changes in England are reshaping the institutional geographies and capacities of the local state: proposed planning reforms, renewed commitments to housebuilding and infrastructure, and the expansion of devolution through Combined Mayoral Authorities and emerging regional planning authorities. These changes raise critical questions about where spatial expertise sits, how it is mobilised, and who shapes the future of cities and regions. Increasingly complex governance arrangements also intensify the need for embedded, interdisciplinary and design-led practice that can operate across scales and institutional boundaries.
The project is located within longer debates around three trends: the neoliberal restructuring of the state, the depoliticisation of professional expertise, and the decline of institutional infrastructures through which public authorities can shape space in the public interest. It also draws on radical experiments that sought to counter these trends. The radical municipalism of late twentieth-century England expanded the local state's role beyond service provision towards active intervention in social, cultural and economic life. Feminist municipalism extended this by embedding participatory, decentralised and collective modes of organising drawn from the women's movement. It sought to reshape relations between institutions and citizens. It also recognised forms of labour, care and social reproduction typically marginalised within dominant planning frameworks.
Methodologically, the project combines historical, qualitative and critical practice-based approaches. These could include archival research into histories of municipal design, local government architecture and progressive urban governance. Public Practice's ten-year archive of case studies, programme outputs and practitioner networks offers a unique resource for examining how public sector practice is changing today. The project will also draw on architectural and critical spatial practice methods, such as mapping, institutional ethnography and participatory inquiry. These will enable the research to document existing conditions and also to generate propositions for renewed forms of public architectural practice.
The overarching aim is to develop an original account of the decline, transformation and potential renewal of spatial practice within local government. Its objectives are:
- to analyse the historical and structural factors behind the erosion of spatial expertise in local authorities;
- to examine feminist and municipalist histories that reposition local government as a site of social and spatial transformation;
- to investigate Public Practice's role in rebuilding public sector placemaking capacity, and its impact on places and communities over its first decade;
- to articulate new conceptual and methodological frameworks for civic architectural practice; and
- to investigate how public sector spatial expertise can enable climate justice, including how local authorities can address the uneven social and spatial impacts of climate change through design-led, place-based approaches.
Candidates are not required to explore each of these objectives equally. The research proposal should indicate an area of focus, based on their interests, to be developed through engagement with Doctoral Supervision and Public Practice.
For details on entry requirements, please click here
Application Information:
- A complete application form for the February 2027 intake, PHD Architecture Full-time 2026 | Sheffield Hallam University Include the title of the project you are applying for in the Personal Statement section.
- A research proposal.
- A personal statement. Within this you must answer four questions. We recommend 200 words for each question and including specific examples from your previous experiences:
- What relevant skills and experience do you have which you feel would help you undertake this research project?
- How did you come up with your project proposal?
- What opportunities do you think the doctorate will give you?
- An example demonstrating your approach to engaging with new experiences or ideas. This can be from your studies, work, or personal experiences.
- Copies of qualifications, certificates, and results transcripts (All applicants should hold a strong, relevant undergraduate degree (2.1 minimum) and a relevant master's qualification (merit minimum).
- Details of two referees who can comment on your academic ability and readiness for PhD study.
- Copies of your passport and relevant visas.
International Students
International students are required to demonstrate their English language proficiency through:
- Recent academic IELTS demonstrating an overall score of 7.0 or above with no score below 7.0 in the other components or equivalent. Recent means that your IELTS results must have been awarded two years preceding your doctoral programme's start date; or
- Educated with a UK Master's degree level (merit minimum) within two years preceding your doctoral programme's start date.
* UKVI provide a list of countries exempt from the language entry requirements. If you're a national of one of these countries, you won't need to provide evidence as listed above.
Further Information
Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University, whilst in receipt of the scholarship.
Closing date: 2nd November 2026, 17.00 UK time
Interviews will take place in-person, likely during November 2026.
Late applications are not accepted.
Funding Notes
The scholarship is for three and a half years full-time study (pro-rata part-time), the scholarship covers PhD home tuition fees and pays an annual stipend at the living wage foundation rate of 22,152. Please note there is only one bursary available, and this will be offered to the candidate with the strongest overall candidate. 2025/26). The scholarship is available for 3.5 years of full-time or 6 years of part-time study (paid at 50%). Typically, international students are responsible for paying the difference/shortfall between the home and international fee (approx. £13,362 for 2026/27). Fee TBC for 2027/28.