PERG – Small Grant Award 2014
The RGS Planning and Environment Research Group (PERG) invited calls for sponsorship of research activities in the early 2014.
Events could include (but are not limited to) workshops, seminars, community engagement or research training events. Preference were given to those proposals that could demonstrate links to the group’s main areas of research activity (http://planningenvironment.org), and reflect the group’s aims to support the work of young/early career academics.
We are pleased to inform that the PERG small grant award 2014 is given to Elen-Maarja Trell to help support the ‘Resilience Just Do It!’ event http://www.iainbiggs.co.uk/2014/10/notes-from-the-groningen-resilience-workshop/. Congratulations!
PERG Postgraduate Dissertation Prize
The PERG dissertation prize is awarded annually for the best Masters thesis in the field of planning and environment studies.
2014 Winners
Deborah Lesurf (Nottingham Trent University)
The dissertation entitled ‘Climate change: Psychodynamics of loss, denial and human agency’ was awarded as the 2014 Winner of the PERG Postgraduate Dissertation Prize. The runners-up were Jess Bradley (University of Manchester) and Rowena Machon (Sheffield Hallam University).
2013 Winners
Jonathan Carruthers-Jones (Wildland Research Institute)
The dissertation entitled ‘The Selection, Evaluation and Testing of Methods for the Identification of Priority Connectivity in Conservation Areas: A Case Study of the Pyrenees’ was awarded as the 2013 Winner of the PERG Postgraduate Dissertation Prize
2012 Winners
Adlana Zalbana (University of Sheffield)
The dissertation entitled, Energy balance in the adaptive reuse of historic urban industrial buildings, looks at historic industrial buildings that have been converted following best practice architecture, in order to reveal these complexities and solutions this process entails.
Adam Kindred (University of Reading)
The dissertation, ‘‘Culture for Whom?’ Residents’ reflections upon the use of public art and culture in Folkestone, examines the goals of cultural planning projects in Folkestone, and considers the ways in which planners are engaging with local residents and the complex ways in which they engage with place.
2011 Winner
James MacMillen (University of Southampton)
The dissertation entitled, ‘Best Practice’ and Sustainable Mobility: a critical realist account, is an inclusive account of the ‘best practice’ notion in UK (sustainable) transport policy, demonstrating excellent theoretical and methodological reflexivity. The dissertation is logically structured with clear research objectives systematically addressed in the substantive chapters. There is significant academic originality in the discussion of the results as they relate to policy learning, including the institutional embedding of best practice notions and the systemic neglect of ‘policy failure’. The dissertation can be accessed here
2010 Winner
Khairunnisa Haji Ibrahim (University of Leicester)
The dissertation entitled ‘Assessing proboscis monkey habitat along Sungai Brunei, Brunei Darussalam, using remote sensing and GIS’, used remote sensing to develop new assessment techniques for habitat destruction, showing both great skill in the execution of this task but also sensitivity to the limits and challenges of the technology. Its exceptional achievement is to marry this technical ability to a sophisticated appreciation of how this kind of technical approach to conservation fits in more broadly with the social, economic and political challenges.
Commendations
James Palmer (University of Cambridge)
The dissertation entitled ‘Biofuels: Easy win or hard solution? A case study of agenda setting and policy rationalisation in UK energy and climate change policy’, provides a magisterial explication of what are quite confusing literatures concerning environmental policy making, to build an interesting theoretical case. It also gives a quite exceptionally detailed account of its methodology.
Richard A Howard (University of Cardiff)
The dissertation entitled, ‘Is an 80% reduction in emissions in the UK and Wales by 2050 compatible with economic growth’ is a very well written, timely and accessible analysis of economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions which raises significant issues concerning the achievement of government CO2 targets.
