School of Social and Political Science

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Applications for this studentship closed at 23:59 (BST) on Tuesday, 1st October 2024. Late applications cannot be accepted.

After the Single Use project is a bold global cooperative across four continents that promises to develop a new field of critical arts, humanities and social science research on medical waste and circular healthcare economies. After the Single Use is a five-year anthropological and historical research project examining the history, circulation and elimination of single-use plastics in global healthcare. The PhD awardee will carry out a Scotland-based case study as part of the international After the Single Use team during their 3.5-year funded award period.

After the Single Use project overview

After the Single Use is a bold global cooperative across four continents that promises to develop a new field of critical arts, humanities and social science research on medical waste and circular healthcare economies. On a global scale, the production, circulation and disposal of single-use medical plastics has a direct effect on human health and inflicts widespread environmental damage. Designed to be disposed of immediately after use, single-use medical products such as surgical drapes, syringes, or diagnostics are part of a linear fossil fuel economy that contributes to global warming and generates highly localized medical waste flows. Single-use medical plastics emit harmful dioxins when burned, leak toxic chemicals into water sources, and pollute oceans. Their manufacture, transportation and incineration makes a substantial contribution to carbon dioxide emissions, ensuring that, if the global health care sector were a country, it would have the 5th largest carbon footprint in the world. 

It was not always this way. Medical masks were made of reusable materials until the 1930s, and the majority of surgical masks were not disposable until the 1960s. One generation ago, the use of washable instead of disposable surgical drapes and reusable surgical tools was commonplace. A generation before that, the syringe was a reusable technology. Diagnostic tests in the mid-20th century involved standardized glassware, sterilized by autoclave. In a relatively short period of time, we have naturalized the use of single-use products and then forgotten there was ever any alternative.  Today there is growing international recognition that we need to move to a more sustainable, circular economy for medical equipment and devices. 

What would it take to achieve this? Bringing together anthropologists and historians from eight countries (Scotland, Senegal, Tanzania, India, Norway, USA, Switzerland, Papua New Guinea), After the Single Use will employ innovative historical and ethnographic methods to document the crisis of medical waste in global context, analyse the long lifecycles of single-use medical devices designed for disposal in incinerators and landfills, and establish collaborations with policymakers, activists and engineers/designers to build circular healthcare solutions.  The project team will pursue these objectives through a series of country-based case studies of particular devices, infrastructures, places and spaces involved in the historical and current transformation of medical device materialities and lifecycles. Cross-cutting research questions, and common methods, objects and spaces will provide a comparative framework for the project, ensuring that we work together across country settings to understand how shared and divergent histories, geographic inequalities, and situated value systems have shaped and are shaping healthcare materialities. 

PhD studentship overview

The University of Edinburgh is offering a 3.5 year funded studentship to pursue a PhD. The PhD awardee will carry out a Scotland-based case study as part of the international After the Single Use team.

This PhD studentship is situated within the After the Single Use project. After the Single Use is a five-year anthropological and historical research project examining the history, circulation and elimination of single-use plastics in global healthcare. The PhD project will involve an ethnographic investigation of efforts by policy makers, health workers, activists, and entrepreneurs, among others, to build a circular health care economy in Scotland, exploring the historical roots of current systems of disposability, diverse framings of medical plastics by different actors, and social and cultural processes of institutional and infrastructural change. 

Scotland has been at the forefront of policy efforts to decarbonise healthcare, committing NHS Scotland to achieving net zero by 2040 and recycling 70% of all healthcare waste by 2025. The Scotland NHS 2022-26 Climate Emergency and Sustainability Strategy recognises the healthcare supply chain to be a major source of emissions and identifies the reduction of single-use plastics as a key means of reducing the  overall carbon footprint of the health system. But what does the transformation of NHS Scotland into a circular economy and the elimination or reduction of single-use plastics actually mean and entail? And what can this work tell us about historical and current framings of climate change transitions, plastic pollution and care? 

The PhD thesis will tell the story of single-use plastics in the NHS through a focus on the people who are trying to make themselves part of the solution and the socio-technical transformations they are seeking to bring about. Research might involve a variety of participants and sites, including: entrepreneurial ventures into medical recycling, initiatives by health workers to reduce use of single-use plastics and experiment with re-usable alternatives, attempts to standardise green procurement systems, sustainable innovations in the medical devices sector, and the work of policy-makers to direct, track and oversee all this work. Through ethnographic research, the student will explore everyday relationships involved in attempts to change values, norms and standards, and efforts to transform the material infrastructure that underpins linear healthcare models. The student will also take a lead on a series of audits of single-use plastics in NHS facilities, with support from the international NGO, Health Care Without Harm and the PI. 

The PhD project is a collaboration with the NHS Scotland Circular Economy Programme and the student will work closely with the programme lead in the Scottish Government and the PI to define the scope, research questions and methods for their project.

What the role will involve:

• Develop a detailed research proposal (including background, research questions, literature review, methods, ethics)
• Write ethics application
• Undertake 10-15 months' fieldwork in Scotland (including carrying out plastic audits at several health facilities)
• Write a PhD thesis based on the Including Publications in Postgraduate Research Theses model. This will include one or more co-authored articles with team members and collaborators.
• Participate in group meetings, events and workshops

Award value

The studentship funding is for 3.5 years. The awardee will commence the  full-time PhD Social Anthropology PhD programme in January 2025. The award includes: 

• an annual maintenance grant/stipend at the UKRI rate (£19,237 in 2024/25 for reference)
• tuition fee cover at the Home fee rate (note that you must have Home tuition fee rate status)
• Potential for funding for fieldwork travel subject to agreement from project funder (fieldwork plans to be developed in discussion with PI) 
• Potential for funding for conference participation subject to agreement from project funder (dissemination plans to be developed in discussion with PI)

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the standard requirements for the full-time Social Anthropology PhD programme and have Home tuition fee rate status. 

We welcome applicants with degrees in related social science or humanities discipline - eg sociology, geography, history - if they can demonstrate relevant research interests and background knowledge, commitment and skills to undertaking a PhD in Social Anthropology.

Applicants must also meet the following additional eligibility criteria for this award:

• Be able to take up the scholarship on a full-time basis
• Have ethnographic fieldwork experience
• Have some experience of quantitative methods (desirable)
• Can demonstrate excellent academic writing skills
• Be willing to work in a team and meet strict deadlinesInterest in developing skills in creative and collaborative research methodologies
• Have commitment to, and willingness to learn skills for, impactful research and undertaking relevant training for knowledge exchange and impact (KEI)
• Have commitment to take part in intellectual and research life at the University of Edinburgh through physical attendance for 2-3 days a week on campus, and attendance at seminars and events

Application process

Applicants should combine the following documents into a single PDF document and send it to alice.street@ed.ac.uk no later than the closing date:

1. A full university transcript, showing the courses/modules taken and marks for individual courses and for a dissertation (if marks are affected by previous industrial action by UCU or by Covid-19, please note this in your personal statement). 
2. A CV of no more than two pages. 
3. Two references from academic staff who have direct experience of your work, including (if possible) your UG/PG dissertation supervisor. 
4. A writing sample of between 4,000-10,000 words (eg coursework essay or dissertation. 
5. A personal statement of up to two pages that addresses the following questions and issues (in any format or order) 

• Why you are interested in this PhD project 
• Your relevant experience and training for this PhD project 
• How you would want to develop the project as an ethnographic case study, including any particular issues and questions you would want to explore 
• Areas of scholarship and literature you would be interested in engaging with and contributing to as part of the project Methodological approaches and tools that you would look to bring to the project or develop as part of the project
• Your longer-term career plans and how this project will help you to progress them, including any training that you would hope to receive as part of the project

Selection, assessment and results process

The selection process comprises of two stages.

Stage 1: The PDF application must be sent to Professor Alice Street by Tuesday, 1st October. Applications will be reviewed (using the assessment criteria below) by a panel comprising of a member of the After the Single Use project team and the PhD Postgraduate Advisor for Admissions Social Anthropology within two weeks of the scholarship deadline. 

Stage 2: Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview to discuss their suitability for this scholarship. Candidates will be sent interview questions and any areas they will be expected to present on in advance of the interview.  Application documents and interviews will be assessed against the eligibility criteria and ability to carry out the role tasks as described above. In addition, we will be looking at the following criteria

• Applicant capabilities academic achievements including resourcefulness and resilience, their preparedness and potential to undertake and complete a PhD, and their contribution to a positive PhD community and the project team.
• Understanding of research topic and independent ideas for research: demonstration of interest in the topic and ability to develop a detailed research proposal if successful; fit and complementarity with the project’s theoretical and methodological approach. 

The studentship award is subject to candidates successfully securing admission to the full-time PhD Social Anthropology PhD programme within the University of Edinburgh. The successful studentship applicant will be invited to apply for admission to the PhD programme after selection for funding.

Interview date: Thursday, 10th October, to be held online. 

Candidates will be advised of the outcome by Monday, 21st October 2024.

Social Anthropology in the School of Social and Political Science

Social Anthropology was established at the University in 1946. Today it is among the largest departments in the UK. 

Our research is global and includes core themes in medical anthropology; science and technology; institutional ethnography and infrastructure and just energy transitions. We host the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology (EdCMA) and affiliated Students of Medical Anthropology (SoMA) group, which organise regular seminars, reading groups and writing treats. Our work generally combines a traditional anthropological emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork with a focus on contemporary issues, such as plastic pollution or climate change adaptation. Our anthropologists work in a wide range of geographical areas, including Scotland; Africa; the Middle East; South, Southeast, and East Asia; South, Middle and North America; and Europe. Anthropology of Scotland is a growing strength in the department. We have a vibrant PhD community that reflects the diverse anthropological interests in our department.  

The School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh is one of the largest and most successful schools of social science in the UK, with global reach and local and global impact. The postgraduate research culture is vibrant, with work reflecting a broad range of social issues and methodologies. 

Contact details

For queries about the project and studentship, please contact the principal investigator, Professor Alice Street (Alice.street@ed.ac.uk)

 For application process queries, please contact Toni Jenkins (pgresearch.sps@ed.ac.uk)