PhD Study

Geographies of Transformations

This interdisciplinary programme conducted in English develops the skills of students to examine and understand multiple feedbacks among socio-economic, cultural and environmental processes resulting in the transformation of geographic systems. Studied topics include, for example, local adaptation to climate change, transformations of the society and economy of old industrial regions, the effects of globalization on sustainability of traditional communities.

The programme responds to the current challenges arising from the changing relationship between society and the environment. These challenges are spatio-temporaly intertwined and have their anchoring and manifestations as documented, for example, by OECD reports (namely Regional Outlook 2019: Leveraging Megatrends for Cities and Rural Areas). Specifically, these emerging challenges and their possible managements are materialized in the transformation of geographic systems. With its unique focus and approaches, geography addresses the processes leading to multiple transformation of the environment, regions, and communities on clearly defined temporal, spatial, and functional scales. Find more information in the information leaflet.

Topics for dissertation theses by doctoral students include, for example:

  • Management of Traditional Cultural Landscapes under the Conditions of the Environmental Change
  • Transition Initiatives and Adaptation of Cities to the Climate Change
  • Changes in Land Tenure Models under the Conditions of Economic Transformation
  • Changing Policies and Agents in Shrinking Cities
  • The Impacts of Cultural Globalization on Sustainable Livelihood in World Peripheries
  • Visualization of Changes in the Spatial Behaviour of Society
  • The Concept of Ecological Insecurity in the International Comparative Perspective

Graduates are prepared to work in three spheres:

  1. in public administration, designing, drafting, and coordinating the implementation and monitoring of strategies and policies focused on reducing the risks and insecurities arising from the transformation of the environment, regions, and communities in their complexity,
  2. in non-profit and private sectors, with a focus on monitoring and management of positive and negative manifestations of geographic transformations, and on approaches to mobilize agents of change and local development. They can especially use their integrated view of mechanisms of geographic transformations of localities and regions, and the ability to critically assess uncertainties inherent to developmental policies and strategies,
  3. in the academic sphere and in other research organizations, where they can use their ability to define conceptualize and operationalise a research problem, design a suitable methodological approach, collect and analyze the data through a variety of methods, and communicate the results to academia, policy makers, and the public. Every PhD student also develops her/his communication and teaching skills by teaching field-related courses and supervising undergraduates.