The Project
Behind every building lies a web of workers, materials and money. The interdisciplinary research programme Flows in the Construction Sector investigates how these connections have shaped the construction of Brussels from the nineteenth century to today.
The project follows the flows that make building possible: people moving across neighbourhoods, cities and borders; materials travelling from extraction sites, workshops, factories and reuse networks to construction sites; and money circulating through firms, credit systems, public investment and real estate markets. Together, these flows determine how the city grows, who benefits from urban development, and who bears its risks.
Taking Brussels as its central case, the project approaches construction as more than the making of buildings. It studies the construction sector as a powerful urban force: one that produces housing, infrastructure and workplaces, but also shapes labour relations, migration patterns, resource use, environmental impact and everyday urban life.
To understand these dynamics, the project develops the concept of urban building regimes: historically specific ways in which labour, materials and capital are organised, regulated and embedded in the city. This perspective helps reveal how construction can generate inequality, precarity and environmental pressure, but also how it can become a site of care, repair, circularity and social inclusion.
For more information on the project, please click this link.
Potential Trajectories
Within this project, several PhD trajectories are possible. Candidates are invited to indicate in their research proposal which trajectory best matches their profile, interests, methodological expertise and ambition. The three trajectories below should be understood as possible entry points into the broader project.
1. Mobility, migration, and entrepreneurship: who builds the city?
This trajectory examines the people, firms, and networks involved in the construction of Brussels, from the nineteenth century to the present. It may focus on labour mobility, migration, access to work and technical knowledge, construction entrepreneurship, subcontracting, or the spatial organisation and infrastructure of building-related activities. The aim is to understand the construction sector as both a space of opportunity and a site where social inequalities, dependencies, and forms of exclusion are produced.
2. Risk, precarity, and responsibility: under what conditions is the city built?
This trajectory investigates how social, economic, technical, and material risks are organised and distributed in the construction sector. Possible themes include workplace accidents, occupational health and safety, liability, insurance, labour conflicts, financial uncertainty, subcontracting, delays, material shortages, or the management of uncertainty on building sites. The trajectory connects the everyday realities of construction work with broader questions of regulation, responsibility, protection, and vulnerability.
3. Extraction, circulation, and sustainability: where do building materials come from, how do they circulate and at what cost?
This trajectory follows building materials through their wider networks of extraction, production, transport, use, reuse, and disposal. It may focus on specific materials, infrastructures, trade networks, construction and demolition practices, reuse circuits, or moments of scarcity, transition, and transformation. By studying materials as technical, economic, social, and ecological carriers, the trajectory contributes to a better understanding of the construction sector as a material system with impacts that extend far beyond the building site.
Profile
What do we expect from you?
- At the start of the appointment, you hold a master’s degree (with at least distinction) in a relevant field, such as a MA in Architecture, (Economic) History, Sociology or Heritage Studies, a MSc in Architectural Engineering, Geography, Urban Studies, Urban Planning and Spatial Planning, or an equivalent degree;
- You are motivated to conduct research and complete a PhD within a 4-year timeframe;
- You are able to formulate a clear research proposal from your own disciplinary background and are willing to further develop this proposal in dialogue with other disciplines;
- You have an interest in the history and/or contemporary functioning of the construction sector, urban development, labour, migration, material flows, circularity, financial geography, environmental history, or social and economic history. You do not need to be a specialist in all these domains at the start. We do expect curiosity, analytical sharpness, and a willingness to learn across disciplinary boundaries;
- You can work independently, but also function well in a team;
- You have strong analytical and writing skills;
- You are proficient in English, both written and spoken. Knowledge of Dutch and French, at least for reading sources, is an important asset;
- Experience with archival research, GIS, spatial analysis, quantitative methods, oral history, material research, or historical research on Brussels is an asset;
- A good knowledge of construction history, urban history, social history, economic geography, circular economy, or the Brussels construction sector is an important asset;
- You have not previously performed work in the execution of a mandate as an assistant in Flanders, paid from operating resources.
Offer
You’ll be offered a full-time PhD-scholarship, for 12 months (yearly extendable up to max. 48 months, on condition of the positive evaluation of the PhD activities), with planned starting date of 1 November 2026.
Interested?
Are you interested in this position? Then send us your curriculum vitae, diplomas (not applicable for VUB alumni) a motivation letter of max. 1 page, your vision for the doctoral research of max. 2 pages, and a pdf of your master thesis via jobs.vub.be by 8 July 2026. Please also keep 27 August 2026 free in your schedule for a possible interview.
In your research vision, we ask you to:
- start from your own disciplinary background, expertise, and interests;
- indicate which of the three possible PhD trajectories your proposal best connects to;
- explain how your research could connect labour/migration, material flows, and/or capital/finance, and how it relates to the broader timeframe from the nineteenth century to the present;
- briefly outline, where relevant, which research questions, sources, methods, or cases you might want to develop.
Your proposal does not need to be a fully developed PhD project. We will use it primarily to gain insight into your research potential, your way of thinking, and the way in which you can bring your own expertise into dialogue with the broader project.
Do you have questions about this position? Contact Stephanie Van de Voorde at Stephanie.Van.de.Voorde@vub.be (Architectural Engineering Research Group), David Bassens (Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research - COSM), or Anne Winter (Social History of Capitalism - SHOC) (Cosmopolis).
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