Shifts in the smart research agenda? 100 priority questions to accelerate sustainable energy futures
(2023) In Journal of Cleaner Production 419.- Abstract
Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas in response to the growing challenges of climate change and international conflict, with the EU positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. European energy transition policies identify ‘smart consumption’ as a key element of these efforts, which have previously been explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to identify or address fundamental interlinkages with social systems and consequences. This paper aims to contribute to interdisciplinary energy research by analysing a forward looking ‘Horizon Scan’ research agenda for smart consumption, driven by the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).... (More)
Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas in response to the growing challenges of climate change and international conflict, with the EU positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. European energy transition policies identify ‘smart consumption’ as a key element of these efforts, which have previously been explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to identify or address fundamental interlinkages with social systems and consequences. This paper aims to contribute to interdisciplinary energy research by analysing a forward looking ‘Horizon Scan’ research agenda for smart consumption, driven by the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Reflecting on an extensive systematic Delphi Method exercise surveying over 70 SSH scholars from various institutional settings across Europe, we highlight what SSH scholars see as future directions for smart consumption research. Building from seven thematic areas (under which are grouped 100 SSH research questions), the study identifies three key ‘shifts’ this new smart research agenda represents, when compared to previous agendas: (1) From technological inevitability to political choice, highlighting the need for a wider political critique, with the potential to open up discussions of the instrumentalisation of smart research; (2) From narrow representation to diverse inclusion, moving beyond the shortcomings of current discourses for engaging marginalised communities; and (3) From individual consumers to interconnected citizens, reframing smart consumption to offer a broader model of social change and governance. Social Sciences and Humanities scholarship is essential to address these shifts in meaningful (rather than tokenistic) ways. This agenda and the shifts it embodies represent key tools to enable better interdisciplinary working between SSH and teams from the technical and natural sciences.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-09-20
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Energy justice, Energy transitions, Prosumer, Research funding, Smart consumption, Socio-technical systems
- in
- Journal of Cleaner Production
- volume
- 419
- article number
- 137946
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85166133518
- ISSN
- 0959-6526
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137946
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: In summary, use of smart technologies is one of the primary tools being used to enable coordination between cleaner production and consumption, in order to achieve the rapid transitions sought to combat climate change. However, there is huge variation in how their design and implementation could be carried out, and these choices are fundamentally intertwined with social structures and social consequences related to justice, legitimacy, and efficacy. Past funding for energy research has significantly under-utilised SSH research, and programmes have struggled to effectively encourage interdisciplinary projects which centre SSH expertise and research questions. There is demand from both STEM and SSH researchers for more resources which aid this work, who recognise a gap in current ways of shaping research agendas which this paper aims to explore and address.To verify which of these did indeed represent ‘shifts’ from the previous smart research landscape we then (iv) gathered existing smart research agendas – outlined in Subsection 2.1 – and (v) analysed 10 semi-structured interviews with SSH experts representing a variety of disciplines which had supported the formation of the WG (see Fig. 1, box Ib).First, much research on smart technologies was observed as being fundamentally about the continuation of economic growth through instrumental eco-efficiency and green growth agendas. As one interviewee stated, “smart consumption is doing less … and that is a topic which is not addressed at all. I'm pretty sure the European Union will never fund any kind of research going to this direction because this … will contradict any kind of economic growth” (Interviewee 2 - Sociology9). Firstly, this agenda can be a resource whereby research teams embed SSH concepts early enough to help shape project direction. Our analysis shows this is critical in order to achieve the objectives of a zero-carbon future. The agenda also highlights how SSH can play a leadership role in research projects on smart consumption, and not simply fill a supporting role. The many interlinkages between different themes point to the importance of recognising that several different types of SSH expertise10 may be needed within a single project: the spectrum of research disciplines from which colleagues may be drawn can and often should be widened.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 826025 (Energy-SHIFTS project). Viera Pechancová’s work was supported by funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic DKRVO (RP/CPS/2022/005). We are grateful to Emma Milroy for her support during the Horizon Scanning exercise. We also thank our many energy-SSH colleagues for kindly submitting their research questions for consideration. Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 826025 (Energy-SHIFTS project). Viera Pechancová’s work was supported by funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic DKRVO ( RP/CPS/2022/005 ). We are grateful to Emma Milroy for her support during the Horizon Scanning exercise. We also thank our many energy-SSH colleagues for kindly submitting their research questions for consideration. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
- id
- 3957d745-1178-4bb4-95cb-6dce7f7e2142
- date added to LUP
- 2023-08-10 20:14:50
- date last changed
- 2023-09-12 15:32:33
@article{3957d745-1178-4bb4-95cb-6dce7f7e2142,
abstract = {{<p>Energy transitions are at the top of global agendas in response to the growing challenges of climate change and international conflict, with the EU positioning itself as playing a pivotal role in addressing climate risks and sustainability imperatives. European energy transition policies identify ‘smart consumption’ as a key element of these efforts, which have previously been explored from a predominantly technical perspective thus often failing to identify or address fundamental interlinkages with social systems and consequences. This paper aims to contribute to interdisciplinary energy research by analysing a forward looking ‘Horizon Scan’ research agenda for smart consumption, driven by the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Reflecting on an extensive systematic Delphi Method exercise surveying over 70 SSH scholars from various institutional settings across Europe, we highlight what SSH scholars see as future directions for smart consumption research. Building from seven thematic areas (under which are grouped 100 SSH research questions), the study identifies three key ‘shifts’ this new smart research agenda represents, when compared to previous agendas: (1) From technological inevitability to political choice, highlighting the need for a wider political critique, with the potential to open up discussions of the instrumentalisation of smart research; (2) From narrow representation to diverse inclusion, moving beyond the shortcomings of current discourses for engaging marginalised communities; and (3) From individual consumers to interconnected citizens, reframing smart consumption to offer a broader model of social change and governance. Social Sciences and Humanities scholarship is essential to address these shifts in meaningful (rather than tokenistic) ways. This agenda and the shifts it embodies represent key tools to enable better interdisciplinary working between SSH and teams from the technical and natural sciences.</p>}},
author = {{Robison, Rosie and Skjølsvold, Tomas Moe and Hargreaves, Tom and Renström, Sara and Wolsink, Maarten and Judson, Emily and Pechancová, Viera and Demirbağ-Kaplan, Melike and March, Hug and Lehne, Johanna and Foulds, Chris and Bharucha, Zareen and Bilous, Liliia and Büscher, Christian and Carrus, Giuseppe and Darby, Sarah and Douzou, Sylvie and Drevenšek, Mojca and Frantál, Bohumil and Guimarães Pereira, Ângela and Karvonen, Andrew and Katzeff, Cecilia and Kola-Bezka, Maria and Laakso, Senja and Lettmayer, Gudrun and Parag, Yael and Sáfián, Fanni and Swora, Mariusz and Tjørring, Lise and van der Werff, Ellen and van Vliet, Bas and Wallenborn, Grégoire and Wyckmans, Annemie}},
issn = {{0959-6526}},
keywords = {{Energy justice; Energy transitions; Prosumer; Research funding; Smart consumption; Socio-technical systems}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{09}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
title = {{Shifts in the smart research agenda? 100 priority questions to accelerate sustainable energy futures}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137946}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137946}},
volume = {{419}},
year = {{2023}},
}