An agenda for future social sciences and humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 priority research questions

Tools

Foulds, C, Royston, S, Berker, T, Nakopoulou, E, Bharucha, ZP, Robison, R, Abram, S, Ančić, B, Arapostathis, S, Badescu, G, Bull, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4372-3589, Cohen, J, Dunlop, T, Dunphy, N, Dupont, C, Fischer, C, Gram-Hanssen, K, Grandclément, C, Heiskanen, E, Labanca, N, Jeliazkova, M, Jörgens, H, Keller, M, Kern, F, Lombardi, P, Mourik, R, Ornetzeder, M, Pearson, PJG, Rohracher, H, Sahakian, M, Sari, R, Standal, K and Živčič, L, 2022. An agenda for future social sciences and humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 priority research questions. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9: 223. ISSN 2662-9992

Preview

Text
1562660_Bull.pdf - Published version
Download (682kB) | Preview

Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01243-z

Abstract

Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)-including critical reflections on what changing a society's relation to energy (efficiency) even means-have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policymakers, funders, and other decision-makers when driving research agendas, and (ii) the setting of SSH-focused research agendas has not historically embedded inclusive and deliberative processes. The aim of this paper is to address these gaps through the production of a research agenda outlining future SSH research priorities for energy efficiency. A Horizon Scanning exercise was run, which sought to identify 100 priority SSH questions for energy efficiency research. This exercise included 152 researchers with prior SSH expertise on energy efficiency, who together spanned 62 (sub-)disciplines of SSH, 23 countries, and a full range of career stages. The resultant questions were inductively clustered into seven themes as follows: (1) Citizenship, engagement and knowledge exchange in relation to energy efficiency ; (2) Energy efficiency in relation to equity, justice, poverty and vulnerability; (3) Energy efficiency in relation to everyday life and practices of energy consumption and production; (4) Framing, defining and measuring energy efficiency; (5) Governance, policy and political issues around energy efficiency; (6) Roles of economic systems, supply chains and financial mechanisms in improving energy efficiency; and (7) The interactions, unintended consequences and rebound effects of energy efficiency interventions. Given the consistent centrality of energy efficiency in policy programmes, this paper highlights that well-developed SSH approaches are ready to be mobilised to contribute to the development, and/or to understand the implications, of energy efficiency measures and governance solutions. Implicitly, it also emphasises the heterogeneity of SSH policy evidence that can be produced. The agenda will be of use for both (1) those new to the energy-SSH field (including policy-workers), for learnings on the capabilities and capacities of energy-SSH, and (2) established energy-SSH researchers, for insights on the collectively held futures of energy-SSH research.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Creators:	Foulds, C., Royston, S., Berker, T., Nakopoulou, E., Bharucha, Z.P., Robison, R., Abram, S., Ančić, B., Arapostathis, S., Badescu, G., Bull, R., Cohen, J., Dunlop, T., Dunphy, N., Dupont, C., Fischer, C., Gram-Hanssen, K., Grandclément, C., Heiskanen, E., Labanca, N., Jeliazkova, M., Jörgens, H., Keller, M., Kern, F., Lombardi, P., Mourik, R., Ornetzeder, M., Pearson, P.J.G., Rohracher, H., Sahakian, M., Sari, R., Standal, K. and Živčič, L.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	2022
Volume:	9
ISSN:	2662-9992
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1057/s41599-022-01243-z DOI 1562660 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	01 Jul 2022 12:43
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2022 12:43
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46539