Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

Krupnik, S., Wagner, A., Koretskaya, O., Rudek, T. J., Wade, R., Mišík, M., Akerboom, S., Foulds, C., Smith Stegen, K., Adem, Ç., Batel, S., Rabitz, F., Certomà, C., Chodkowska-Miszczuk, J., Denac, M., Dokupilová, D., Leiren, M. D., Ignatieva, M. Frolova, Gabaldón-Estevan, D., Horta, A., Karnøe, P., Lilliestam, J., Loorbach, D., Mühlemeier, S., Nemoz, S., Nilsson, M., Osička, J., Papamikrouli, L., Pellizioni, L., Sareen, S., Sarrica, M., Seyfang, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4696-0798, Sovacool, B., Telešienė, A., Zapletalová, V. and von Wirth, T. (2022) Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe. Energy Research & Social Science, 89. ISSN 2214-6296

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Abstract

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Funding Information: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 826025 , Energy-SHIFTS. Matúš Mišík's contribution to this article was funded by the Slovak Research and Development Agency Grant No. APVV-20-0012. Robert Wade would like to acknowledge the support of Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement ID: 813837.
Uncontrolled Keywords: eu horizon europe,funding directions,horizon scanning,research priorities,research-policy interface,renewable energy, sustainability and the environment,nuclear energy and engineering,fuel technology,energy engineering and power technology,social sciences (miscellaneous),sdg 7 - affordable and clean energy ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2100/2105
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Science, Society and Sustainability
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 21 Jul 2022 11:37
Last Modified: 16 Dec 2023 02:48
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/86789
DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2022.102536

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