Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

New PhD funding opportunity in the UK for research into geological disposal

https://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/thebeam/2020/11/17/phd-bursary-call-for-social-research-into-geological-disposal/


Funding sufficient for a 4 year UK – and 3+ for o/seas. The Ph.D. can be held at any UK University.  Applications have to be in by 16th December. We’ve done a lot of work to ensure that there is the possibility for genuinely interesting work – for ethnography and for critical engagement with the sector – please encourage any excellent masters or third year students that might connect to any of the themes mentioned  below – which can easily be linked to interests in climate change, materiality, environmental justice, etc. The call is open to all social science disciplines – broadly conceived.   Please spread the word!

  • comparative methods to evaluate social well-being
  • citizen science and deliberative democracy
  • comparative social research on large-scale infrastructure projects
  • value modelling and its application
  • intergenerational ethics
  • institutional learning

CFP: Digitisation and low-carbon energy transitions, Energy Anthropology Network workshop, 23-24 August 2021

As the world faces the challenge to transition to low-carbon energy futures, digitisation becomes a key issue: decarbonising energy requires the digital process control of energy production, transmission and end use. Diversified electrification across sectors requires real-time digital coordination of distributed energy production, with increasing numbers and types of power plants and enhanced spatial-temporal complexity. To manage energy demand and raise energy efficiency, digital devices can help recursively modulate energy and societal rhythms to facilitate rapid decarbonisation of complex, intertwined systems. At the same time, a low-carbon energy transition that requires electrification and digitisation is accompanied by the risk of significant increases in energy demand, perhaps only partly compensated through energy efficiency gains.

Might the digitisation of renewable energy backfire on envisioned energy transitions? Who digitises energy infrastructure, and what drives decision-making? How does this impact the justice effects of low-carbon energy transitions? In what ways does digitisation intertwine with changes in the lived experience of human interactions with evolving energy systems? What do we gain and lose as we move from fossil fuel dominated infrastructures to hybrid digitised ones, from coal mining to data mining?

This workshop problematizes the emergent inter-linkages of digitisation and energy. We invite engaged energy anthropologists and other interdisciplinary counterparts from geography, science and technology studies and political ecology into a critically constructive forum to discuss digitisation in low-carbon energy transitions.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to Katja Müller (katja.mueller@zirs.uni-halle.de) and Siddharth Sareen (siddharth.sareen@uis.no) by 15 December 2020. Include your institutional affiliation and whether you would like to participate remotely or in person – both options will be possible. The Energy Anthropology Network is pleased to hold this workshop at the University of Stavanger during 23-24 August 2021, before the Petrocultures 2021 conference scheduled for 25-27 August 2021 at the Norwegian Petroleum Museum.

Keynote speakers:

23rd August: Digital Energy Futures – Sarah Pink and Yolande Strengers, Monash University

24th August: Mobility justice and transitions to urban electric vehicles – Thomas Birtchnell, Theresa Harada and Gordon Waitt, University of Wollongong

Local Cognitive and Affective Responses to Wind Power Projects

We like to bring to your attention a new open access article just published in Energy Research & Social Science out of the Center for Research in Wind (CReW) at the University of Delaware.
 
Russell, A., and Firestone, J. 2021. What’s love got to do with it? Understanding Local Cognitive and Affective Responses to Wind Power Projects, Energy Research & Social Science, 71, 101833, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101833 (open access)
 
In our article titled What’s love got to do with it? Understanding Local Cognitive and Affective Responses to Wind Power Projects , we revisit the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s National Survey of Wind Project Neighbors. We utilize a dual-process model of community attitude formation based on both the rational cognitive and emotional affective branches of perception.
 
Our findings provide insight into the different emotional and cognitive predictors of attitudes in wind project neighbors as well as how emotions including anger and pride appear to dominate. We’ve also paid particular attention to the differences between those neighbors who live near wind projects that were built either before or after they themselves moved in.
 
Please find the article using the following link: https://doi-org.udel.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101833
 
Science direct link is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629620304084.

Engaging in Energy Poverty in Early Career (EPEC): CALL FOR APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

The FPRN is delighted to announce that the first round of our small grants programme opens TODAY! The Engaging with Energy Poverty in Early Career (EPEC) project aims to support Early Career Researchers and Practitioners (within the first 10 years of their career) and post graduate students with an interest in fuel and energy poverty to undertake original research or secondary analysis to advance the field and to bring forward publications (through buying time to complete analysis and write). As you will see from the call guidance, we encourage applications which promote links between academics and practitioners working in the field.  You don’t have to work squarely in fuel or energy poverty to apply but your proposal must relate to the field. We are able to award around 20 grants of up to £2,500 over two rounds- the next will be launched at the same time next year. All of the information you need  to apply can be found on our website at: http://www.fuelpovertyresearch.net/epec/, including suggested topics for applications. Any enquiries should be directed to our Executive Officer for EPEC, Dr. Naomi Brown (naomi@fuelpovertyresearch.net). The closing date for applications is 15th January 2021.  The call is open to fuel poverty researchers and practitioners anywhere in the world. We very much look forward to receiving your applications!

Energy ethics event, 9-13 November 2020

How can our use of energy help us create a better future for all? 

Please join Energy Ethics 2020, a virtual event taking place 9-13 November via Zoom. This event will bring together scholars, industry representatives, and members of the ERC-funded Energy Ethics team through online sessions scheduled throughout the week. 

This is what you can look forward to: 

Monday:                                   Welcome to Energy Ethics and Meet the Team 

Tuesday:                                   Professor Tobias Haller, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern  

Wednesday:                           International Energy Industry Panel 

Thursday:                                 Professor Hirokazu Miyazaki, Kay Davis Prof of Anthropology, Northwestern University 

Friday:                                       Energy Debate 

For details and to register to attend, please visit: https://energyethics.ac.uk/.