#30 Is Funding Technology Enough? Social Sciences and Humanities in the Energy Transition (with Prof. Chris Foulds)

Technologies are often spotlighted when examining different energy transition pathways. However, how we use and produce technology and energy plays a significant role. Profound changes are needed to avoid dangerous climate change, and can only be achieved through public support for relevant policies. Therefore, implementing energy policies requires knowledge of citizens' lifestyles and behaviors. That's where Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) steps in.

To teach us more about the importance of SSH in the energy transition, our guest this week is Chris Foulds, Professor at Anglia Ruskin University. Chris has been part of coordinating the energy-SSH platforms www.shapeenergy.eu and www.energy-shifts.eu, which has evolved into the SSH Centre of Excellence on climate, energy and mobility research for the EC.

Papers mentioned in the episode:

• EC SSH monitoring reports: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/4f198f8e-4599-11eb-b59f-01aa75ed71a1
• Overland and Sovacool, 2020, The misallocation of climate research funding, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629619309119
• Royston & Foulds, 2021, The  making of energy evidence: How exclusions of Social Sciences and  Humanities are reproduced (and what researchers can do about it), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621001778
• Foulds at al. 2022, An agenda for future Social Sciences and Humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 priority research questions https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01243-z
• Silvast & Foulds 2022, Sociology of Interdisciplinarity - The Dynamics of Energy Research, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88455-0