Transdisciplinary energy research – Reflecting the context

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Abstract

Social science has a difficult position in energy research. In the past, social science was often misused to increase public acceptance of technological research achievements. The authentic role of social science, making contributions to how the energy system should be institutionalized, guided, and fitted in social and environmental contexts, has been dominated by one voice, that of mainstream economics. If social science wants to assume a broader more independent role, the many voices of social science have to position themselves such that governments, firms, social groups and individuals are able to profit from its various messages. This positioning requires a certain amount of self-reflection. In this paper, instead of theorizing, four research endeavors I have been involved in are set in their context. To this end I use a concept of transdisciplinarity proposed by Max-Neef. My hope is that authors of this new journal will join me in attempting to place their contributions in the context of a larger picture, so that their contributions can have an impact in guiding energy systems in constructive directions.

Introduction

I welcome the launch of this new journal and I wish it a long, productive life.

As much as energy is a central aspect for biological life, energy is central to the development of humankind. The fact that technology is an important means of harvesting and using physical energy has often been misinterpreted to view problems surrounding energy supply and consumption as primarily technological problems and – as a consequence of this misunderstanding – has mistakenly led energy research to be overwhelmingly technological research. The new journal before you is launched to correct this unfortunate imbalance [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Although the tools for harvesting and using energy are technical devices, most problems we have with society's physical energy metabolism are non-technological problems. Our energy problems have less to do with technical knowhow than the knowledge of why, where, how much and for whom the energy should and should not flow. In particular, we lack institutional, societal and political knowhow. Most of all we lack enough interest in and knowledge of the big picture including the interactions of manmade energy systems with the environment.

The interface between natural/technical science and the rest of society is more straightforward than the interface between social science and society at large. In the technological sphere the direction of progress is usually obvious (faster is better, more efficient is better, etc.); in the social sphere, there is a multitude of factors to be considered, and social scientists have different priorities, schools of thought and opinions. The interface between social science and society is conflictual and seeing individual contributions as part of what science as a whole has to offer is, therefore, of particular importance.

Academic journals tend to promote specialization. In view of the incentives at work in academia, it is perhaps unrealistic to expect that this new journal will be different. But at least we can make an attempt. This article offers a practical suggestion on how authors publishing in this journal could present their work in its context, as part of the bigger picture.

Section snippets

Transdisciplinary research

One way of not losing sight of the big picture is to look at things from the point of view of more than one discipline. However, interdisciplinarity is no guarantee that the essential part of the problem – let alone of the overall picture – is addressed. The most crucial discipline may still be missing. In industry, including the user of the research, the one who has posed the questions that had concerned him or her all along, is standard and usually ensures a sufficiently complete research

Example I: Climate change and hydropower

Recently, I was involved in a rather large research undertaking, which had as its aim to elucidate the influence of climate change on hydropower production in Switzerland. The results were published (in German) in a special issue of Wasser Energie Luft, a journal well known to professionals in Swiss electric utilities and in relevant departments of government [10]. Collaborating scientists included climate scientists, hydrologists and glaciologists. In addition, data from modified run-off water

Conclusion and a suggestion for the new journal

In our recent book [7] we postulated that social science, by providing institutional, societal and political innovations, had as much to contribute to the development of a sustainable energy system as technology and natural science. We stressed and illustrated that both sides of science, the “Two Cultures”, were needed – wherever possible, working collaboratively. Of course, this is more easily said than done. Even in the project that led to writing the book we found this to be a tough

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