Transdisciplinary energy research – Reflecting the context
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
References (22)
- et al.
Redirecting attention to reducing building energy use: from if only to social potential
Energy Res Soc Sci
(2014) Reinventing rules for environmental risk governance in the energy sector
Energy Res Soc Sci
(2014)What are we doing here? Analyzing fifteen years of energy scholarship and proposing a social science research agenda
Energy Res Soc Sci
(2014)Individual and household interactions with energy systems: toward integrated understanding
Energy Res Soc Sci
(2014)Economics of energy big ideas for the non-economist
Energy Res Soc Sci
(2014)Foundations of Transdisciplinarity
Ecological Economics
(2005)- et al.
Impact of high-tech engineering research on energy consumption
Technological Forecasting and Social Change
(2002) Distribution of Energy Consumption and the 2000W/capita Target
Energy Policy
(2005)- et al.
On measuring energy poverty in Indian households
World Development
(2004)
Tackling long-term global energy problems – the contribution of social science
Cited by (81)
Science for sale? Why academic marketization is a problem and what sustainability research can do about it
2023, Environmental Innovation and Societal TransitionsPerspectives on how to conduct responsible anti-human trafficking research in operations and analytics
2023, European Journal of Operational ResearchDo intermediaries have blind spots? Mapping the activity lifecycle of an energy efficiency programme
2023, Energy Research and Social ScienceBehavioural insights for sustainable energy use
2022, Energy PolicyDesigning effective and acceptable policy mixes for energy transitions: Countering rebound effects in German industry
2022, Energy Research and Social Science