Work in the Centre takes place across three themes:
Knowing Energy (Lead: Hannah Knox)
The Knowing Energy theme explores the cultural, scientific and historical ways in which energy is known, exploring the interplay between energy, knowledge and social life. It asks how energy has come to be understood in different ways both today and in the past. What diverse representations and embodiments of energy exist in different places and different communities of practice, and what are the effects of these understandings on how energy is mobilised and used? What role does energy itself play in framing its representation? And how are representations and knowledges of energy shifting in the energy transition? The theme also explores cultural conflict asking how tensions between different cultures of energy are being fought out and negotiated in practice. Finally, it also asks about the role of not-knowing, absence and invisibility in the politics of energy and place.
Digitalisation and Energy (Lead: Yawei Zhao)
The Digitalisation and Energy theme (Lead: Zhao) examines how digital technologies shape energy systems and transitions, focusing on the governance, policy, and social dimensions of digital energy tools such as smart grids and smart meters, the influence of the digital economy on energy supply and demand across different scales, and the use of digital methods to advance social science energy research.
Energy and Participation (Lead: Rob Bellamy)
The Energy and Participation theme focuses on societal engagement with energy systems change, with a particular interest in exploring approaches that map the diverse, ongoing, already existing settings through which society engages with, values, imagines, and acts on energy system changes in different ways.
Urban Energy Transformations Hub 