Sociotechnical agendas: Reviewing future directions for energy and climate research

TLDR

Science and technology studies have introduced a sociotechnical perspective that has been adopted across many disciplines. This study aims to determine which STS concepts or tools best illuminate energy‑related social science, to review prominent themes, and to pinpoint research gaps and future directions. The authors analyze 262 energy‑social‑science articles from 2009–2019 and then co‑create future research agendas with sixteen leading scholars. The co‑created synthesis identifies three main sociotechnical areas—systems, policy, and expertise & publics—encompassing 15 topics and 39 subareas, and five future themes—systemic change, embedded agency, justice/power/identity, imaginaries/discourses, and public engagement—alongside a call for greater pluralism, stronger designs, theoretical triangulation, and transdisciplinary work.

Abstract

The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a “sociotechnical” perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current research gaps and directions for the future. To do so, the study builds on a companion project, a systematic analysis of 262 articles published from 2009 to mid-2019 that categorized and reviewed sociotechnical perspectives in energy social science. It identifies future research directions by employing the method of “co-creation” based on the reflections of sixteen prominent researchers in the field in late 2019 and early 2020. Drawing from this co-created synthesis, this study first identifies three main areas of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research (sociotechnical systems, policy, and expertise and publics) with 15 topics and 39 subareas. The study then identifies five main themes for the future development of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research: conditions of systematic change; embedded agency; justice, power, identity and politics; imaginaries and discourses; and public engagement and governance. It also points to the recognized need for pluralism and parallax: for research to show greater attention to demographic and geographical diversity; to stronger research designs; to greater theoretical triangulation; and to more transdisciplinary approaches.