Overview of course
Lecturer: Claire Le Renard, PhD
Under the banner of "energy transition", energy-related stakes and issues stand high on the media and public policy agenda. But when it comes to the implementation of this transition, many debates and controversies arise. Energy issues engage a wealth of different actors and sectors, far beyond the technical developments. In the words of a student (March 2019), “people today literally inhabit energy systems”.
Since the spring of 2018, when a first version of this syllabus was written, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased by more than 2 ppm per year. The winter 2018-2019 was a time of debate about fuel taxation, (car) mobility, infrastructures, and climate change mitigation policies in France, triggered by a working-class mobilisation making themselves visible with their yellow safety vests. The COVID-19 crisis has shaken economies, but also the realm of the possible, and it opens up so many questions that much of the existing literature might seem outdated.
Yet the rationale behind this course affirms that state-of-the-art research in sociology and political science can provide valuable insights to understand ongoing change processes. We will engage with relationships between science, technology, society and policies in the energy and environment sector. We will support our understanding of their complex interplay with theories accounting for inertia or change, explaining dynamics, resting on case studies in the energy sector, in several countries and time periods.
This course is based on inputs from Science and Technology Studies (STS), a branch of sociology and history devoted to the study of science and technology issues, as well as insights from the sociology of opinion, and public policy analysis focusing on energy issues. This seminar has been enriched with students’ questions about the process of socio-technical change, engaging with policy and society. How much can past or recent insights about inertia and change inform us about what is currently going on?
The seminar is participatory and interactive, and students are welcome to share their insights and thoughts. Some debates will take place in the class. The outline of the course may be adjusted to deal with the students’ main concerns. The course may include collective enquiries inspired by recent or ongoing events.
- Responsable: Le Renard Claire
- Responsable: Wanlin Nicolas