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Abstract
Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)—including critical reflections on what changing a society’s relation to energy (efficiency) even means—have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policymakers, funders, and other decision-makers when driving research agendas, and (ii) the setting of SSH-focused research agendas has not historically embedded inclusive and deliberative processes. The aim of this paper is to address these gaps through the production of a research agenda outlining future SSH research priorities for energy efficiency. A Horizon Scanning exercise was run, which sought to identify 100 priority SSH questions for energy efficiency research. This exercise included 152 researchers with prior SSH expertise on energy efficiency, who together spanned 62 (sub-)disciplines of SSH, 23 countries, and a full range of career stages. The resultant questions were inductively clustered into seven themes as follows: (1) Citizenship, engagement and knowledge exchange in relation to energy efficiency; (2) Energy efficiency in relation to equity, justice, poverty and vulnerability; (3) Energy efficiency in relation to everyday life and practices of energy consumption and production; (4) Framing, defining and measuring energy efficiency; (5) Governance, policy and political issues around energy efficiency; (6) Roles of economic systems, supply chains and financial mechanisms in improving energy efficiency; and (7) The interactions, unintended consequences and rebound effects of energy efficiency interventions. Given the consistent centrality of energy efficiency in policy programmes, this paper highlights that well-developed SSH approaches are ready to be mobilised to contribute to the development, and/or to understand the implications, of energy efficiency measures and governance solutions. Implicitly, it also emphasises the heterogeneity of SSH policy evidence that can be produced. The agenda will be of use for both (1) those new to the energy-SSH field (including policyworkers), for learnings on the capabilities and capacities of energy-SSH, and (2) established energy-SSH researchers, for insights on the collectively held futures of energy-SSH research.
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1 Anglia Ruskin University, Global Sustainability Institute, Cambridge, UK (GRID:grid.5115.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2299 5510)
2 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Centre for Technology and Society, Trondheim, Norway (GRID:grid.5947.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 1516 2393)
3 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Athens, Greece (GRID:grid.5216.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2155 0800)
4 Durham University, Department of Anthropology, and Durham Energy Institute, Durham, UK (GRID:grid.8250.f) (ISNI:0000 0000 8700 0572)
5 Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia (GRID:grid.473635.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2152 3052)
6 Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj, Department of Political Sciences, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (GRID:grid.7399.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 1397)
7 Nottingham Trent University, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, Nottingham, UK (GRID:grid.12361.37) (ISNI:0000 0001 0727 0669)
8 Salt River Project Integrated System Planning & Support, Tempe, USA (GRID:grid.12361.37)
9 Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, Unit H1 Knowledge for Policy: Concepts and Methods, European Commission, Ispra, Italy (GRID:grid.434554.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 1758 4137)
10 University College Cork, School of Engineering and Architecture, and Environmental Research Institute, Cork, Ireland (GRID:grid.7872.a) (ISNI:0000000123318773)
11 Ghent University, Department of Public Governance and Management, Ghent, Belgium (GRID:grid.5342.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2069 7798)
12 Oeko-Institut e.V., Sustainable Products and Material Flows Division, Darmstadt, Germany (GRID:grid.426071.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2154 8225)
13 Aalborg University Copenhagen, Department of the Built Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark (GRID:grid.5117.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 0742 471X)
14 Électricité de France (EDF), Research Group on Energy, Technology and Society, Paris, France (GRID:grid.410455.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 2298 5443)
15 University of Helsinki, Centre for Consumer Society Research, Helsinki, Finland (GRID:grid.7737.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 0410 2071)
16 Independent Researcher, Sesto Calende, Italy (GRID:grid.7737.4)
17 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Public Policies and Social Changes, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Sofia, Bulgaria (GRID:grid.410344.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2097 3094)
18 Iscte—Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, Lisbon, Portugal (GRID:grid.45349.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2220 8863)
19 University of Tartu, Institute of Social Studies, Tartu, Estonia (GRID:grid.10939.32) (ISNI:0000 0001 0943 7661)
20 Institute for Ecological Economy Research, Ecological Economics and Environmental Policy, Berlin, Germany (GRID:grid.434993.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 0632 0590)
21 Politecnico di Torino, Urban & Regional Inter-university Department, Turin, Italy (GRID:grid.4800.c) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0343)
22 DuneWorks, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.4800.c)
23 Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Technology Assessment, Vienna, Austria (GRID:grid.4299.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2169 3852)
24 Imperial College London, Centre for Environmental Policy, London, UK (GRID:grid.7445.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2113 8111); Cardiff University, School of Architecture, Cardiff, UK (GRID:grid.5600.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 0807 5670)
25 Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies—Technology and Social Change, Linköping, Sweden (GRID:grid.5640.7) (ISNI:0000 0001 2162 9922)
26 University of Geneva, Department of Sociology, Geneva, Switzerland (GRID:grid.8591.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 2322 4988)
27 Technical University of Denmark, Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark (GRID:grid.5170.3) (ISNI:0000 0001 2181 8870)
28 CICERO—Center for International Climate Research, Oslo, Norway (GRID:grid.424033.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 0610 4636)
29 Focus Association for Sustainable Development, Ljubljana, Slovenia (GRID:grid.424033.2)