A blog post by 3S PhD student Sara Skarp reflecting on her trips to several academic conferences this summer. “Climate change is a lost battle”, human ecologist Alf Hornborg said. The people in the audience at the Degrowth conference seemed shocked, but I suspect that he was echoing secret fears. Is this what we are…
Remaking Participation, a book edited by 3S Chair Jason Chilvers and Matthew Kearnes (UNSW, Sydney), has received the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) 2018 Amsterdamska Award. The award, in honour of science and technology studies (STS) scholar Olga Amsterdamska, is made for a “significant creative collaboration in an edited book or special issue…
Tom Hargreaves’ new book ‘Smart Homes and Their Users’ is now published by SpringerBriefs in Human-Computer Interaction. The book, co-authored with Charlie Wilson, explores systematically – for the first time – the users and use of smart home technologies as a critical component to technology-led design and development.
A team of academics from the Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group at UEA made waves last week with a pioneering premiere performance of Theoretical Blind Date – the water edition. The social science-based, water-themed dating game show was a standout contribution to the ‘Water for our People and Planet’ research symposium of the…
3S members Jason Chilvers and Helen Pallett are advertising two Calls for Papers for forthcoming conferences around the topic of experiments in participation, building on the work they have undertaken in the Remaking Energy Participation UKERC project.
3S PhD student and researcher Elizabeth Errington has produced a brilliant new series of podcasts about energy, which will be of interest to energy researchers, policy-makers and practitioners alike. They cover a range of issues including justice, gender and behaviour change. This is was Liz has to say about the new series: “Affordable energy is…
3S researchers Jason Chilvers, Helen Pallett and Tom Hargreaves have today launched an important policy briefing calling for a new approach to public engagement with energy. The UK Energy Research Centre briefing – entitled ‘Public engagement with energy: broadening evidence, policy and practice’ – translates findings from our Remaking Energy Participation project to policy-makers…
On the 20th and 21st September, a Social Sustainability Summit organised by the 3S Research Group at the Enterprise Centre, UEA, will bring together a select group of leading thinkers and practitioners in sustainability, innovation, and public engagement from across different sectors to co-produce a set of guiding principles for transforming social engagement with sustainability.…
Leading sustainability experts join forces with 3S academics to address the sustainability debate. Join the conversation now by posting your own questions to the debate panellists!
A leading 3S academic at the University of East Anglia has been recognised for her exceptional teaching in sustainability, and has been named a National Teaching Fellow by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) today. Dr Gill Seyfang in UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences receives the prestigious title, which is the highest individual recognition for excellence in…
We’re proud to announce that our first pedagogical paper on 3S’s award-winning teaching method Theoretical Theatre, has been published in the Journal of Contemporary European Research, Vol 13 (3) 2017. Our teaching team in 3S has pioneered this exciting and effective teaching innovation, which is catching on across the country and the world. This…
Research on local organic food systems by 3S’s Dr Gill Seyfang (Reader in Sustainable Consumption) is a ‘Classic Paper’ in the field of Sustainable Development. Dr Seyfang’s work is the 5th most-highly cited paper on Sustainable Development that was published in 2006. This is according to Google Scholar, whose ‘Classic Papers’ highlight the ten most-cited…
A new report has just been released as part of the UK Energy Research Centre project Remaking Energy Participation, which is being led by the 3S research group. This report was put together by 3S faculty members Helen Pallett, Jason Chilvers and Tom Hargreaves, and reports on a systematic mapping of public participation in UK…
The 3S research group are launching our seven key insights resulting from our work on societal engagement with sustainability over the last five years. We believe these insights will help to transform social engagement with sustainability. Whether you see yourself as a policy-maker, an activist, a researcher, an innovator, a practitioner, a community organiser, an…
We are very proud to be organising the ENV Social Science Seminar series for 2017 with these upcoming talks – all welcome. ENV Social Science Seminar Series 2017 All seminars run on Wednesdays from 4-5.30pm Date Room Speaker name Organisation Talk title 01/02/17 TPSC 2.03 Phil Grunewald University of Oxford 8 ways of being flexible:…
The 3rd seminar in the ‘Nuclear futures: re-making sociotechnical research agendas’ interdisciplinary seminar series will be held at UEA on 9th-10th January 2017. Its title is ‘Publics and participation in radioactive waste management’.
ENV Social Science Seminar Solidarity Economies: Geographies of social, solidarity and antagonistic economies – Peter North Wednesday 7th December 2016 TPSC 2.03 4.00 – 5.30pm This seminar addresses grassroots attempts to build socially inclusive and sustainable economies through what are variously called diverse or community economies. It distinguishes between social entrepreneurship, using business skills to…
Funding is now available for full or part-time +3 (PhD) or 1+3 (Masters and PhD) PhD studentships in the 3S research group as part of the South-East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) Doctoral Training Partnership. If you’re interested in applying for a PhD (whether +3 or 1+3) please contact either Dr Tom Hargreaves (tom.hargreaves@uea.ac.uk) or…
Exciting PhD Opportunity in 3S
3S members Gill Seyfang and Helen Pallett took to the stage recently for UEA’s annual Learning and Teaching Day (5th May 2016), to demonstrate Comedy in the Classroom, an exciting new teaching method which is growing and catching on across UEA and further afield. In an interdisciplinary School of Environmental Sciences, students who are more…
Members of the 3S group have organised panel sessions at three different European conferences over the summer of 2016 on the topic of relational and systemic approaches to public participation in science, innovation and sustainability transitions. These panels all draw on conceptual, methodological and empirical innovations in the 3S group from the recent Remaking Participation book and…
In a new 3S working paper Noel Longhurst and Jason Chilvers undertake a comparative analysis of twelve diverse visions of UK energy transitions. The paper draws on research undertaken as part of the EPSRC-funded Realising Transition Pathways (RTP) project. Within this project the role of the 3S team has been to develop further insights into…
Comedy in the classroom – our award-winning innovative teaching in 3S – is leading the way at UEA right now. We made the front page of UEA’s quarterly Learning Highlights newsletter, which showcases exciting new developments and shares best practice. You can read more about it here, as Gill Seyfang’s feature explains the whys and wherefores…
See the call for papers below for a session at the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers’ Annual Conference in August 2016, organised by 3S members Jason Chilvers and Helen Pallett. Relational geographies of participation Organised by Jason Chilvers and Helen Pallett (3S Research Group, University of East Anglia, UK) For geographers…
See the call for papers below for a closed session proposed by 3S members Jason Chilvers and Helen Pallett for the forthcoming 4S/EASST conference in Barcelona. 4S/EASST Conference Session, Barcelona, August 31 – September 3, 2016 Ecologies of participation: Thinking systemically about science and technology by other means Organised by Jason Chilvers and Helen Pallett…
In a new open access paper in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning Jason Chilvers and Noel Longhurst set out a new framework that reconceives public and civil society engagement in energy transitions as co-produced, relational and emergent. The paper speaks to the urgent challenge of transitioning to sustainable low carbon energy systems and debates…
A new 3S Working Paper by Jason Chilvers and Noel Longhurst develops a novel approach to understanding and intervening in sociotechnical system transitions, in domains such as energy and sustainability. The approach builds a relational and co-productionist understanding of system change – grounded theories from science and technology studies (STS) and wider social theory –…
Award-winning teaching led by 3S members in ENV is the centrepiece of a new website ComedyInTheClassroom.org which raises UEA’s profile as an exemplar of creative and innovative teaching. Dr Gill Seyfang created the website to showcase an exciting new teaching method which has the potential to transform teaching in higher education. Comedy in the Classroom…
As part of the launch activities for their new Remaking Participation book Jason Chilvers of 3S and Matthew Kearnes are hosting two panel discussion sessions at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting in Denver on Saturday 14th November. The sessions will feature presentations from authors who have written chapters for the…
3S Chair Jason Chilvers’ new book Remaking Participation: Science, Environment and Emergent Publics is published this week by Routledge. The volume, co-edited with Dr Matthew Kearnes (School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales, Australia), develops ambitious new theoretical perspectives on public participation with science, technology and the environment and offers important practical…
We are recruiting for a lecturer to join the 3S research group and contribute to our growing and vibrant research and teaching. The University of East Anglia invites applications for a Lectureship in the Human Geography of the Environment in the School of Environmental Sciences. The successful candidate will have a developing international research record in…
ESRC (2014) Identifies the degree to which the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees (RFCCs) provide a collaborative approach to flood and coastal management at local level through the involvement of local actors.
UEA is now accepting applications for its new BA Geography degree based in the School of Environmental Sciences, which is being led by 3S faculty members. The degree complements our existing BSc Geography, and this new BA offers a broader range of human geography training, drawing on the world-leading expertise of 3S members. Dr Gill…
One of our 3S members, Tina Blaber-Wegg, has been working across the schools of Environmental Sciences and International Development at the UEA on a free online course on Environmental Justice. This has certainly proved popular! The course, available on the Future Learn platform (www.futurelearn.com) has in excess of 5,000 registered students and is in week…
The quest for sustainability’s holy grail will be the subject of a keynote presentation by Gill Seyfang (3S, UEA) at the European Society for Ecological Economics 2015 conference. Her challenge is to find the key to unleashing the transformative potential of grassroots innovations, such as sustainable money, food, energy, housing, transport and food systems, whose…
News about our exciting and innovative teaching methods in 3S is spreading far and wide! A new blogpost by Viviane Gravey, a PhD student in the School of Environmental Sciences here at UEA, discusses how Theoretical Theatre methods have been applied to teaching theories of power in relation to Environmental politics, and European Union studies in…
3S is delighted to welcome Freja Friis as a visiting PhD research scholar from March to May 2015. Freja is completing her PhD at the Danish Building Research Institute, a part of Aalborg University in Copenhagen, with Kirsten Gram-Hanssen as her supervisor. Freja’s PhD is a sociological study about how to integrate smart grid technologies…
Community energy is growing and making a difference. All around the country, more and more people are getting involved in projects that develop sustainable energy in their communities, and researchers in 3S(Science, Society and Sustainability Research Group) in ENV have been studying the potential and development of this emerging sector. Through awareness-raising discussion groups, renewable energy co-operatives, and…
3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) Research Group 