The UK Government’s public dialogue body Sciencewise was the subject of 3S member Helen Pallett‘s PhD research into organisational learning from and about public participation. Helen’s PhD thesis is open access and available to download here, and she has also produced a short report on her findings and recommendations which is now available on the…
A newly-published research briefing discusses how we can unleash the transformative power of grassroots innovations, looking in particular at community currencies. Unleashing Grassroots Innovations: A Quest For Community Currency Growth How can grassroots innovations grow, achieve their potential, and increase their influence? Gill Seyfang presents findings of a 3-year quest to learn about diffusing community currencies.…
On July 14th 2015 Jason Chilvers, Helen Pallett and Tom Hargreaves published a scoping note entitled ‘Rethinking energy participation as relational and systemic’. As part of a the Systemic participation and decision-making in UK energy transitions UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) project the note develops new perspectives on energy participation and societal engagement with energy systems. It creates…
‘What’s the meaning of smart? A study of smart grids’ is a report from a multidisciplinary study conducted by Nigel Hargreaves, Jason Chilvers and Tom Hargreaves. The report contends that to be smart, electricity grids have to not only be consistent with current infrastructures and other technologies in a technical sense, but also encourage engagement and adoption by end-users. A…
The final report from the ‘Making Energy Publics’ workshop hosted by the 3S group last year is released today. The workshop brought together leading voices from Science and Technology Studies, Human Geography and Sociology to discuss the future of academic research into and engagement with the making of energy publics. The central argument of the…
This report comes from a Transition Pathways to a Low Carbon Economy workshop which took place 21-22 March 2012. The workshop aimed to develop a more comprehensive system-wide exploration of the diverse forms and sites of participation in low carbon energy transitions, and to build on this broader conception of participation to explore actor dynamics, inclusion…
Thursday 26 October 2010, SPRU, University of Sussex The fourth workshop in the ESRC seminar series Critical Perspectives on Public Engagement in Science and Environmental Risk explored both formal and informal forms of public engagement and participation in the context of energy systems and transitions to sustainability. The energy system and the need to build more…
Thursday 10 June 2010, University of East Anglia The third workshop of the ESRC seminar series Critical Perspectives on Public Engagement in Science and Environmental Risk explored the topic of emerging forms of public engagement and participation in the context of geologic and flood hazards. The management of natural hazards has traditionally been dominated by…
Institute of Hazard and Risk Research, Durham University Tuesday 15 December 2009 The second workshop of the ESRC seminar series Critical Perspectives on Public Engagement in Science and Environmental Risk explored the incipient institutionalisation of public engagement and deliberation. Contemporary science policy has taken a distinct ‘deliberative turn’. Across a range of domains – biotechnology,…
Friday 24 April 2009, University of Birmingham The opening mini-conference of the ESRC seminar series ‘Critical perspectives on public engagement in science and environmental risk’ explores the theoretical, methodological, empirical and practical dimensions of the emerging critical research agenda on participation in science and the environment. The morning session includes agenda setting presentations from leading…
3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) Research Group 