4 year, full-time PhD position in New social collectives in a smart and sustainable energy system

Linkoping University, Department of Thematic Studies: Technology and Social Change

Application Deadline: 7 December 2020

Linkoping University (Sweden) has advertised a fully funded 4 year PhD position in New social collectives in a smart and sustainable energy system.

Research and education at Linkoping University, deals with how technology is developed and used in social contexts, as well as how technological change helps shape and is shaped by cultural, political and economic processes in society. The position is part of the research group ‘STRIPE – Socio-technical research of infrastructures, politics and the environment.

The PhD project will study the emergence of new social collectives in an energy system under transformation. New technologies for energy generation and storage, in combination with digitalization processes and broader socio-cultural changes, create new conditions for social collaboration. Examples are local energy communities, energy cooperatives, groups of households organized by so-called aggregators or new social relations through peer-to-peer trading. An aim of the thesis will be to study the emergence of these new energy collectives and analyze their potential for a sustainable energy transition. Research will be based on qualitative social science methods and comprise conducting and analyzing interviews, collecting and analyzing documents as well as writing scientific articles as part of the thesis.

Relevant educational backgrounds for the announced position include sociology, human geography, urban and regional planning, policy studies or other social science and interdisciplinary programmes.

See here for more information and application.

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