The paper is available open access via this link: doi.org/10.5871/jba/...

For more on the work of the Leeds Relational Energy Group, visit: relationalenergy.leeds.ac.uk

It does so in the context of The Labour Party’s 2024 “Change” Manifesto and its aim to ‘Make Britain a clean energy superpower’. We argue this energy transition must result in fairer, greener and more inclusive societies, and point to opportunities for and risks to delivering on that ambition.

Drawing on our empirical work from across the Leeds Relational Energy Group (LREG), this co-authored paper explores this challenge through conceptual frameworks of social change as offered by Mariana Mazzucato and Torsten Bell.

✍🏻 NEW PAPER ✍🏻

Should we govern the energy transition through bold ‘Mission Led’ government or pragmatic ‘Radical Incrementalism’?

This question frames our latest paper, published by @britishacademy.bsky.social in a collection using SHAPE disciplines to improve governance for rapid decarbonisation.

It meant a lot to me that the room was filled with colleagues from across campus and beyond, with both current and former students, and with my family and friends.

Thanks also to those who have sent such generous emails on the lecture itself, I’m excited to see where new collaborations may lead!

Yeah so, last Thursday… this happened!

A sincere and very heartfelt ‘thank you’ to everyone who made the time to come along to my inaugural professorial lecture @universityofleeds.bsky.social, entitled:

“If liquid modern life is rubbish, what should we do about it? Sociological fragments”

We show how energy policy can embrace a relational approach that leverages sociological insight to reduce the frictions and potential exit points for customers on the retrofit journey, building on established ‘strong ties’ to people and place to foster trust in unfamiliar contexts and interactions.

We frame the challenge around an idealised retrofit customer journey, noting the amount of “relational work” needed at each stage - and how UK energy policy and most finance options are still locked into a problematic ‘rational actor’ mindset.

Weekend Goals…

If you want to know more about Zygmunt Bauman’s sociology, and how his biography shaped the kinds of questions he asked, then a good place to start is the ‘Introduction’ to “History & Politics: Selected Writings vol.II”, for which I was the lead editor:

www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

Perhaps the article I’m most proud of is ‘Hermeneutics contra Fundamentalism: Zygmunt Bauman’s method for thinking in dark times’ (2020) on how, faced with a rise of populism, the need to resist the closing down of dialogue in a world of communication is our most urgent task: doi.org/10.1177/0725...

My work on local climate bonds and retrofit is driven by insights from sociological theory, in particular the work of Zygmunt Bauman.

I established the Bauman Institute @sspatleeds.bsky.social in 2010, writing and editing several books and articles on this vital approach to understanding our world

Elsewhere, I’ve done the theoretical work to interpret data from empirical projects on green finance innovations and energy efficiency interventions.

My latest book is Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance (2021, Bristol UP):

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/crowdfunding...

To find out more about this research agenda, which brings together insights from sociology, heterodox economics and environmental social science, check out our work at the Leeds Relational Energy Group (LREG):

relationalenergy.leeds.ac.uk

✍🏻 New Paper 📄

My first post to the bluesky community…

‘Towards a Relational Sociology of Retrofit’, published Online First today in Sociology:

doi.org/10.1177/0038...

#sociology #retrofit #energypolicy #netzero #trust #socialrelations