The Energy and Society research group is an interdisciplinary group at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Agder. We bring together researchers from various social sciences who are interested in understanding how society manages the transition to new energy solutions.
Our aim is to promote collaboration across disciplines in energy research, both with Norwegian and international research networks, and with partners in society and industry.
We research the development towards more renewable energy and green industry at all levels of society. Increased production and storage of renewable energy is important both to address climate challenges and to create growth and jobs. At the same time, we see that the green shift creates many challenges - environmental, economic, political and cultural - which lead to conflicts and concerns. For technology and renewable energy to contribute to a better future, we need to better understand these challenges.
The green shift affects policy, planning and governance at all levels. Energy security and robust systems are also important topics in our research. We need to understand the complexity of energy security, both physical and digital, and develop good decision-making systems, especially in crisis situations.
Social science can contribute to developing fair, secure, sustainable and democratic solutions for future energy systems.
Sustainable and fair energy solutions are not just about technology and economics. They are also about social and cultural understandings, democratic legitimacy, security and fair distribution. Our research group works to understand the social and political factors behind conflicts over new technology, and to create knowledge that can provide new perspectives.
The research group has several ongoing projects on renewable energy, batteries, digital transitions and energy security.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
Here you can find a list of ongoing research projects.
The research group is associated with the research centres CIEM and CEDIT.