Seminars

Using the Laws of Thermodynamics to inform social science research: An engineer’s perspective. Paul Gilbert

Last year, Paul Gilbert, from Manchester University Tyndall Centre, asked Elizabeth about how DEMAND was conceptualising energy. Elizabeth had no real idea how to reply. (more…)

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Back to normal? Demand in the aftermath of disruption. Heather Chappells. Incorporating space and time into energy research in the Southern United States. Conor Harrison

DEMAND Double Bill seminar from two DEMAND visitors: Heather’s talk focused on the relation between crisis and normality – in terms of energy demand.  She introduced a catalogue of questions about this relationship.   (more…)

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Practices and large social phenomena. Ted Schatzki

In brief, Ted's argument was this:  there is a tendency to equate a focus on social practices with a focus on the small scale, and with fine grained ethnographic research.   In contrast Ted argued that there is no reason why theories of practice should not provide compelling and persuasive accounts of ‘large’ scale social phenomena – including markets, forms of governance, and big…

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Research that matters: How to co-design research and co-produce knowledge for scientific and societal impact. Michael Stauffacher

Michael took us through some of the fundamentals of adding words to the beginning of disciplinary – multi, inter, trans – in order to then consider the ways in which forms of transdisciplinarity (meaning extending beyond disciplines to work with others outside of academia) and co-production of research can be achieved. (more…)

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Pet care practices and the practices of pets. Yolande Strengers

Yolande was originally intending to talk about ‘smart utopias’ but at the last moment changed her topic to pets.  She’d discovered that pets generate significant opportunities and occasions for energy consumption.  The range of pet-related gadgets is impressive: there are ipad games for pets, treadmills for dogs, and special air-conditioned kennels.  (more…)

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