Framing the nexus between renewable energy and resource extraction

In this talk, I want to engage the audience in conversation about different lenses through which we might understand and research the material underpinnings of renewable energy technologies. Over the past decade, there has been a rising interest in assessing the interdependencies between raw material extraction and renewable energy transitions. A significant line of technical research in industrial ecology and life-cycle assessment has explored the energy and emissions implications of this interdependency. Some have argued on the basis of this analysis that renewable energy cannot sustain civilizations built on fossil fuels, while others call for greater attention to material recycling (circular economy) and resource governance. In the social sciences, researchers have examined energy transitions through a different set of lenses including power, justice, ethics, imagination and the socio-technical shaping of everyday life. To date, the application of social sciences to the nexus between renewable energy and material resource extraction has been limited. I seek to address this gap and explore possibilities for future interdisciplinary work on this nexus.

Format:

• 2 pm – Introduction
  
• 2.05 pm – Presentation by Associate Professor Sujatha Raman, Director of Research at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS)
  
• 2.35 pm – Audience Q&A
• 2.50 pm – Close

About the speaker

Sujatha Raman joined ANU in July 2018 as Director of Research at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS). Trained in science and technology studies (STS), she is exploring the contribution that science communication research and practice can make to science, technology and innovation in the public good. Before coming to Australia, Raman was Co-Director of Research at the Institute for Science and Society (ISS), University of Nottingham (UK). At ISS, she led the Leverhulme Trust Research Programme, “Making Science Public: Challenges and Opportunities” and social science projects on a number of multidisciplinary consortia funded by UK research councils. In 2014-15, Raman was Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University. Her interests in energy span research in global North and South settings exploring challenges around developing and promoting lignocellulosic biofuels, renewable energy transitions, and clean cookstoves and fuels.