Graduate Student, Geography
PhD Researcher
Ustinov College
Thesis Title: Solar Cities: embedding photovoltaics
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Harriet Bulkeley
Karen Bickerstaff |
About
Comparative research is needed to understand how different local constellations impact upon the implementation of renewable energy technologies.
My research aims to capture the social and technical factors that are shaping the development of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies in European cities. The title of this project points towards three main areas of interest: photovoltaic technology, which enables the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity; processes of ‘socio-technical’ embedding, whereby new technologies become firmly integrated into the urban environment; and European cities, as geographical spaces within which technological change takes place. At present, research on photovoltaics is limited in scope, focusing mostly on market-mediated and consumer-led technological diffusion processes. This project aims to challenge such rather partial accounts by drawing on more sophisticated conceptualisations of the relationship between society and technology. A ‘socio-technical’ reading of technological change is used to cast PV uptake as a complex and dynamic process of ‘socio-technical’ change and field research is taking place in three European cities (Barcelona, London and Paris).
