Contracting knowledge: the organizational limits to interdisciplinary energy efficiency research and development in the US and the UK

Lutzenhiser, L and Shove, Elizabeth (1999) Contracting knowledge: the organizational limits to interdisciplinary energy efficiency research and development in the US and the UK. Energy Policy, 27 (4). pp. 217-227. ISSN 0301-4215

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Abstract

Comparison of the organization and management of government funded energy efficiency research and development in the United States and the United Kingdom reveals a number of common features as well as some important differences. The UK pattern is one of centralized agenda-setting and competition in which rival research contractors bid for small, pre-determined, "bite-sized" pieces of work. By contrast, the US approach involves complex negotiations between federal energy and environmental policy agencies and semi-entrepreneurial national laboratories. How do these differing research environments influence the knowledge we have of energy efficiency? How do these organizational features affect the shaping of research agendas, the definition of research problems and the management and dissemination of resulting expertise? More specifically, what consequences do these arrangements have for the conduct of needed social science studies within this conventionally technical field? In exploring these questions, the paper identifies a variety of ways in which opportunities for inter-disciplinarity are inadvertently structured by the mechanics of research management. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Energy Policy
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/libraryofcongress/hm
Subjects:
?? ENERGY R&DSOCIAL SCIENCESORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTSSOCIOLOGYENERGY(ALL)MANAGEMENT, MONITORING, POLICY AND LAWHM SOCIOLOGY ??
ID Code:
52989
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
15 Mar 2012 09:52
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
19 Sep 2023 00:48