Research Overview

Profile

The core of my interest is about the politics of environmental technology. I want to understand the relationship between how we develop and use technology in response to environmental problems on one hand, and political processes at varying scales in society on the other.

I am a social scientist, with a background in engineering, innovation policy, innovation studies and science & technology studies (STS), and most recently cultural political economy. Much of my work is done in multi- and interdisciplinary collaborations, spanning social science, natural science, engineering and the humanities. I am a qualitative researcher, and favoured data sources include documents and interviews.

Published research

I have published on cleaner technology innovations in process industries and the organisational dynamics behind them, analysed through the theoretical lenses of the ‘company social constitution’, ‘environmental championing’ and ‘reification’/’black boxing’.

I have also built up a substantial body of work on carbon dioxide capture and storage technology (CCS), seeking to expand this strand of research beyond public perception related studies. Specific pieces of work has included analysing ‘lock-in‘ dynamics in relation to capture ready designs as well as biomass CCS, relating demonstration of CCS technology to notions including ‘social learning’, and explorations of CCS technology development to different ways of conceptualising and representing ‘learning’. I used historical technological analogues to explore uncertainties relating to CCS in a project funded by UK Energy Research Centre. I led a book project, resulting in an edited volume published by Routledge.

Current research

My current work applies cultural political economy to CCS and climate engineering, especially carbon removal. The NERC-funded project 'Assessing mitigation deterrence effects of greenhouse gas removal technologies' looked into the risks of such GGRs delaying or reducing mitigation efforts. See related blog post here. I have continued to study mitigation deterrence in a project funded by Swedish funder Formas, resulting in amongst other things being lead editor of a journal special issue with case studies of mitigation deterrence.

Teaching

I teach on modules across the second and third years of our undergraduate geography modules:

• Qualitative research methods (2nd year)
• Social science perspectives on technology and environment (3rd year)
• The politics of urban futures: Field course to Glasgow and Edinburgh (3rd year)

I also contribute to a postgrad geography module:

• Climate Change and Society