News

Lucie Middlemiss and Mark Davis have won the Energy Research & Social Science Best Paper Award.

The University of Leeds pair won the award for “Developing a Relational Approach to Energy Demand: A Methodological and Conceptual Guide”, one of the outputs from our Whole Person, Whole Place: Net Zero Neighbourhoods (WPWP) project. The research investigates how social relations influence energy demand, as part of a project that worked with local authorities and communities to find new ways of renovating and retrofitting homes for a low carbon future.

Lucie Middlemiss, Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Leeds, said:

“We are really delighted with this award, which Mark and I wrote at my kitchen table, with the input of a team of fabulous interdisciplinary scholars.

“The great thing about this paper is that it captures our overall approach to researching energy in a relational way, bringing together expert social scientists at Leeds and beyond to produce research which is more than the sum of the parts.

“The paper is designed to invite in other researchers to apply our methodology in the energy social sciences and beyond, and we’ve already had some great engagement with it. We look forward to continuing to grow the academic community in this space in the coming years.”

Mark Davis, Professor of Economic Sociology, said:

“We are thrilled to have received the Best Paper Award from Energy Research & Social Science, a journal and editorial team that we hold in the highest esteem and that represent the very best in interdisciplinary work for social scientists engaged in debates about energy, climate and sustainability.

“The paper was a labour of love, intending to set out what relational sociology can offer energy social science and demonstrating a methodology and set of concepts for others to use in their research.

“We’ve had lots of positive feedback from academic colleagues, and it’s been heartening to see the paper cited around the world and by government bodies here in the UK. We hope the Award will encourage more to have a read and find it useful.”

The paper was co-authored alongside other members of the Whole Person, Whole Place team: Anne Owen, Ruth Bookbinder, Donal Brown, Iain Cairns, Giulia Mininni, Marie Claire Brisbois, Matthew Hannon, and Steve Hall.