Reconciling qualitative and quantitative storytelling in just energy decision making: A research design challenge contribution

In this research design challenge, we focus on the ‘how’ question of transdisciplinary study of energy systems and futures, taking into consideration the challenges of control. However, as Stirling (2014) reminds us, deterministic pictures of control can be problematic. Rather, our overarching aim here is to contribute to the emerging literature on energy research and social science by grounding it with contributions from three distinct perspectives (organization studies, political ecology and societal metabolism). We identify some opportunities for mending the gap between qualitative and quantitative approaches to energy research and suggest potential entry points to unpack energy decisions and their consequences, both expected and unexpected. We first start with a presentation of multiple epistemologies on energy and reflect on the multiplicity of knowledge. Then we move on to reflect on different ways of approaching energy questions including a specific focus on embracing the inherent complexity in societally relevant energy research. In the penultimate section, we turn to questions of power, scale and space. We conclude with some bottlenecks and opportunities for a truly transdisciplinary energy research that is societally relevant, just, equitable, sustainable and useful at once.QC 20180411