PhD Studentship - Everyday Energy Futures: Towards just and people-centred Net Zero transitions (HARGREAVEST_U26SCI)

Project supervisor - Dr Tom Hargreaves

Tackling climate change and meeting Net Zero targets will demand substantial changes to people’s everyday lives. Many different visions of Net Zero energy futures have been generated by governments, businesses and NGOs, but whilst all agree that substantial and rapid changes will be necessary, these visions typically focus narrowly on either the new technologies these futures will involve such as EVs, solar panels, heat pumps, or on their economic impacts such as the new ‘green jobs’ they may create. There are significant gaps in knowledge around how Net Zero futures will impact on everyday lives, practices and social relations. In response, new approaches are developing more holistic, people-centred and place-based understandings. This work examines the lived experience of Net Zero transitions, considering how changes to one area of life will impact on others, how to realise inclusive and just transitions that work for marginalised and vulnerable groups, and how these processes will play out differently in different communities and amidst existing sets of social relations. 

This PhD will advance this work by developing and evaluating a set of diverse, people-centred Net Zero energy futures. The workplan will be tailored to the students’ interests, but could involve: i) reviewing, analysing and mapping existing visions of Net Zero energy futures; ii) co-designing a series of diverse people-centred futures with both experts and diverse citizens; iii) evaluating these visions with citizens and specialists; and iv) articulating the study’s contributions for research, policy and society.

The PhD will be based in the Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) research group in the School of Environmental Science and will work closely alongside researchers from the UKRI-funded JED-AIs project on justice in domestic energy demand flexibility, and the UKERC Public Engagement Observatory. The position would suit excellent candidates with a social science or interdisciplinary environmental science background.  

Entry Requirements

Acceptable first degree - Human geography, Sociology, Design, Planning, Anthropology, Development Studies, History, Political Science.

The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1.

Mode of study: Full-time

Start date: 1^st October 2026

Funding

This PhD project is in a competition for a Faculty of Science funded studentship. Funding is available to UK applicants and comprises ‘home’ tuition fees and an annual stipend for 3 years.

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