Telling Tales of Energy Research

Climate change is a challenge that must be tackled with urgency.

Whilst energy research in the social sciences has offered important insights, academic models reward the usage of buzzwords and concepts that make it hard to understand by those not in the domain.

This is a problem that exists in many domains of academic work, but is particularly troublesome in this context.

Those with the power to enact change based on energy research in the social sciences, like policymakers and industry, exist outside of the domain.

As the problems of climate change increase, it becomes more important that researchers become more creative in telling tales of energy research, and in how they engage other audiences.

This project builds on the already-existing traction of storytelling in the social sciences, and was formed from the desire to be more playful in how we communicate the insights of research to audiences outside of academia.

Whilst we – the Consortium – have experimented with one method of doing this, making use of fairy tale characters as metaphors to explain the policy challenges of renewable energy (as mermaids), car travel (as vampires) and plastic pollution (as witches), we hope this project inspires others to try different forms too.

Explore our website to find information about our upcoming workshop, and further details about the consortium.