Energy Ethics 2026: Infrastructures of Energy

We invite you to save the date for Energy Ethics 2026, which will mark the tenth anniversary of the original Energy Ethics conference hosted at the University of St Andrews in 2016. This event will be convened by CEE Director Professor Mette High and Professor Jessica Smith.

Energy Ethics 2016 invited contributors to consider the ethical underpinnings, dilemmas and questions that arise in people’s energy practices. The resulting special issues of Energy Research & Social Science (2017) and The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2019) highlighted the capacious ways that consumers, producers, and critics made ethical judgements about energy systems and practices, and they encouraged scholars to be conscious of how their own moral imaginations shaped their research practices.

Much has changed since 2016. Energy transitions have become commonplace, spurred by national policymaking and massive public and private investment. There is a growing critical engagement with renewables, due to their continued reliance on resources, capitalist circuits of investment, and links to mining via the critical minerals they require. The political positionings of anthropologists have also become stronger, perhaps related to heightening political polarization, the vulnerabilities laid bare by Covid-19, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the enrolment of social scientists into large energy infrastructure projects, and more. Recognising the multi-dimensional infrastructures of energy, it is ever-more urgent that we reflect on our interlocutors’ and our own ethical imaginations and politics of energy. 

A formal call for participation will follow soon, with opportunities to participate both in person in St Andrews and online. Fill out the form below to register your interest and get the latest updates on this event sent directly to your inbox.