Beyond Technology: Strengthening Energy Policy through Social Science

The American Academy convened representatives from academia, industry, and government in Washington, D.C., on May 19 and 20, 2011, to discuss how social science research and expertise can speed the adoption of new energy technologies. The workshop was chaired by Robert W. Fri, a Fellow of the American Academy, Visiting Scholar and Senior Fellow Emeritus at Resources for the Future, and Project Director for the Academy’s Alternative Energy Future project. Fri noted that the workshop was designed to “begin the conversation between the energy policy community and the social science research community,” in order to identify steps to help ease the adoption of new energy technologies and to outline a future research agenda.