📋 Tender Overview
Energy Transitions In The History Of Economic Thought (19Th-20Th C.)
Writing The First Ever History Of Energy Transitions In Economic Thoughtpowering Economies Around The World, Fossil Fuels Supply About 80% Of The World’S Energy. This Has Devastating Consequences On The Environment And Human Health. An Examination Of Past Economic Ideas Would Be Required To Understand The Historical Developments That Led To This. To Date, Such A Study Has Not Been Carried Out. The Eu-Funded Etranhet Project Aims To Examine How Economists Have Dealt With Energy Issues And Influenced Energy Policies All Around The World, In Particular In Market Economies, Since The Early 19Th Century. New Archival Material Will Be Unearthed, And Methods From The Digital Humanities Will Be Employed.
Funded Under
European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 1 472 313,00
Eu Contribution
€ 1 472 313,00
Coordinated By
Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique Cnrs
France
Start Date
1 September 2022
End Date
31 August 2027
Objective
Economic ideas play a vital role in public decision-making. The energy sector is an emblematic case: competition policies (e.g. anti-trust laws, deregulation), taxation, emission permits and sustainable-growth programmes all have origins rooted in economic reasoning. Today, more than 80% of the world's primary energy comes from fossil fuel combustion, contributing strongly (75% of CO2 emissions) to climate change. To understand the historical developments that led to this situation, an in-depth examination of past economic discourses, concepts, theories, models and policy recommendations is essential. This has not been done to date. ETRANHET's ambition is thus to write the first ever history of energy transitions in economic thought, on a global scale. ETRANHET will analyse how economics has dealt with energy issues and transitions since the early 19th century, in diverse market-economy contexts (5 areas: Continental Western Europe, the British Isles, North America, Latin America, Japan). Deliberately going beyond the English-speaking literature, it will perform an unusual decentring of the history of economic thought. ETRANHET aims to characterise the context-dependency of past economic views of energy. It seeks to uncover forgotten, yet relevant, ideas that could enrich current research into the energy transition. And it intends to precisely determine how the economic discipline has been able to influence decision-making in energy matters. ETRANHET is a multidisciplinary project mobilising historiographical and science studies methods to study past economists and economic thinking. Digital humanities and archival research will be key, including the creation of electronic repositories, making new valuable material available to historians. By taking a fresh look at today's challenges in relation to the low-carbon transition, ETRANHET will contribute to show that the history of ideas has a role to play in contemporary debates on sustai
