SSH Energy 2026

Paper Presentations 

This year’s event featured paper presentations across six thematic tracks, ranging from energy justice to modelling and collaboration. Alongside more classical presentations of recent research, the sessions also included two film screenings, offering a different way of sharing insights, impressions and experiences. This brought an artistic and visual dimension into the exchange on energy research and communication. Across all formats, the contributions sparked fruitful discussions, critical questions and lively exchange among participants. 

Workshops 

The workshop sessions offered a hands-on space within the programme. They invited participants to actively engage with this year’s theme instead of simply listening from the audience. Through discussion, group work, shared reflection and practical exercises, the sessions created space for different perspectives to meet in a collaborative, reflexive and open setting. 

Exhibition area

During the breaks, participants could step away from the busy main floor and spend time in the exhibition area. With three posters and three installations, and various types of reading materials from organisations represented at SSH Energy 2026. The space offered a quieter setting to browse, reflect and start conversations with contributors in a more informal way, whether over coffee, in front of a poster, or through the artistic and visual formats presented. 

Special Sessions 

The special sessions were introduced to give the SSH energy community more space to shape the programme through longer formats hosted by invited organisations who were relevant to this years topic. Four sessions explored this year’s theme of energy communities from different angles: a serious game on campus energy futures, a critical SSH reflection on Swiss energy scenarios, a transdisciplinary discussion on just energy communities, and a playful commons activity focused on resource-sharing dynamics. Together, the sessions created room for more interactive and in-depth exchange than shorter presentations usually allow. They invited participants to test methods, question assumptions, discuss justice and participation, and reflect on how energy communities can be understood and shaped in practice. The strong interest in these formats was reflected in the registrations, which filled up quickly, and in the high attendance across the sessions. 

Keynote 

Our keynote speaker Jeanne Féaux de la Croix opened the workshop with her talk “Pushing for Environmental Justice in Tidal Power Communities: Key Roles for SSH Research in Energy and New Technology Design.” Drawing on her work as an environmental anthropologist and PRIMA Research Professor at the University of Bern, she explored how SSH research can support more just and socially responsive marine renewable energy development. Her keynote highlighted that wave and tidal power are not introduced into “empty” blue spaces, but into existing infrastructures, coastal livelihoods, and contested ocean environments. Through examples from Atlantic Canada, she underlined the important role of SSH in shaping energy technologies that contribute to environmental justice and more transformative energy futures. This strong focus on environmental justice resonated well with the workshop audience and connected closely to the wider discussions throughout the event. 

Plenary 

The plenary brought together three speakers from the communities of practice, influence and place to share perspectives on energy transitions and was followed by a interactive discussion with the audience. With contributions from Mirjam Kosch, Iljana Schubert and Oliver Franz, the session explored how policy, SSH energy research and local implementation both align and misalign in shaping a more just and context-sensitive Swiss energy transition. The exchange highlighted the potential of energy communities, but also the frictions that arise when political ambitions, research insights and local realities meet. It underlined that energy communities are not only technical or organisational arrangements, but also spaces where participation, power relations, local engagement and questions of justice need to be actively negotiated. 

Roundtable 

The closing roundtable returned to a central question of the workshop: who benefits from energy communities, and who might be left out? With academic perspectives from Alexandra Hofmänner (UNIBAS) and Jeanne Féaux de la Croix (UniBe), and Guillaume Cassaigneau (SFOE) adding a policy perspective, and, the discussion questioned what is meant by “community” in the first place, and who has the power to define it. The exchange highlighted that energy communities can create opportunities for local participation, but may also build on existing geopolitics, and inequalities, for example around ownership, housing and access to decision-making. The Swiss context, with its strong role of direct democracy and local energy structures, was discussed as both an opportunity and a challenge. The roundtable underlined the need for SSH research to ask critical questions about power, representation and justice, and to build stronger bridges between research, policy, practitioners and citizens. 

We aimed at bringing together case studies from Swiss and international projects and programmes to co-create new conceptualizations of energy initiatives fruitfully integrating the arts, humanities, and social sciences with inter- or transdisciplinary approaches. We invited participants to explore topics ranging from and expanding the following: 

• Communities of Influence: Which communities shape energy transitions across different scales, who holds power and who has agency? How do they redistribute the transition’s benefits and burdens among different groups? 
• Justice in Energy Research: How are justice or well-being-oriented frameworks shaping energy research? How different justice frameworks are being used to guide equitable policymaking? 
• Power and asymmetries: Counterbalancing (de)politicization of energy research and modelling. How can we embrace the public role of SSH in energy research in democratizing the transition process? 
• Co-producing energy knowledge: What role do stakeholders inside and outside communities of practice play creating energy transition knowledge? How can inclusivity and transparency be ensured? 
• Methods and Tools: Methods and tools for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations in energy research; what works best (cases and practices), how can we use it (specific tools and methodologies) and at which part of the research process to make it the most impactful (problem framing, analysis, dissemination)? 
• Culture-focused and social aspects in energy transitions: What are the potentials of integrating cultural approaches to energy research? What is the role of culture, values and emotions in shaping energy behaviours and policies? 
• Arts in energy research: What is the role of the arts in energy research and how can it ensure inclusion and hope? How art makes the transition more relatable, innovative, and inspire collective action? 

The 6th Swiss Social Sciences and Humanities Energy Research Workshop (SSH Energy 2026) was organised by the Cultural Studies of Science and Technology Group (CSTS, Transdisciplinarity Lab), ETH Zurich. It was sponsored by the SWEET CoSi Consortium and the Swiss Association for the Studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS-CH). 

• PD Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista (CSTS Group Lead, ETH Zurich) 
• Dr Stephanie Briers (CSTS Group , ETH Zurich) 
• Rebecca Weber (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich) 
• Konstanty Ramotowski (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich) 
• Bianca Stocker (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich) 
• Mattra Mehjabee (CSTS Group, ETH Zurich) 

Contact: For queries please contact Stephanie Briers ()