"Energy" and "Environment" in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society

Since its inaugural issue in 2015, both “Energy” and “Environment” have featured prominently in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (ESTS). The first volume (2015) featured Schelly’s research article on the politics of solar energy as well as Jensen’s and Morita’s conceptual piece on the ontological implications of infrastructural development. Energy politics also featured in Hess’ comments on Dotson’s paper concerning public perceptions of technological determinism. In the second volume (2016), environmental organizations serve as one of the primary civil society organizations analyzed by Lamprou and Hess in their discussion of efforts to govern the development and use of nanotechnology in the EU. The third volume (2017) features two distinct thematic collections related to the environment and to energy science and politics. The first, curated by Wylie, Shapiro, and Liboiron, discusses how contemporary scholarship is changing the way we identify, study, and respond to contaminants emitted through a range of conventional energy production practices. The second, curated by Jensen, discusses how people are conceiving, responding, and adapting to climate change and the new amphibious landscapes engendered by rising water-levels. The volume also features an article by Akerman et. al on a shift in epidemiology towards appreciating the role of environmental factors in causing human diseases, complemented by Allen’s piece on a participatory science project that successfully measured local pollution levels, assessed their health impacts, and influenced environmental policy. In the fourth and latest volume of ESTS (2018), Kinchy et. al discuss and organize papers around a recent theme emerging within STS discourse on the “underground.” This set of articles highlights a new direction in STS seeking an understanding of how the underground is conceived and produced through a range of related practices of extraction and burial.