Energy // Transition

Maria Bargh (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa) is Professor of Politics and Māori Studies at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. She has researched and published widely in the area of politics: Māori, local, national and international. Her work on a ‘tika transition’ for climate change has been used by community organisations and local and central government in Aotearoa New Zealand.She is co-chair of the ‘adaptive governance and policy’ research team for the Biological Heritage, National Science Challenge and is Deputy Chair of the Independent Electoral Review Panel. She is also Minerals Advisor for her hapū Ngāti Kea/Ngāti Tuara at Horohoro, Rotorua.

Dr Darren Sharp is Senior Research Fellow at Monash Sustainable Development Institute and a sustainability transitions researcher interested in urban experimentation, living labs, grassroots innovations and the sharing economy. His work is situated at the intersection of transition management, design for social innovation and community economies thinking, with a particular interest in collaborative governance of urban transitions. Darren co-led the urban living lab Livewell Yarra which used action research to empower local residents to reduce their carbon emissions at an individual, household and community level. His research speaks to the possibilities of social learning, institutional arrangements, and new urban imaginaries to drive the transformation of cities towards sustainability. Darren is taking these insights into his role as the Interdisciplinary Research Lead of the Net Zero Precincts ARC Linkage project that brings together a new approach to transition management by using design anthropology to engage with the precinct community and consider their lived experiences. This is being tested over four years in an action-oriented case study in the Monash Technology Precinct through a portfolio of Living Lab experiments across energy, mobility, buildings, governance and data.

Dr Declan Kuch is a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow. Declan is a sociologist of knowledge and emerging technologies. His research spans the social dimensions of the climate and energy transition, automation and the life sciences. His current projects are: (1) The social license dimensions of energy technologies. This projects centres on collaborations through the International Energy Agency's User-Centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Program examining demand-side management technologies for households and energy communities. (2) Social dimensions of technology ethics. A collaborative project that has culminated in the co-edited volume, ‘Economies of Virtue’ through INC Press (2022). (3) Knowledge, Creativity and Democracy. The Lively Labs pilot project has brought humanities, design and social science students in contact with leading STEM researchers to produce creative artefacts. Dr Kuch has published widely on topics related to climate change policy, energy and science policy, including ‘The Rise and Fall of Carbon Emissions Trading’ (2015, Palgrave McMillan’s Energy and Environment Series edited by David Elliot). He has also consulted to the Australian Council of Learned Academies on public