Standard Grant: Societal Aspects of Energy Infrastructure Expansion

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目研究在宾夕法尼亚州、纽约州和新泽西州组成的三州地区扩大使用水力压裂法开采天然气的社会方面的努力，以及相应的扩大天然气加工和出口的努力。该项目的具体目标是更好地了解工会及其成员在能源基础设施共同生产中的作用。它将提供的研究结果将揭示塑造能源基础设施的社会力量，以及如何开发、维护社会技术系统以及如何改变它们。他们计划在《文化科学》、《环境社会学》等杂志上发表经过同行评议的文章，并与麻省理工学院出版社合作出版一本书。为了提高公众对能源扩张的认识，这些政策制定者将在专业设计人员的协助下制作白皮书的信息图表。他们还将与工会和主要政府机构分享主要调查结果，包括三个州的州长、费城、纽约市和特伦顿的市长和市议会。拟议的研究项目将审查扩大天然气基础设施的努力。它将把STS关于能源系统的文献与有组织劳动的社会学研究结合起来，采用多种方法，包括内容分析、深度访谈和实地调查。它将调查参与基础设施发展的不同工会主要成员的技术和科学专业知识，并将探讨这些专业知识对技术设计和使用的影响程度，以及在政治辩论和政策形成中使用的程度。拟议的研究有可能弥合和整合STS和社会学的文献，这些文献与更充分地理解劳动和技术在环境不公正中的作用有关；虽然这些文献之间有一些重叠，但它们往往是脱节的。大多数研究人员将天然气作为一个环境正义问题来研究，重点关注能源供应链的提取点，研究受水力压裂影响的农村社区。该项目将焦点从气井附近的社区转移到能源供应链中运输和精炼点群体的观点和立场，这些群体在支持或减少化石燃料能源技术带来的环境不公正的条件方面具有影响力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a research project that studies social aspects of efforts to expand the use of fracking for gas extraction, as well as corresponding efforts to expand gas processing and exportation, in the tri-state area constituted by Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. The specific goal of this project is to better understand the role labor unions and their members play in the co-production of energy infrastructures. It will provide findings that will shed light on the social forces that shape energy infrastructures, and on how sociotechnical systems are developed, maintained, and how they can be changed. The PIs plan to publish peer reviewed articles in journals such as Science as Culture and Environmental Sociology, and to publish a book with MIT Press. To increase public understanding of energy expansions, the PIs will produce a white paper with the assistance of a design professional to create infographics for the white paper. They will also share key findings with labor unions and with key government offices including that of the Governor for each of the three states, and the Mayor and City Council of Philadelphia, New York City, and Trenton.The proposed research project will examine efforts to expand gas infrastructure. It will combine STS literatures on energy systems with sociological research on organized labor, and it will multiple methods including content analysis, in-depth interviews, and fieldwork. It will investigate the technical and scientific expertise of key members of the different labor unions involved in the infrastructure development, and it will explore the extent to which that expertise impacts technology design and use, and the extent to which it is used in political debate and policy formation. The proposed research has the potential to bridge and to integrate the literatures in STS and sociology that is relevant to a fuller understanding of the role of labor and technology in environmental injustice; although there is some overlap between these literatures, they often are disconnected. Most researchers examining natural gas as an environmental justice issue focus on the extraction point of the energy supply chain, examining rural communities impacted by fracking. This project shifts the focus from communities near gas wells to the views and positions of groups at the transportation and refining points in the energy supply chain that are influential in either supporting or curtailing the conditions that bring about environmental injustice from fossil fuel energy technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.