Modelling Energy and Society: Theory and Method in Assessing the Social Effects of Energy Policies. Volume 1. Executive Summary. Final Report

摘要

This study finds a positive correlation between unemployment and per-capita energy use. The social theory upon which the study model is based anticipates this otherwise counterintuitive finding. It is not the number of men or machines at work but the number of social roles and the intensity of activity in those roles which determine the level of energy consumption. The authors assess the feasibility of a society/energy model which, when completed, may be used to monitor and to forecast the social effects of energy policies. They find that such a model is feasible. An introductory chapter in Volume Two provides a philosophical grounding for relating social scientific concepts to social policy, in general and establishes a logical basis for the feasibility of the model. Volume Two also provides guidelines for the interpretation of social activities and rules for conceptualizing those activities in several institutional contexts, religious, political and economic, and in the energy social system itself. Volume Three is a mathematical statement of typical equations expressing causal relations between measures of physical energy consumption and both the attributes of various social institutions and the behavior of actors in those institutions. (ERA citation 06:023624)