Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values / Edition 1

by Frank N. Laird

Overview

Energy policies influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political, and economic lives. This book demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyzes U.S. renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. It illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521782470
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1640L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on sources and archival abbreviations; Introduction: solar energy, ideas and public policy; Part I. Before the Energy Crisis: 1. Framing the energy problem before the energy crisis; 2. Creating policy for the future; 3. Advocates construct solar technology; 4. Solar energy's incompatibility with official problem frames; Part II. During the Energy Crisis: 5. Problem frames during the energy crisis; 6. Solar advocacy in the crisis; 7. Limited access: solar advocates and energy policy frames; 8. Solar policy in crisis; 9. New technologies, old ideas and the dynamics of public policy; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Laird's book is highly readable and will be useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars in STS or energy policy." Environmental History

"Despite its title, this book is not a polemic about the merits of solar energy, but a scholarly well-researched political science study on how policies are made, especially longer-term technology policies with their inherent uncertainties...the book is very well edited, meticulously documented, and makes a very readable and useful contribution to the literature on the process of technology policy-making." Science and Public Policy

"In his very readable book Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values Frank Laird provides important insights into how the energy debate has evolved over the years and some important contexts for thinking about the future...this book should be required reading in courses on energy or environmental policy, and indeed it should be read by all those engaged in the practice of energy policy itself." Policy Sciences

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