Conflict and uneven development in the multidecade distributed solar energy transition in the United States.

A longitudinal analysis of small-scale solar energy generation in the United States is used to demonstrate how transition studies can explain nonlinearity in multidecade changes of consumption-production systems. Nonlinearity involves uneven development of sustainability innovations with episodes of rapid growth but also periods of slow growth, stalling, or even collapse. Factors that affect the increasing feasibility and attractiveness of small-scale solar include technological improvements, declining costs, and changes in global energy markets. However, a more complete explanation of nonlinearity highlights the importance of a type of systems analysis that also includes strategic action and broader societal and policy changes. Specifically, efforts by the utilities constrained the growth of small-scale solar by weakening policy support because of the perceived threat, but the solar industry and advocates responded with countervailing action in a changing context. As the transition developed, strategic action (including goals, targets, tactics, and coalition partners) changed and became more conflictual. However, by the beginning of the 2020 decade, the development of microgrids, digital technologies, storage, and virtual power plants in combination with net-zero energy policies provided indications of potential for a reconfiguration of the relationship that could be less polarized and conflicted.

Climate policy conflict in the U.S. states: a critical review and way forward.

Many U.S. states have taken significant action on climate change in recent years, demonstrating their commitment despite federal policy gridlock and rollbacks. Yet, there is still much we do not know about the agents, discourses, and strategies of those seeking to delay or obstruct state-level climate action. We first ask, what are the obstacles to strong and effective climate policy within U.S. states? We review the political structures and interest groups that slow action, and we examine emerging tensions between climate justice and the technocratic and/or market-oriented approaches traditionally taken by many mainstream environmental groups. Second, what are potential solutions for overcoming these obstacles? We suggest strategies for overcoming opposition to climate action that may advance more effective and inclusive state policy, focusing on political strategies, media framing, collaboration, and leveraging the efforts of ambitious local governments.

Ordering theories: Typologies and conceptual frameworks for sociotechnical change.

What theories or concepts are most useful at explaining socio technical change? How can - or cannot - these be integrated? To provide an answer, this study presents the results from 35 semi-structured research interviews with social science experts who also shared more than two hundred articles, reports and books on the topic of the acceptance, adoption, use, or diffusion of technology. This material led to the identification of 96 theories and conceptual approaches spanning 22 identified disciplines. The article begins by explaining its research terms and methods before honing in on a combination of fourteen theories deemed most relevant and useful by the material. These are: Sociotechnical Transitions, Social Practice Theory, Discourse Theory, Domestication Theory, Large Technical Systems, Social Construction of Technology, Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Actor-Network Theory, Social Justice Theory, Sociology of Expectations, Sustainable Development, Values Beliefs Norms Theory, Lifestyle Theory, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. It then positions these theories in terms of two distinct typologies. Theories can be placed into five general categories of being centered on agency, structure, meaning, relations or norms. They can also be classified based on their assumptions and goals rooted in functionalism, interpretivism, humanism or conflict. The article lays out tips for research methodology before concluding with insights about technology itself, analytical processes associated with technology, and the framing and communication of results. An interdisciplinary theoretical and conceptual inventory has much to offer students, analysts and scholars wanting to study technological change and society.

Wireless smart meters and public acceptance: the environment, limited choices, and precautionary politics.

Wireless smart meters (WSMs) promise numerous environmental benefits, but they have been installed without full consideration of public acceptance issues. Although societal-implications research and regulatory policy have focused on privacy, security, and accuracy issues, our research indicates that health concerns have played an important role in the public policy debates that have emerged in California. Regulatory bodies do not recognize non-thermal health effects for non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, but both homeowners and counter-experts have contested the official assurances that WSMs pose no health risks. Similarities and differences with the existing social science literature on mobile phone masts are discussed, as are the broader political implications of framing an alternative policy based on an opt-out choice. The research suggests conditions under which health-oriented precautionary politics can be particularly effective, namely, if there is a mandatory technology, a network of counter-experts, and a broader context of democratic contestation.

Undone Science: Charting Social Movement and Civil Society Challenges to Research Agenda Setting.

"Undone science" refers to areas of research that are left unfunded, incomplete, or generally ignored but that social movements or civil society organizations often identify as worthy of more research. This study mobilizes four recent studies to further elaborate the concept of undone science as it relates to the political construction of research agendas. Using these cases, we develop the argument that undone science is part of a broader politics of knowledge, wherein multiple and competing groups struggle over the construction and implementation of alternative research agendas. Overall, the study demonstrates the analytic potential of the concept of undone science to deepen understanding of the systematic nonproduction of knowledge in the institutional matrix of state, industry, and social movements that is characteristic of recent calls for a "new political sociology of science."

Serotonin in microdialysate from the mediobasal hypothalamus increases after progesterone administration to estrogen primed macaques.

Estrogen and progesterone act on gene and protein expression in serotonin neurons in a manner that suggests serotonin neurotransmission should increase. However, measurement of extracellular serotonin in macaques was lacking. Elevated prolactin secretion can be an indicator of increased serotonergic function and prolactin is increased by combined estrogen and progesterone treatment. We examined extracellular serotonin by microdialysis in a well-characterized macaque model of steroid-induced prolactin secretion. Monkeys were fitted with 2 guide tubes directed to the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. Samples (75 microl/15-minute interval) were obtained via a tether-swivel device through sample lines into an adjoining room. Serotonin was measured with a modified commercial enzyme linked immunoassay (ELISA) kit. Fenfluramine infused through the probe (300 microM for 2 h; n=2 trials) or administered intravenously (2.5 mg/kg; n=2 trials) caused a marked increase in extracellular serotonin and verified the efficacy of the procedure. Three monkeys were maintained with an estrogen implant for 2 weeks. Each monkey was injected with 20 mg of progesterone s.c. in oil at 1500 h; microdialysis was initiated the next morning and samples were obtained for 24 h. There was a significant increase in serotonin between 40 and 43 h after the progesterone injection (P<0.001, ANOVA). Serotonin averaged 59+/-1 pg/sample from 18-30 h post-progesterone injection, and averaged 76+/-2 pg/sample from 30-48 h post-progesterone injection (P<0.0001; t-test). Since the increase in serotonin is delayed by approximately 40 h after progesterone-injection, we speculate that the action of progesterone may involve either nuclear progestin receptors or membrane progestin receptors.

Medical modernization, scientific research fields and the epistemic politics of health social movements.

As health social movements (HSMs) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions increasingly mount challenges to the authority of medical knowledge, the tendency for the medical research community and medical profession to dismiss such epistemic challenges (termed here 'paternalistic progressivism') and the corresponding response from challengers that medicine is corrupt (termed here 'medical devolution') has given way to a process of incorporation of challenges under the rubric of evidence-based research (termed here the epistemic dimension of 'medical modernization'). Under conditions of medical modernization the distinction between lay/alternative knowledge and scientific knowledge, upon which the epistemic authority of medicine rested, is submerged in a more complex field of competing scientific networks and research programmes. Furthermore, the older policy of transmitting science to an illiterate public and suppressing dissidents is replaced by an emerging system of the 'public shaping of science', in which there is both greater agency of social movement/lay advocacy organisations and greater recognition of the legitimacy of that agency. Indirect and direct forms of the public shaping of science are discussed, as are emergent problems of co-optation. Understanding the emergent epistemic politics that are characterised here as medical modernization requires an ongoing theoretical integration of medical sociology and the sociology of science.

Complementary or alternative? Stronger vs weaker integration policies.

Scientific research is particularly important as a guide to health care policy regarding the "integration" of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into conventional medical practices. A spectrum of possibilities has emerged around the question of balancing integration toward complementary vs alternative usages. Although scientific research can guide policies and practices, it has become subject to greater scrutiny and linked to differences on policy issues. Using CAM cancer therapies as a case study, this commentary explores relationships between methodology and policy regarding the integration of CAM therapies.