[ON RECRUTE] PhD Candidate (M/F) | History of economic thought and energy transitions in the Commonwealth

Missions

This PhD research will consist in the analysis of energy issues and transitions in the history of economic thought in countries that are now part of the Commonwealth, especially Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and/or South Africa, from the 19th and 20th centuries, following the research questions and framework of the ERC Starting Grant project ETRANHET.

Activities

The PhD candidate will use historical methods – including archival research and tools from the digital humanities (digitisation of materials, lexicographic analysis, etc.) – to explore (and write a dissertation on) the economic literature from the 19th and 20th centuries, in countries that are now part of the Commonwealth, dealing with energy issues and transitions. The first stage of the research will consist in mapping this literature through an extensive review and a few expert consultations. The second stage will consist in analysing the most relevant corpuses allowing for a good understanding of Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and/or South African economists’ ideas, theories, concepts, models, and policy recommendations related to energy issues and transitions. Research questions will include: What role did economists attribute to energy in economic growth and development? How did they conceive the energy relationship with Britain? What role did they attribute to technology in energy transitions? What strategies did they use to draw scientific and public attention to energy issues when they were not otherwise a major preoccupation (e.g. during recessions, epidemics, or when energy was cheap and abundant)? The PhD candidate will thus contribute to a worldwide panorama of energy transitions in the history of economic thought, in order to take a fresh look at today’s challenges with respect to the low-carbon transition. Interaction with other members of the ETRANHET team working on other corpuses (Spanish-, Portuguese-, French-, Dutch/Flemish-, German-, Italian-, Japanese-speaking corpuses) is expected. The PhD candidate will also be required to participate in the collective tasks related to the ETRANHET project (e.g. communication, dissemination, organization of events, team-building, supervision of students) and in the different research activities taking place at CIRED (e.g. weekly seminars, general assemblies, workshops)