Impact in the energy social sciences and humanities: How we matter matters

Recent developments in energy social science and humanities (SSH) research raise two questions that this Dialogue jointly addresses. How do these fields of enquiry matter? And relatedly, how can we engage across our scholarly praxes and differences to complement and bolster the strengths of each field? These fields include energy anthropology, energy geography, energy science and technology studies, and energy humanities more broadly. We argue that these sub‐fields need to interact across their disciplinary homes. Their family resemblances are important to capitalise upon alongside their individual strengths. Within their energy‐related sub‐fields, we argue that these disciplines can channel mutual engagement towards wider impact. To explain how these sub‐fields matter, we articulate what we refer to as impact in energy SSH. We channel our individual vantage points into dialogue within a thematic structure along the lines of how power, justice and politics matter in relation to energy SSH and then offer a synthesis conclusion to argue that for impact in energy SSH, how we matter matters. We take a long view of the importance of energy SSH, attentive to the relevance of the conditions of production for praxis. We argue for bringing energy SSH closer into the folds of disciplinary practice while retaining emphasis on the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration it necessitates (for scholars to make sense of changes in energy systems with all the institutional, sociotechnical, cultural and indeed political complexity these transitions entail) for more engaged and informed energy SSH. Working in close engagement with the exciting, frightening and intellectually fascinating forces shaping the world at the present conjuncture as society faces transformative imperatives is the key to retaining relevance, reinvigorating disciplinary praxes and enabling impactful energy SSH.