Profile
Jake Barnes is a researcher in the participation and governance of energy system transformation. Through research and teaching he explores how people, organisations and the state, at multiple levels, engage with and potentially steer energy systems as they are undergo transformational change in the face of diverse societal challenges.
Rooted within Science and Technology Studies and informed by work on Sustainability transitions and transforms, Jake pursues critical social science typically working with local governments, community groups and social enterprises to reflect, learn and pursue progress towards more equitable and sustainable systems. In 2013 Jake co-founded Bristol Energy Network, one of the first regional networks to be established in the UK supporting community action on energy, where as a board member he supported its growth until 2020.
Jake joined the Environmental Change Institute in March 2018, from the University of Exeter. He completed his doctorate within the Sussex Energy Group at SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit – at the University of Sussex. He has a background in international relations, energy policy and grassroots activism.
Research
Jake’s research can be split into two broad areas of interest:
1. Understanding how people and organisations engage with and shape societal systems
Community participation has been a strong theme here, being the focus of various research projects such as his PHD research and the H2020 NEWCOMERS project, and his activism in Bristol. An increasingly salient aspect of this concerns the increasing professionalisation and commercialisation of community activity in the creation of innovative business models, often though alliances with diverse public and private actors. More broadly, he is interested in how diverse forms of public participation including protests, consultations, living labs, visioning exercises and so forth, influence how systems evolve.
Notable publications include:
• Frantzeskaki N, Barnes J, et al (2016). Elucidating the changing roles of civil society in urban sustainability transitions. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 22, 41-50.
• Nolden, C., Barnes, J. and Nicholls, J. (2020) A review of community energy business model evolution in the UK. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 122, 109722
• Barnes, J. (2021) Public participation and energy system transformations. In, Feldpausch-Parker, A.M., Endres, D., Peterson, T.R. and Gomez, S.L. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy. Routledge. pp. 239-255.
• Barnes, J, et al. (2022). Energy communities as demand-side innovators ? Assessing the potential of European cases to reduce demand and foster flexibility. Energy Research & Social Science, 93(October).
2. Governing change
The flip side of participation concerns how societies make decisions, develop and enact effective and just policy to pursue societal transformations. Here questions of power and agency come to the fore, alongside the institutional structures and contexts in which policy making and governance play out. Whilst originally focussed on community and city-regional governance, his work increasingly explores interactions between the national and local as well as the challenges and trade-offs required in developing inclusive, equitable and responsive modes of governing.
Prior research in this area includes exploring governance challenges involved in local approaches to heat decarbonisation, as part of CREDS (2022-23), policy to accelerate the deployment of heat pumps in the UK (Pump Priming, a Network+ funded project, 2023) and issues associated with the deployment of EV chargers in new builds, as part of the UK Energy Research Centre (2024) of which he is a co-director. Between 2023 and 2024 Jake was a co-led the British Academy’s flagship project of its Net Zero Governance programme (the IMPERFECT project) and from October 2024 Jake holds a British Academy Innovation Fellowship exploring the role of multi-actor partnerships for making contemporary multilevel governance in the UK more effective.
Notable publications include:
• Barnes, J. Durrant, R. Kern, F. MacKerron, G. (2018) The institutionalisation of sustainable practices in cities: how initiatives shape local selection environments, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 29, 68-80
• Barnes, J. et al. (2024) “Accelerating heat pump diffusion in the UK: emergent tensions and priority areas for change”, Oxford Open Energy, p. oiae008.
• McMillian, E. Barnes, J. Nolden, C and McDermott, M (2024) Local, place-based governance for net zero: a review and research agenda, Journal of the British Academy.
Teaching
Jake co-convenes a module for the Energy Systems MSc, hosted by the Engineering department, exploring the relationship between energy and society, and regularly contributes guest lectures to post graduate degrees in the School of Geography and the Environment.
Jake currently supervises one DPhil student, Ewan Archer-Brown (2024-) who is exploring the governance of residential heat decarbonisation in the UK.
See a full list of Jake's publications on Researchgate or Google Scholar