Phil Johnstone
Phil Johnstone is a Research Fellow with a background in Human Geography and Science and Technology Studies interested in the political and democratic implications of sociotechnical change. He is currently working on the Deep Transitions project, looking at the role of war and warfare in socio-technical transitions, and the Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) project looking at past and prospective transformations in agriculture, energy, and urban development. Previously he worked on the ‘Smart Energy Transition’ (SET Plan), looking at ‘disruptive technologies’ in the energy sector, and differences between national contexts in terms of how ‘disruptive technologies’ are governed within sustainable transformations of energy systems. Prior to that, he worked on a three-year project on the Governance of Discontinuity in Technological Systems (DiscGo), looking at the under-examined ‘flip side’ to innovation – how technology governance can address the crucial task of disengaging from well-established socio-technical systems.
