Dr Laurence Williams

I joined SPRU as a research fellow in 2018. I currently split my time between the NERC and ESRC funded project ‘Fracking’, Framing and Effective Participation (FFEfP) and a project on 'The energy and climate impacts of 5G' as part of the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions' (CREDS) Digital Society theme. FFEfP looks at the socio-political challenges facing shale development in the UK that arise from its contested nature. To do so, the project analyses three distinct areas - policy debates, public perceptions and participatory opportunities - and the relationships between them.

Further information about both projects can be found at:
Fracking, framing and effective participation
Digital Society

More broadly I am interested in sociotechnical controversies; the planning and regulatory oversight of shale development; public engagement with and participation on science, technology and innovation; and the intersection between science and technology studies (STS) and democratic theory.

I initially joined SPRU in 2014 to conduct a PhD on the English planning system’s oversight of shale gas development and the scope for the accommodation of public views therein. My thesis was submitted in 2018. Prior to my PhD I completed an MA by research at Durham University on the topic of early public perceptions of fracking in the UK in 2013. This work was published in Public Understanding of Science in a paper entitled “Framing ‘fracking’: Exploring Public Perceptions of Hydraulic Fracturing in the United Kingdom.

Last modified: Mon, 10 Oct 2022 12:47:42 BST